I am a workshop-leader and group facilitator. In professional terms, I am NOT a spiritual director, theologian or Scripture scholar (despite an intense interest in all those subjects), and I am not professionally trained to facilitate RETREATS. I list below the topics I am happy to explore and facilitate with any audience, religious or otherwise.
The following topics can be explored via:
a) An EVENING LECTURE: providing a general outline of the topic and some practical implications for our time.
b) A ONE DAY SEMINAR: This provides a more detailed overview and an opportunity for dialogue and participation.
c) A THREE-DAY or WEEKEND WORKSHOP: The best format for a more thorough exploration with maximum opportunity for participant involvement.
TOPIC 1: THE NEW COSMOLOGY:
Most of us are not aware of the fact that we live within the context of a world-view (a way of being in the world and understanding it). Thanks to new scientific insights of the 20th century, our sense of the world has expanded enormously. The religious implications have not yet been explored. Key Texts:
1. Brian Swimme & Thomas Berry (1992), THE UNIVERSE STORY.
2. Judy Cannato (2006), RADICAL AMAZEMENT.
3. Richard Scaine (2013), DISCUSSIONS IN THE NEW COSMOLOGY
4. Brain Swimme & Mary Evelyn Tucker (2011), JOURNEY OF THE UNIVERSE.
5. Excellent web page: http://www.evolutionarychristianity.org
TOPIC 2: EVOLUTIONARY FAITH:
How the story of evolution, - in terms of cosmos, earth, and humanity - unravels the benign mystery within which everything is held in being.

Key Texts:
1. Ilia Delio (2013), THE UNBEARABLE WHOLENESS OF BEING.
2. John F. Haught (2010), MAKING SENSE OF EVOLUTION.
3. Diarmuid O'Murchu (2008), ANCESTRAL GRACE.
4. Phipps, Carter (2012), EVOLUTIONARIES.
TOPIC 3: ENCOUNTERING GOD IN OUR HUMAN STORY:
The sacred at work through our 7,000,000 year evolution, and its significant implications for spirituality and theology.

Key Texts:
1. Diarmuid O'Murchu (2008), ANCESTRAL GRACE
2. Ann Gibbons (2006), THE FIRST HUMANS
3. Steve Taylor (2005), THE FALL
4. SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN (Special Edition), Vol.16 (No.2), 2006
5. Web page: www.becominghuman.org
TOPIC 4: MYSTICISM FROM A COSMIC PERSPECTIVE:
Exploring the awakening sense of mystery in the contemporary world.

Key texts:
1. John Horgan (2003), RATIONAL MYSTICISM.
2. Amy Corzine (2008), THE SECRET LIFE OF THE UNIVERSE
3. Kathleen Fischer (2009), LOVING CREATION: CHRISTIAN SPIRITUALITY, EARTH-CENTRED AND JUST.
4. Brian Swimme & Mary Evelyn Tucker (2011), JOURNEY OF THE UNIVERSE
5. Web page: http://www.wccm.org
TOPIC 5: THE CHANGING NATURE OF CONTEMPORARY SPIRITUALITY:
And the implications for how we understand religion today.

Key Texts:
1. Ursula King (2009), THE SEARCH FOR SPIRITUALITY
2. Gordon Lynch (2007), THE NEW SPIRITUALITY: An Introduction to Belief beyond Religion.
3, Miriam Therese Winter (2009), PARADOXOLOGY: Spirituality in a Quantum Universe
4. Matthew Fox (2000), SINS OF THE SPIRIT, BLESSINGS OF THE FLESH.
5. Diarmuid O'Murchu (2020) WHEN THE DISCIPLE COMES OF AGE.
6. Web page:http://www.integrativespirituality.org
TOPIC 6: The KINGDOM OF GOD:
The heart and soul of our Christian Faith

Key Texts:
1. John Dominic Crossan (2007), GOD AND EMPIRE.
2. Stephen J. Patterson (2014), THE LOST WAY: How Two Forgotten Gospels are Rewriting the Story of Christian Origins.
3. John Selby Spong (2016) BIBLICAL LITERALISM: A Gentil Heresy.
4. Diarmuid O'Murchu (2012), CHRISTIANITY'S DANGEROUS MEMORY
(2014), ON BEING A POSTCOLONIAL CHRISTIAN
TOPIC 7: UNDERSTANDING JESUS IN THE LIGHT OF MODERN CHRISTIAN SCHOLARSHIP
The challenge of Christology today - theoretically and pastorally. (sometimes combined with topic 5 or 6 above).

