Collegeville Institute

Bearings Online

  • Home
  • About
  • Events
  • Podcasts
  • News
  • Giving
  • Comprehensive Campaign

Title of the document Make A Gift Now

Menu
  • Home
  • About Us
  • Bearings Online
  • Calling Initiatives
  • Fellows Program
  • Giving
  • News
  • Podcasts
  • Comprehensive Campaign
  • Residency Programs
      • Scholars, clergy, church leaders, thinkers, artists, and writers who are seeking to discern and communicate the meaning of Christian identity and unity in a religiously and culturally diverse world are invited to apply for our residency programs.
      • Get Practical Information »
      • Apply for a Fellowship »
      • View 2024-25 Scholars »
      • Resident Scholars Program

        for those looking to stay a semester or a full academic year

      • Program Details
      • Work and Scholarship
      • Housing and Facilities
      • Application Process
      • Former Resident Scholars
      • Short term Residencies

        for those looking to stay for a shorter period of time

      • Program Details
      • Living and Working
      • Application Process
      • Former Short Term Scholars
      • Learn More »
    • Close
  • Writing Programs
      • Each year, the Collegeville Institute opens its doors to writers of faith for intensive writing workshops. In addition, the Collegeville Institute partners with other institutes, seminaries, or churches to coordinate regional off-site workshops.
      • Apply Now »
      • 2025 Workshops

      • Pop-Up Writers Workshops
        • Pop-Up Writing Workshop, March 22, 2025 (Colorado Springs, CO)
        • Pop-Up Writing Workshop, March 29, 2025 (Birmingham-Vestavia Hills, AL)
        • Pop-Up Writing Workshop, April 5, 2025 (Asheville, NC)
      • Flesh and Blood: Crafting a Communal Constructive Theological Anthropology, May 27-30, 2025
      • Apart, and Yet A Part, June 9-18, 2025
      • A Sparked Imagination, June 23-27, 2025
      • Deep and Wide: Longform Prose Revision, July 9-18, 2025
      • The Release:  How Writing in an Economy of Gifts Liberates Writers, September 29, 2025
      • Fifty Pairs of Eyes: Creating Characters in Fiction, Non-Fiction and Poetry, October 27-November 1, 2025
      • Waiting for Words: An Advent Writing Workshop with Lauren Winner – 2025, December 2-6, 2025
      • 2026 Workshops

      • Writing in the Wilderness: reflecting on the immigration stories that have shaped our lives, led by Isaac Villegas, March 2-7, 2026
      • Reading and Writing with Joan Didion (a workshop led by Alissa Wilkinson), March 16-22, 2026
      • Writing in the Wilderness: reflecting on the immigration stories that have shaped our lives, led by Isaac Villegas, May 15-19, 2026
    • Close
  • Calling Initiatives
      • The Communities of Calling Initiative invites congregations into a 5-year project on vocation.
        The Called to Lives of Meaning and Purpose Initiative, coordinated by the Collegeville Institute, funds 13 innovation hubs from across North America.
      • Calling Initiatives Overview »
      • Research Seminars on Vocation »
    • Resources on Vocation:

      • BridgeIntroducing Calling & Discernment – language of calling, models of discernment, and calling across the lifespan
      • gabriel-brito-80atz53Th9o-unsplash-2Prayer & Worship – prayers, hymns, sermons, spiritual practices, and liturgical year resources
      • Vis-Group-2Small Group Series – adult education and faith formation guides for congregational use
      • FrancoisVideos & Interviews – video storytelling projects on vocation from Christian and interfaith perspectives
    • Close
  • Fellows Program
    • Bringing together an ecumenical group of gifted Minnesota faith leaders, the Collegeville Institute Fellows Program focuses on leadership development with the goal of strengthening religious leaders’ sense of themselves as civic leaders.
    • Fellows Program Overview
    • Rural Minnesota Fellows Program
    • Multi-Religious Fellows Program
    • Close
  • Participant Publications
  • Search
You are here: Home / Events / Writing Toward God: The Sacred for the Perplexed

Writing Toward God: The Sacred for the Perplexed

June 23, 2023 By

Event Details

This event finished on 05 March 2024.

