THE CAMPAIGN FOR HARVARD DIVINITY SCHOOL
TO ILLUMINATE, ENGAGE, AND SERVE
“THE ORIGINAL MISSION OF HARVARD WAS TO INCULCATE GOODNESS. AS I HAVE SAID BEFORE, HELP YOU ASK THE QUESTIONS ‘WHAT DO I TRULY VALUE? HOW DO I WANT TO LIVE MY LIFE?’ ”
‘VERITAS’ WAS NOT VALUE-NEUTRAL. IT CAME WITH ETHICAL UNDERPINNING, DESIGNED TO —PRESIDENT OF HARVARD UNIVERSITY AND LINCOLN PROFESSOR OF HISTORY DREW GILPIN FAUST
THE WORLD NEEDS HDS
THE CHALLENGE In a time of unprecedented technological advance, material prosperity, and instant gratification, the value of the transcendent —and the ability to speak from that experience—is often lost. The result is a world that is increasingly evaluated only in terms of top-of-mind reactions—from our notions of morality, to the importance of nature, community, beauty, and virtually every other aspect of human experience. Moreover, the inability to understand and take seriously the beliefs of others too often fosters conflict, particularly in an age of division and extremism.
THE SOLUTION To educate humane, informed, and ethical leaders who illuminate, engage, and serve humanity. HDS is at the forefront of this endeavor, as it has been for 200 years.
84%
Across all nationalities, the median proportion of citizens who say that religion is important in their daily lives.
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“Harvard Divinity School aspires to meet humanity’s greatest challenge—the search for the experience of meaning and significance beyond the ordinary, the material, and the mundane. It is a training ground for leaders of moral, ethical, and religious knowledge for the world.” —Dean David N. Hempton
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ILLUMINATE
ADVANCING UNDERSTANDING OF THE WAYS THAT RELIGION SHAPES THE WORLD
The HDS faculty includes some of the world’s top scholars of Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, Islam, and Buddhism. They study religion critically and rigorously to illuminate the beliefs and practices that lie at the foundation of societies. With your help, the campaign will enable the School to expand teaching and research in nonWestern religious traditions—as well as in the realms of Christianity and Judaism, where HDS has traditionally been strong—to fulfill its role as a global institution. 6 | THE CAMPAIGN FOR HARVARD DIVINITY SCHOOL
“A MORE COMPLEX HISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY PROVIDES RICHER RESOURCES FOR CONTEMPORARY THINKING ABOUT EVERYTHING.” Through her scholarship, Professor KAREN KING—the first woman appointed Hollis Professor of Divinity, the oldest endowed chair in the United States (1721)— establishes the critical role women played in the development of early Christianity.
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ILLUMINATE
“FAITH IS NOT A MEANINGFUL CATEGORY WITHOUT THE IDEA OF PROMISE AND THE POSSIBILITY OF DOUBT THAT INEVITABLY COMES ALONG WITH IT.” One of the world’s leading scholars of the Hebrew Bible, Professor JON LEVENSON challenges traditional notions of commonality in the Abrahamic faiths: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
55% HDS faculty teach more than half of the undergraduate courses in religion at Harvard.
HDS faculty advise more than four out of five Harvard students doing doctoral work in religion.
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ILLUMINATE
“PATTERNS OF SANCTIFICATION CONTINUE TO ANCHOR MILLIONS OF PEOPLE IN THE IMAGINED LANDSCAPE OF THEIR COUNTRY.” Professor DIANA ECK, a recipient of the National Humanities Medal, in her work explores the subtleties of the rich culture of India.
Portion of full-time HDS faculty specializing in the study of non-Christian traditions.
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ENGAGE
CREATING SPACES FOR CRITICAL DIALOGUE ON RELIGION, CULTURE, AND WORLD ISSUES
HDS drives public conversation on all major faiths through interdisciplinary centers and programs that explore religion’s influence on individuals, organizations, and societies around the world. With your help, the campaign will enable the School to bring leaders from faith, government, the arts, science, business, and many other fields to campus for critical discussions on religion—and also to meet the needs of a multireligious, global curriculum and student body— through the renewal of meeting, instructional, and worship spaces. 12 | THE CAMPAIGN FOR HARVARD DIVINITY SCHOOL
“All major religious traditions carry basically the same message, that is love, compassion and forgiveness . . . the important thing is they should be part of our daily lives.”
“Religion is a large part of what motivates people and shapes their views of justice and right behavior. It must be taken into account.”
“[The intersection of the divine and the human] is really what art is for . . . whether it’s music, or writing, or dance . . . that’s what it does in the best of times.”
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A member of the HDS community speaks at an event marking the campus visit of His Eminence, the 20th Sultan of Sokoto, religious leader of more than 80 million West African Muslims.
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ENGAGE CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF WORLD RELIGIONS
FOSTERING AN INTERNATIONAL FELLOWSHIP OF THE SPIRIT The Center for the Study of World Religions (CSWR) brings together graduate students, fellows, and visiting professors from the world’s major traditions, many as residents of the center’s unique community.