Key Texts:
1. Boulton, David (2008), WHO ON EARTH WAS JESUS?: The Modern Quest for the Jesus of History.
2. Bourgeault, Cynthia (2008), THE WISDOM JESUS
3. Jose A. Pagola, (2009), JESUS: An HISTORICAL APPROXIMATION.
4. F. Segovia & R. Sugirtharajah (2009), A POSTCOLONIAL COMMENTARY ON N.T. WRITING.
5. Wink, Walter (2002), THE HUMAN BEING: JESUS AND THE ENIGMA OF THE SON OF MAN.
6. Diarmuid O'Murchu (2012), CHRISTIANITY'S DANGEROUS MEMORY
TOPIC 8: JUSTICE-MAKING:
Including an overview of globalisation: an exploration of the challenge to work for justice today, the spirituality underpinning it, and a review of practical strategies.
Key Texts:
1. Walter T. Anderson, (2004), ALL CONNECTED NOW: LIFE IN THE FIRST GLOBAL CIVILISATION
2. Rosemary Radford Ruether (2005), INTEGRATING ECOFEMINISM, GLOBALIZATION AND WORLD RELIGIONS.
3. John Cavanagh (Ed.)(2002), ALTERNATIVES TO ECONOMIC GLOBALIZATION.
4. Margaret Swedish (2008), LIVING BEYOND THE "END OF THE WORLD".
Web Pages:5. International Forum on Globalization: http://www.ifg.org
6. Excellent Resource on Ethical Investment: http://www.eiris.org
"The whole is greater than the sum of the parts" is a central principle of Quantum Physics with major implications for every field of learning including theology.

Key Texts: 1.Diarmuid O'Murchu (2004), QUANTUM THEOLOGY
2.Adrian Smith (2008), GOD, ENERGY, AND THE FIELD
3. Miriam Therese Winter (2009), PARADOXOLOGY: SPIRITUALITY IN A QUANTUM UNIVERSE.
4. Lothar Schafer (2013), INFINITE POTENTIAL: WHAT QUANTUM PHYSICS REVEALS.
5. Jude Currivan (2017), THE COSMIC HOLOGRAM.
6. Paul Levy (2018), THE QUANTUM REVELATION.
TOPIC 10: NEW UNDERSTANDINGS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT:
Based on my book, In the Beginning was the Spirit

Key Texts:
1. Mark Wallace (2005), FINDING FOD IN THE SINGING RIVER
2. Kirsteen Kim (2007), THE HOLY SPIRIT IN THE WORLD
3. Denis Edwards (2004), BREATH OF LIFE
4. Wolfgang Vondey (2010), CELEBRATING THEOLOGY: Christian Doctrine from a Spirit-driven Perspective.
5. Diarmuid O'Murchu (2011), IN THE BEGINNING WAS THE SPIRIT.
6. Leonardo Boff (2015), COME HOLY SPIRIT.
7. John C. Haughey (2015) A BIOGRAPHY OF THE SPIRIT
TOPIC 11: PARADIGM SHIFTS / READING THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES:
Exploring the nature and impact of contemporary change in terms of both systems and persons.
Key Texts:
1. Margaret J. Wheatley (1994), LEADERSHIP AND THE NEW SCIENCE.
2. Walter T. Anderson (2004), ALL CONNECTED NOW: LIFE IN THE FIRST GLOBAL CIVILISATION
3. Margaret Swedish (2008), LIVING BEYOND THE "END OF THE WORLD"
4. Gerard Loughlin (2007), QUEER THEOLOGY: RETHINKING THE WESTERN BODY
5. Diarmuid O'Murchu (2013), GOD IN THE MIDST OF CHANGE.
6. Web-page: http://www.paradigmshifts.iwarp.com
TOPIC 12: CONSCIOUSNESS & THE POWER intention:
The psychic energy that underpins everything in creation. As conscious beings, humans appropriate consciousness from the conscious universe

Key Texts:
1. Wayne W. Dyer (2004), THE POWER OF INTENTION
2. Jan Phillips (2006), THE ART OF ORIGINAL THINKING
3. Mark Epstein (2005) OPEN TO DESIRE.
4. Pim van Lommel (2010), CONSCIOUSNESS BEYOND LIFE.
5.Web-page: http://www.theintentionexperiment.com
TOPIC 13: BEING ADULT IN OUR FAITH:
Passing on the faith is widely seen as a pedagogy with the focus on children and youth, but one of the most urgent needs of the present time is a faith pedagogy for Adults honouring the principles of Adult Education.

Key Texts:
1. James Fowler (1982), STAGES OF FAITH
2. Nicola Slee (2004), WOMEN'S FAITH DEVELOPMENT
3. F. Segovia & R. Sugirtharajah (2009), A POSTCOLONIAL COMMENTARY on the NEW TESTAMENT WRITINGS.
4. John Shelby Spong (2016), BIBLICAL CRITICISN: A Gentile Heresy.
5. Diarmuid O'Murchu (2014) ON BEING A POSTCOLONIAL CHRISTIAN
(2015), INCLUSIVITY: A Gospel Mandate
(2020), WHEN THE DISCIPLE COMES OF AGE.
TOPIC 14: THE RELIGIOUS-MONASTIC LIFE (The vowed life) Modules:
