Regular Courses

Building Your Own Theology and Spirit in Practice are each offered once a year based on interest and are taught by religious professionals and lay ministers in the church.

They can be taken in any order and more than once; both courses are meant to help define beliefs and practices central to an individual’s personal faith and values. Building Your Own Theology culminates in the writing of a Credo statement. Spirit in Practice allows participants to explore spiritual practices familiar and new in various spheres of faith development, including service, worship, personal, body practices, and others.

Building Your Own Theology will be offered in the fall and Spirit in Practice in the spring. If you are interested in one of these courses this year, please email eshadowsong@first-unitarian-pgh.org! You can sign up for Building Your Own Theology here.

Book Groups: Recommended reading for 2022 – 23

The following books engage with our church wide resolution to spend a year studying and discerning environmental justice issues and how we can be of service in our surrounding communities as well as the world. These books help us explore the issues at the intersections of both intellectual learning and spiritual and emotional nurturing.

Sign up for book groups here! 

• Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer

• Salsa, Soul, and Spirit: Leadership for a Multicultural Age by Juana Bordas

• Justice on Earth: People of Faith Working at the Intersections of Race, Class, and the Environment edited by Manish Mishra-Marzetti, Jennifer Nordstrom

• The Animals’ Agenda Freedom, Compassion, and Coexistence in the Human Age by Marc Bekoff

• When Time is Short: Finding Our Way in the Anthropocene by Timothy K. Beal

• A God That Could Be Real: Spirituality, Science, and the Future of Our Planet by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Nancy Ellen Abrams

• Defund Fear: Safety Without Policing, Prisons, and Punishment by Zach Norris

• Not for Ourselves Alone Theological Essays on Relationship edited by Laurel Hallman, Burton D. Carley

Recommended Reading: Unitarian Universalism for Beginners 

This list scratches the surface of the rich and varied topics to explore in our faith. The UUA Inspirit bookstore carries many, many additional titles worth browsing!

The following books will ground readers in Unitarian Universalist recent historical context and basic explorations of theology and philosophy of Unitarian Universalism. This list is continually being updated.

Want to start a book group on one of these titles? Email eshadowsong@first-unitarian-pgh.org for assistance.

• Elite: Uncovering Classism in Unitarian Universalist History by Mark Harris

• A Chosen Faith : An Introduction to Unitarian Universalism

• Black Pioneers in a White Denomination by Mark D. Morrison-Reed

• Revisiting the Empowerment Controversy: Black Power and Unitarian Universalism by Mark D. Morrison-Reed

• Fluent in Faith: A Unitarian Universalist Embrace of Religious Language by Jeanne Harrison Nieuwejaar

• The Cathedral of the World: A Universalist Theology by Forrest Church

• The Gift of Faith: Tending the Spiritual Lives of Children by Jeanne Harrison Nieuwejaar

Religious Education Updates