Academy of Formative Spirituality

The Epiphany Academy of Formative Spirituality is the main outlet through which the Epiphany Association fulfills its commitment to foster research, publication, and dissemination of formative spirituality.

The Academy opened its doors in 2001. In a beautiful setting, conducive to creating an oasis of spiritual living and study, students, visitors, benefactors and friends, follow courses in the field of formative spirituality; spend quiet time in the chapel and library; enjoy the company of a like-minded support community of laity, clergy, and religious, dedicated to faith formation in an ecumenically sensitive setting.

Here at the Epiphany Academy one can take courses on a post-graduate level and accrue continuing education units (CEUs) to advance your professional life and ministry. In Pittsburgh, Indianapolis, and Ireland one can enjoy the retreat mode of the Epiphany Life Formation Academy (ELFA) at the mother-center in Pittsburgh, courses include among others, Feeding Our Spiritual Hunger, Meditating with the Masters and various other inspirational events like the Advent and Lenten Evenings of Reflection.

The Epiphany Academy is to date the only research and publication center of its kind in the world. Its mission is to build a body of work in support of the science, anthropology, and theology initiated by Fr. Adrian van Kaam, CSSp, PhD in Holland in 1944. While enduring the horror of Nazi Occupation and doing all that he could to help his fellow countrymen, he asked himself what might be the greatest service he could render to humankind in the twenty-first century. The answer he received was to lay the groundwork for a new science of meaning to complement the already existing sciences of measurement available to humankind since the Enlightenment. He devised in seed fashion a formational-informational approach to help people process their everyday experiences, to show them how to integrate their core values and creeds with what they had to do in the working places of family, church, and society. Now, many years later, we are privileged to continue this breakthrough work at our beautiful Epiphany Academy of Formative Spirituality headquartered in Pittsburgh with branch campuses in Indianapolis and Dublin, Ireland.

On a post-graduate basis, in affiliation with the Association of Theological Schools, and as a non-profit entity under the umbrella of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, we are dedicated to preparing teachers, chaplains, doctors, nurses, caregivers and leaders in numerous faith groupings to learn the art and discipline of connecting what one believes with how one lives from birth to death. Graduates of our programs testify to how this course of study enables them to find the meaning behind their story with its joys and sorrows, its limits and blessings. To ensure the future of this one-of-a-kind school of faith formation is a most worthy goal, well worth the giving.

Three Levels of Learning

There are three levels of learning at the Academy. Our introductory course, Becoming Spiritually Mature is a Video Series. This course helps individuals and groups seeking to start their journey toward understanding how spiritual formation can change their lives. This course focuses on the ongoing formation of one's unique-communal life call in the light of the Christ-form of the soul. To purchase this program please visit our online bookstore.

The second level of study is Growing in Christ, Epiphany's online study program. Each Growing In Christ course consists of six lessons. Each lesson presents Formative Spirituality concepts and constructs. After exhibiting a basic mastery of these concepts, students are asked to reflect on relevant passages from Holy Scripture, as well as selected passages from the Literature of Spirituality.

The Academy’s signature offering is the Epiphany Certification Program (ECP) with its six core courses taught in Pittsburgh, Indianapolis, and Dublin, Ireland. ECP pursues the highest levels of excellence both theoretically and practically. The program draws upon the van Kaamian theory of personality, which posits that all people are endowed by the mystery with a transcendence dynamic that orients us to go more deeply into or to go beyond who we are and what we can do by ourselves alone. This way of thinking gives all in attendance the best possible preparation available in the field of formative spirituality.

Your Future Through Formation Study at Epiphany

By all accounts, students who come to study at the Academy or in its outreach programs thank God for the life-transforming teaching and guidance they receive. In this special setting all in attendance learn how to do formative reading of scripture and the masters; how to process the events that form, reform, and transform their lives; and how to maintain their commitment to be all that God intends them to be.

If the Epiphany Association is the overall initiator of this formational, informational approach, then the Epiphany Academy represents the means by which its founding purposes are realized, enriched, and expanded.