EAM 506 Responsible Use of Technology
In accord with the PPF6's emphasis upon the human virtues and the Directory for the Life and Ministry of the Priest, this course explores the various aspects of social media and their impact on those using them, integrating the spiritual tradition of the Catholic Church and the virtue theory of St. Thomas Aquinas with developments in positive psychology and neuroscience, and the Busch School of Business's experience educating how to effectively use social media, to assist the seminarians in developing the habits of self-control needed to virtuously utilize new technologies, including social media. While technology fasts are an effective method for detoxing during the Propaedeutic period of priestly formation, the techniques for understanding holy purity and self-mastery as a commitment of love expressed by real choices can aid the candidate for the priesthood (or other participants) to use technology with conscious awareness of the need to build virtue while purposively counteracting the dominant egoistic hedonic imperative perniciously promoted by many web sites, designed to entice their users to lose control of self and develop addictions. The capacity for delayed self-gratification will be developed within a context of supernatural reliance upon Christian hope, along with a presentation of the new paradigm of will-power, in accord with the Tradition's emphasis upon virtuous right reason and reliance upon grace for personal sanctification. The virtues of self-mastery needed for the seminarian to discern his priestly vocation serve as a foundation for those virtues of leadership required for the Catholic priest to guide his flock and to steward the Church's patrimony entrusted to his care. The course will implement an asynchronous e-learning format that can be completed in standalone fashion during the Propaedeutic or other pastoral period and may be supplemented with in person participation directed by a local instructor or through synchronous workshops with CUA Faculty.
Cross Listed Courses
EAM 406 &
EAM 506