“IT IS MY HOPE AND PRAYER THAT IN THIS CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF WORLD RELIGIONS UNBELIEF SHALL DISAPPEAR AND SUPERSTITION SHALL NOT ENSLAVE THE MIND AND ALL THOSE WHO MEET HERE SHALL RECOGNIZE THAT THEY ARE BROTHERS, ONE IN SPIRIT AND ONE IN FELLOWSHIP.” Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan President of India (1962–67)
40%
HDS courses with international component— the highest proportion at Harvard.
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ENGAGE SCIENCE, RELIGION, AND CULTURE
SOLVING PROBLEMS AT THE CROSSROADS OF SCIENCE AND RELIGION The pioneering program in Science, Religion, and Culture (SRC) explores the way that faith and science interact around the world.
“MOST INSTITUTIONS LOOK PRIMARILY AT HOW SCIENTISTS AND THEOLOGIANS CONVERSE, AND AT THE QUESTION OF WHETHER SCIENCE AND RELIGION CAN COEXIST. HERE WE DIG DEEPER TO SEE HOW BOTH DISCIPLINES ARE PART OF A LARGER CULTURAL SETTING THAT INFLUENCES HOW WE KNOW WHAT WE KNOW.” Ahmed Ragab Richard T. Watson Assistant Professor of Science and Religion
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Partners In Health founder Dr. Paul Farmer, seen here in Malawi, delivered the first lecture in the Science, Religion, and Culture Forum series and spoke about the influence of liberation theology on his work.
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Judith Casselberry, 2012–13 WSRP research associate, explores the ways that black women define personal faith, build churches and communities, and navigate power relations across race and gender in the Apostolic Pentecostal Church.
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ENGAGE WOMEN’S STUDIES IN RELIGION PROGRAM
PUTTING WOMEN AT THE CENTER OF THE DIALOGUE ON RELIGION The research associates of the Women’s Studies in Religion Program (WSRP) come from around the world to study faith, gender, race, and sexual orientation. Its alumni include many of the leading scholars in these fields.
“THERE IS NO OTHER BODY OF CRITICAL THEORY THAT RAISES [GENDER] INEQUALITY AS A MORAL PROBLEM, AND POINTS OUT THAT EQUALITY MEANS GAINING FULL MORAL STATURE AS A HUMAN BEING, NOT JUST FOR WOMEN, BUT FOR EVERYONE.” Constance Buchanan WSRP Director (1977–97)
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SERVING HUMANITY AND WORKING FOR A BETTER WORLD
Students come to HDS with a passion for life’s biggest questions and a genuine desire to make the world a better place. They leave with the knowledge and courage to realize their vision. With your help, the campaign will enable HDS to recruit and provide financial support for the most talented and devoted students. Unencumbered by debt, the School’s graduates may then go wherever the world needs them most.
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ENDING TORTURE Rev. Karen Tse, MDiv ’00, is the founder and CEO of International Bridges to Justice (IBJ), which oversees work in more than two dozen countries to eliminate the use of torture by law enforcement.
“AT HDS, I LEARNED THAT HUMAN BEINGS—WORKING TOGETHER AND WITH GOD— CO-CREATE HISTORY. AND BECAUSE OF THAT, GREAT THINGS ARE POSSIBLE.”
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SERVING HUMANITY
CONFRONTING AN EPIDEMIC As health editor of The Times of India, Kalpana Jain covered the AIDS epidemic and helped precipitate important changes in national health policy. She came to HDS to study religion and its influence on another critical public health issue in India: gender violence.
“IT WAS ONLY AT HDS THAT I REALIZED HOW DEEPLY INGRAINED RELIGIOUS NARRATIVES ARE WITHIN ALL OF US AND HOW MUCH THEY INFLUENCE HOW WE ACT IN THE WORLD.”
Portion of master’s degree candidates who depend on financial aid.
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SERVING HUMANITY
FIGHTING SLAVERY Since 2001, the Methodist minister and medical doctor Gloria White-Hammond, MDiv ’97, has worked in war-ravaged Sudan to help free and educate hundreds of enslaved women and children.
“HDS GAVE ME THE ENCOURAGEMENT TO BELIEVE THAT I CAN DO THIS WORK.”
Master of Divinity
Master of Theological Studies
The majority of HDS graduates lead lives of service in ministry, education, nonprofit, healthcare, or public sector work.
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SERVING HUMANITY
SEEKING REGENERATION OF BODY AND SOUL Shelley Brown, MDiv ’14, holds a PhD in biomedical engineering. The HDS field education program enabled the Baptist minister to work on new cancer treatments at MIT while she explored the ethical and theological questions raised by stem cell research.
“ONLY HDS WOULD HAVE THE VISION TO ALLOW SOMEONE LIKE ME TO COME HERE AND NOT FORCE ME TO BE IN ONE SPECIFIC TRADITION AND TRACK.”
