Could I Have This Dance?

• Author / Creator

  Christine Elizabeth Welch

• This integrative study is based on heuristic self-inquiry. Through storytelling I explore the significance of the journey to know God as one of spiritual awakening and reflect on what is understood about God at various stages in the journey. Chapter One sets the stage for the integrative study. I share experiences that provide background to the story and explore the questions at the heart of my writing. Chapter Two begins with a personal life review. The focus of the chapter is to provide a life span and literature review, recording the understandings about God that surfaced at various stages in my journey. I record mystical experiences, draw upon insights from journal entries throughout the years, from papers written at various phases of my journey, from conversations with Colin, my spiritual teacher, and from books on spirituality in both Western and Eastern traditions. In Chapter Three authors Diarmuid O’Murchu and Gretta Vosper are interviewed. They are invited to share their journeys of faith. Each interview is recorded and open ended in nature. The commonalities and differences within each person’s story are identified. Chapter Four identifies common patterns that emerged from the personal life review, the interviews with the authors and the literature review. Insights gleaned from the integrative study are synthesized within this chapter and a summation is given.

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Mystical consciousness
  • Spirituality

• Graduation date

  2012

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Master of Theological Studies

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/R3NV99R2B

• License

  This thesis is made available by the University of Alberta Libraries with permission of the copyright owner solely for non-commercial purposes. This thesis, or any portion thereof, may not otherwise be copied or reproduced without the written consent of the copyright owner, except to the extent permitted by Canadian copyright law.