Sermons from St. James Parish in Wilmington, NC.
Lecture Series: Presence as a Spiritual Practice with Dr. Beverly Foulks McGuire
| Guest Speaker
Lecture Series: Presence as a Spiritual Practice with Dr. Beverly Foulks McGuire
St. James Parish, located in downtown Wilmington, North Carolina, is pleased to host, “Presence as a Spiritual Practice” as presented by Dr. Beverly Foulks McGuire.
In today's attention economy, where we are constantly bombarded with information, we can easily become distracted and pulled into our mobile phones or other digital devices. It becomes a challenge to stay present, attuned, and mindful of ourselves, other people, and our surroundings. This lecture will discuss various contemplative methods that encourage a slower, more deliberative approach to life, such as silence, stillness, prayer, and meditation. We will consider ways we might incorporate such practices into our everyday lives, making us more present with ourselves, other people, and our environment.
Dr. Beverley McGuire in a professor of East Asian religions at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. She is the author of Living Karma: The Religious Practices of Ouyi Zhixu (Columbia University Press, 2014) and has an "Resilience and Interdependence: Christian and Buddhist Views of Social Responsibility Following Natural Disasters"; in the upcoming issue of Buddhist-Christian Studies. She is currently working on a book about the impact of digital technology on moral attention — the capacity to discern and attend to the morally salient features of a given situation. She is participating in Public Theologies of Technology and Presence (https://www.shin-ibs.edu/
This presentation is part of the St. James Parish Lecture Series that brings a variety of guest speakers to the area to discuss important matters of faith, family, and community.
