Seminary Program

This is where we post the essays from many of our Universal Life Church Seminary students. When students finish a ULC course, they write a comprehensive essay about their experiences with the course, what they learned, didn't learn, were inspired by, etc. Here are their essays.

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Wednesday, April 04, 2007

Comparative Religion

Comparative Religion Course
The Comparative Religion course offered by the Universal Life Seminary filled in so many gaps for me and deepened my knowledge of the various great religions in so many ways.



I found a great benefit in the exceptional time spent in clarifying the specific definitions of terms and deities, the immensity of holidays and exactly what they mean, and the exact truth about the foundational beliefs and history of these great religions.



I have studied and practiced all the great religions over the years in depth yet this course made the deeper truths more tangible to me. Taking this course was also quite humbling as well and I felt I had a solid knowledge of most great religions but after studying and practicing this material, I realized that I truly did not. The exercises brought a lot of home inside of me in a real way, in a way that was both informatively experiential and in a way that I enjoyed doing. It deepened my own relationship to internal spirituality; clarifying some things, dropping others, slightly adjusting others... I feel like my own spirituality has grown from these courses as has my ability to be service to my clients as a spiritual advisor and teacher.



I have been involved deeply in many of the great religions, inducted into Sufism by Sheik Nur, personal teachings by Tibetan Lamas Sogyel Rinpoche and His Holiness Jamgon Kongtrul, the emanation of Manjushri, and more as I was under the personal guidance of the world famous scholar Dr. Lex Hixon for 10 years, a PhD from Columbia in Comparative Religion and author of many best sellers like “Coming Home” a book describing the Experience of Enlightenment as seen through all the religions. This course gave me much needed details and a deeper background which explained the actual spiritual practices I was involved in a way that I could take the practices deeper inside myself and to my students. I feel that prior to this course that I have haphazardly thrown around knowledge improperly for years. I feel so much more confident in the fullness of my knowledge now. There is a satisfying feeling after having taken this course. And I am inspired to take more courses from the Universal Life Seminary because of it. The 4 Gospels and the Druid course are next for me. I also loved the comparison/similarity theme/approach that she uses so regularly. Using direct comparison all the time is so different from taking just one course on one religion and then the next courser on another as I have taken them in the past. Her approach allowed my mind to see the similarities and the differences really clearly which I loved because my work involves teaching primarily that there are basic similarities found in all religions and that they are the wanting the same thing at their core. Being a student of all religions, the unifying nature of this course made me smile a lot, expand my awareness, and open my mind to places I had not gone before taking the lesson. It was very interesting, informative and not dry at all. I looked forward to every lesson.

I would have preferred proceeding at my own pace which would have allowed me to be connected more to my own flow of learning which is how I excel best and retain the most information


I would have loved to have been able to talk with other students and have live discussions on the topics. I would have loved a forum so all who were taking the classes could chat online and exchange opinions etc. and have the teacher available for commentary also.

All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed this course and am grateful for having taken it. I learned so very much. I especially loved the graphics and the exercises. The exercises helped the material become real for me and I have passed this site and some of the exercises on to my own students with great success.


I am very interested in taking more courses from Kathryn as I thought she was an excellent presenter as she kept my interest with her attention to detail and all the graphics. I loved the use of the graphics. Keeping one interested in the material is an art form and I think she did a damn good job of it.



With Great Love and Respect,

Rev. Beverly Marie Bright



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The Universal Life Church is a comprehensive online seminary where we have classes in Christianity, Wicca, Paganism, two courses in Metaphysics and much more. I have been a proud member of the ULC for many years and the Seminary since its inception.

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