YOUR JOURNEY BEGINS HERE

Zephyr Point Retreat Center, Tahoe

August 3rd - 8th, 2025

Dr. Lisa Fullam & the Rev. Dr. John Mabry

The Gnostic Gospels: A Spirituality of Resistance

What can an unorganized, long-dead bunch of heretics possibly have to teach us today? Plenty, it turns out, especially when it comes to pushing back against authority. Join Drs. Lisa Fullam and John Mabry as they lead us on an exploration of holy resistance—both ancient and modern. Over the course of five days, we’ll explore the unusual theology of Gnostic Christians, focusing on their resistance to ecclesiastical authority, patriarchy, and political “powers and principalities.” We’ll then bring these same struggles into the present, revealing their wisdom for our own liberation and activism.

Dr. Lisa Fullam D.V.M., Th.D. is prof. emerita of moral theology from the Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University (JST-SCU) and associate veterinarian at New Baltimore Animal Hospital in West Coxsackie, NY. After veterinary studies at Cornell, she earned a doctorate in Christian ethics from Harvard Divinity School. Research interests include virtue ethics, medical, veterinary medical, and sexual ethics, the intersection of ethics and spirituality, and Ignatian spirituality. Her research interests include the intersection of ethics and spirituality, and Ignatian spirituality. She is also the author of The Virtue of Humility: A Thomistic Apologetic and last year co-wrote Living Prayer: A Book of Hours for Renewing Creation. After 19 years at JST-SCU, she and her husband John R. Mabry packed up their house and their boxer dogs and headed to the upper Hudson Valley in NY where she resumed veterinary practice. 

Rev. John R. Mabry holds a PhD. in Philosophy & Religion from the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco, CA, as well as a Master's degree in Culture and Creation Spirituality from Holy Names College in Oakland, CA. He is a United Church of Christ minister and served as pastor of Grace North Church UCC/NACCC in Berkeley for 27 years. He currently teaches comparative theology at an interfaith seminary, the Chaplaincy Institute, where he also directs the interfaith spiritual direction certificate program. He has a private practice in spiritual direction and spiritual direction supervision. The author of more than 40 books ranging from science fiction and fantasy to spirituality and spiritual guidance, he is the founder and editor-in-chief of the Apocryphile Press, a small publishing company specializing in “edgy" spirituality. He is currently involved in Inklings studies, focusing on the mysticism of Charles Williams.

  • After our last Lectio Group, we got ready for our last worship service. Dr. Luther Smith preached a great sermon, and just like the rest of the week, the worship was phenomenal. One line that Luther shared during this sermon, from Howard Thurman, really sunk in for me. It was about prayer, and the power of prayer in the lives of those doing the praying. Thurman said: 'God’s answer to a prayer may be no, but God’s answer to a pray-er is always yes'.

    Adam Walker-Cleveland - Tahoe Retreat

  • “I was desperate for silence, but to do my inner work, I also needed the support of beauty and love. These I received.”

    -S. S. - Tahoe Retreat 2016

  • “This was the best of the best of any retreat I have ever attended.  My challenge in my spiritual path is to get out of my head and into my body and heart.  The content, process, and pacing really supported that.” 

    M. R . - Malibu Retreat 2017

  • "This week was so much more than I could have imagined – a gift of grace, creativity, and beauty.” 

    C.A.