  • Venue: Virtual Workshop
  • Categories: Virtual Workshop Series, Writing Workshop

Feeling stuck, perplexed, timid, or fearful about writing about God/The Sacred directly? You’re not alone. While 19th-century theologians challenged the view of God as a supernatural Person, that view still dominates popular Western imaginations (fundamentalist, atheist, and liberal). To re-envision God/The Sacred for our time, we need to follow visionary poets and storytellers. Inspired by modern and contemporary writers who approach God/The Sacred in unexpected ways, we’ll explore writing not about but toward God/The Sacred.

The goal is not to refresh our images for God/The Sacred or integrate new theologies into our writing. Instead, this is an opportunity to discover a new language for God/The Sacred by uncovering the no-longer-life-giving remnants of God/The Sacred in our work and writing our way into the Unknown. Weekly reading and writing prompts highlight six approaches: confession, mourning, slant imaginings, absence, mystical threads, and joy. A few of our guides: Kafka, Rilke, Joy Harjo, Mary Szybist, Yehuda Amichai, Cesar Vallejo, Lucille Clifton, Clarice Lispector, Jericho Brown.

You don’t need to be a poet or a poetry expert to join this experimental, generative writing workshop, but you should be familiar with the struggle to articulate changing experiences of God/The Sacred in today’s world.

Mary Lane Potter’s books include Strangers and Sojourners: Stories from the Lowcountry, the novel A Woman of Salt, and the memoir Seeking God and Losing the Way. Her essays, stories, and poems have appeared in Parabola, Witness, River Teeth, Still Point Arts Quarterly, Minerva Rising, Tiferet, Spiritus, SUFI Journal, Leaping Clear, Rogue Agent, Bearings Online, The Ekphrastic Review, and others. Formerly a professor of Christian theology, she now writes fiction and creative nonfiction and teaches writing workshops. One of the constants in her spiritual and vocational life has been embracing and wrestling with the Lover Who Is Beloved, the Seeker Who Is Sought. Author website: http://members.authorsguild.net/marylapotter/.

Workshop Details

There will be some preparation (reading and/or writing) for this workshop series. Readings for the first session will be available two weeks before the series begins.

You will have an opportunity to meet individually with Mary Potter once during the series to discuss in-depth your writing and/or writing life.

Maximum number of participants: 10

SCHEDULE

Week 1, Tuesday, January 30, 2024, 5:00pm-7:30pm CT: Introduction and Drawing near via confessing our perplexity

Week 2, Tuesday, February 6, 2024, 5:00pm-7:30pm CT:  Drawing near via mourning

Week 3, Tuesday, February 13, 2024, 5:00pm-7:30pm CT: Drawing near via redirecting or slant imagination

Week 4, Tuesday, February 20, 2024, 5:00pm-7:30pm CT: Drawing near by creating and wrestling with a character/an absence

Week 5, Tuesday, February 27, 2024, 5:00pm-7:30pm CT: Drawing near via tugging on mystic threads

Week 6, Tuesday, March 5, 2024, 5:00pm-7:30pm CT: Drawing near via joy

Application Process:

More from my site

  • Being A NoviceBeing A Novice
  • Improvisation and Pastoral LeadershipImprovisation and Pastoral Leadership
  • The Living Protest of SumudThe Living Protest of Sumud
  • Summer 2017 Writing Workshops: At a GlanceSummer 2017 Writing Workshops: At a Glance
  • A Good, Good SoundA Good, Good Sound

Writing Workshops

  • Current Writing Workshops

Event Categories

Collegeville Institute Tour

Check out our virtual 360-degree tour experience and see our beautiful campus with its many amenities!

CI 360 Tour

Latest News

Beloved Fr. Michael passed away July 15, 2025

July 17, 2025

Dr. Aizaiah Yong appointed as new Executive Director of Collegeville Institute 

April 14, 2025

Collegeville Institute welcomes Andrew McNeil as its new Director of Communications.

March 11, 2025

Subscribe

Sign up for our email newsletter today, and keep up to date with what's going on at the Collegeville Institute.

Sign Up Today

Get Involved

Give online

Check out our writing workshops and our residential programs.

Contact Us

2475 Ecumenical Drive
PO Box 8000
Collegeville, MN 56321

Phone: 320-363-3366
Email: staff@collegevilleinstitute.org

Map/Directions

Copyright © 2025 Collegeville Institute. Read our Privacy Policy.