Hidden Power of the Gospels – Topic 1 Introduction

Hidden Power of the Gospels

Program Summary

Have you ever wondered why the four Gospels are distributed into a three-year cycle in the Catholic Sunday Reading Cycle?

The answer, as author Alexander J. Shaia discerned after years of research, is that Early Christianity‘s choice was wise and the source of an insightful understanding of the Gospel‘s message to its readers.

There is a significant and largely unrecognized four-fold pattern found throughout life, Christian worship and many revered spiritual exercises. This pattern appears to be an unexplored principle behind the choice of four Gospels and their sequencing into the three-year Sunday reading cycles. The four Gospels, when read through this lens, move beyond being separate accounts of Jesus to become a seamless spiritual guide for daily life.

In this course, the words of scripture that we know so well come alive in fresh and surprising ways. You will learn Dr. Shaia‘s unique approach to the Gospels and benefit from his years of spiritual searching and psychological research. Each Gospel is explored as the answer to one of life‘s four great questions, matched to the particular spiritual dilemma of the early Christian community for which that Gospel was originally written.

Each question, associated with its Gospel, is a step or path on the spiritual journey, and is so placed in the three-year Sunday reading cycles (Roman Missal and Revised Common Lectionary):

•                How do we face change? (Gospel of Matthew, Year A)

•                How do we move through suffering? (Gospel of Mark, Year B)

•                How do we receive joy? (Gospel of John, Lent/Easter)

•                How do we mature in service? (Gospel of Luke, Year C)

Follow Dr. Shaia on a path to an enriching understanding of the Bible‘s most frequently-read books as well as a deeper spiritual connection to the Church‘s traditional seasons.

 

	Table of Contents
Topic 1:	Introduction
Topic 2:	The Three Foundations of This Perspective
Topic 3:	Overview of The Four-Gospel Journey and Construction of the Three-Year Sunday Lectionary
Topic 4:	Birthplace of The Gospel of Matthew: Great Antioch (mid-70s)
Topic 5:	Landscape of the Great Mountain: Question of Facing Change and the Opening of Matthew‘s Gospel
Topic 6:	Passages from the Gospel of Matthew
Topic 7:	Birthplace of the Gospel of Mark: Rome (mid-60s)
Topic 8:	The Landscape of Mark‘s Gospel: The Stormy Sea and the Question of Moving Through Suffering
Topic 9:	Passages from The Gospel of Mark
Topic 10:	Birthplace of The Gospel of John: Ephesus (mid to late 90s)
Topic 11:	Landscape of the Glorious Garden: Question of Receiving Joy and The Prologue to John‘s Gospel
Topic 12:	Continuation of The Prologue and Passages from John‘s Gospel
Topic 13:	Birthplace of The Gospel of Luke: From Great Antioch on the Orontes (mid- 80s)
Topic 14:	Luke‘s Landscape: Road of Riches and Question of Maturing in Service
Topic 15:	Passages from the Gospel of Luke
Topic 16:	Pattern of the Journey and The Essential and Continuing Practices: Part I
Topic 17:	Essential and Continuing Practices: Part II
Topic 18:	Universal Pattern (Almost): The Journey of Quadratos

Topic 1:   Introduction

I.    This course offers a fresh perspective on the Gospels, one that attempts to integrate critical thought with spirituality and devotion, or might be described as head with heart.

II.    Dr. Shaia’s personal odyssey:

A)       Born in early 1950‘s in Birmingham, Alabama, son of Maronite Roman Catholic immigrants from Lebanon

B)       Given the name Alexander and with it, the centuries-old family tradition to be a Maronite priest

C)       Raised in an extended Lebanese family, immersed in a Semitic and pre-western worldview, including hearing the Gospels chanted in Arabic

D)       Late 1950‘s: grandmother‘s home burned by racists, afterwards she inspired the family to live without hate. He heard the Gospels on her laptop Alexander wanted to know source of strength, forgiveness and inspire family to move beyond point. He dedicated himself to the study of the Gospels.

E)    Undergraduate years at the University of Notre Dame filled with chaos as he struggled to integrate western philosophy/logic with a pre-western Semitic worldview.  His head and heart were in conflict . He liked the studies but they were not touching heart or setting him on a goal of a deeper means of faith.

F)    May 1969: Pope Paul VI promulgated the Lectionary for the Mass that instituted a contemporary, three-year Sunday Gospel reading cycle for all Catholics. The document had been six years in the making.  The reason for this was efficiency. Alexander thought there was more to it than that – some other mystery for sequence of Gospels. There was something underneath the Gospels not named or fully explored.  The 4 gospel pattern went back to the 4^th century. How could they be sure these were the four gospels and in that sequence ?

G)   After Notre Dame came twenty years of parish, diocesan and national work in adult spiritual formation, catechesis, rites of initiation and liturgy for the Roman Catholic Church as  well as being a spiritual director

H)   1991: awarded a doctorate in Clinical Psychology

I)     2000: an epiphany while reading the Rev. Robin Griffith-Jones‘ book, The Four Witnesses

III.   An Epiphany:

A)       The four Gospels, read in the Sunday liturgical sequence, form a guide for the spiritual life.

B)       Each Gospel was addressed to a specific spiritual dilemma of an historical community:

 

1)        Matthew: How do we face change?           (Antioch)

2)        Mark: How do we move through suffering?   (Rome)

3)        John: How do we receive joy?                (Ephesus)

4)        Luke: How do we mature in suffering?           (from Antioch)

IV.   This patterned sequence is found throughout Christian life, and may be an unrecognized principle for ordering worship and spiritual practice.  This is the pattern  of change, suffer, joy,  service. This is the .pattern of spiritual life – underneath Eucharist, baptism, Liturgical year, Church day, Ignatian exercises, Interior castle.

 

 V.    In 2005, the term Quadratos was coined to represent the progressive, sequential and cyclical four-fold pattern of growth and transformation found at the heart of the four-Gospel  journey and within most spiritual traditions and major schools of psychology.

VI.    In 2010, after a decade of research, writing and teaching, The Hidden Power of the Gospels: Four Questions, Four Paths, One Journey was released by HarperOne.