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THE HDS EFFECT RELIGIOUS KNOWLEDGE FOR A BETTER WORLD
HENRY J. CADBURY, PHD 1914 Hollis Professor of Divinity (1934–54) Co-founder (1917) and Chairman of the American Friends Service Committee (1928–34; 1944–60) One of the country’s leading Bible scholars, Cadbury worked for peace and to alleviate suffering throughout his HDS career. As the head of the American Friends Service Committee, Cadbury “organized the feeding of 1 million German children a day,” in the wake of WWI. On behalf of the Religious Society of Friends, he traveled to Sweden in 1947 to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, one of only two Harvard faculty ever to do so.
GEORGE RUPP, PHD ’72 Dean of Harvard Divinity School (1979–85) CEO and President, International Rescue Committee (2002–13) A student, faculty member, and dean of HDS, Rupp went on to lead Rice and Columbia Universities, as well as the International Rescue Committee (IRC). In 2013, the last year of his presidency, the IRC and partner organizations provided 13 million people with primary and reproductive health care; gave 1.4 million people access to clean drinking water and sanitation; vaccinated 276,000 children against disease; and provided schooling and educational opportunities to 725,000 girls and boys.
ELIZABETH EATON, MDIV ’80 Presiding Bishop, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Eaton says that she felt a “tug” to come to HDS, where, “by the end of the first year, I just said to God, ‘All right, I give up, you win,’” and decided to devote her life to the ministry. After more than 30 years in the pulpit, Eaton was elected the first female presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) in August 2013. Today she leads a denomination with nearly 4 million members—the largest Lutheran church body in the United States.
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EILEEN CHAMBERLAIN DONAHOE, MTS ’84 Director of Global Affairs at Human Rights Watch, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Human Rights Council (2010–13) Eileen Chamberlain Donahoe was the first United States permanent representative to the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHCR). The council, which consists of 47 member states, is the primary UN body addressing human rights. Under U.S. leadership, the UNHRC brought attention to major human rights crises in Syria, Libya, Iran, and Côte d’Ivoire, with impact on millions of lives.
RICK SANTOS, MTS ’92 Santos enrolled at HDS to advance his work with nonprofit organizations that provide relief, medical aid, and economic development services. Today, he is the president and CEO of Interchurch Medical Assistance (IMA) World Health, an organization that advances the health of
underserved and vulnerable populations around the world. In 2013, IMA launched a five-year, $283 million program that will provide
access to primary health care for 8 million people in
Africa. Since 1960, the organization has distributed over $1 billion in medical supplies in 52 countries around the world.
SIMON XAVIER GUERRAND-HERMÈS, MTS ’93 President of the Board, Hermès of Paris, U.S. Chairman of the Board, Guerrand-Hermes Foundation for Peace A leader of one of the world’s largest luxury goods firms, Guerrand-Hermès founded the Guerrand-Hermès Foundation for Peace (GHFP) shortly after graduating from HDS. GHFP operates more than a dozen projects in Europe, North America, Latin America, Asia, and the Middle East that foster peace through interreligious understanding, education, and personal development, and also through innovative solutions to poverty and injustice. Guerrand-Hermès received the French Legion of Honor in 2006.
HAUWA IBRAHIM Research Associate, Women’s Studies in Religion Program (2010–13) Ibrahim, the first female lawyer in Nigeria’s predominantly Muslim Gombe region, came to HDS after successfully defending a woman who faced death by stoning. Her work at the Women’s Studies in Religion Program (WSRP) focused on furthering the rights of Muslim women by working within Shariah law. While at HDS, Ibrahim wrote Practicing Law in Shariah Courts: Seven Strategies. The book—distributed throughout the 100 branches of the Nigerian Bar Association—will profoundly influence the way that country’s legal system views the rights of tens of millions of Muslim women.
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BRINGING THE STUDY OF RELIGION INTO ST THE 21 CENTURY— AND BEYOND 30 | THE CAMPAIGN FOR HARVARD DIVINITY SCHOOL
Harvard Divinity School’s focus on religion, values, spirit, and meaning addresses the most important questions of life: time, death, the natural world, how we relate to things, and how we think about them. The Campaign for HDS is an unprecedented effort to bring this approach into the future. It will renew an institution that approaches religion critically, through rigorous scholarship and study; with expertise in all of the world’s major traditions and alignment with none; and that produces leaders who connect with people of faith and create positive change through knowledge, compassion, and moral courage. More specifically, the campaign will: • Advance the study of global religion by strengthening preeminent teaching and research in all of the world’s major traditions and their engagement with other fields of knowledge; • Enable innovation in religious practice and study by providing Dean Hempton the resources to pursue new initiatives, cross-disciplinary collaborations, in field education, and much more; • Transform public understanding of religion through a campus that inspires dialogue, learning, and reflection among leaders, students, and people of all faiths; • Build a better world by enabling extraordinary men and women to obtain the knowledge and skills to serve humanity, and then to go where they are most needed, unconstrained by educational debt.
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THE WORLD NEEDS HDS FROM THE CAMPAIGN CO-CHAIRS
HUMANITY FACES CHALLENGES THAT CALL FOR TRANSFORMATIONAL CHANGE.
At the heart of any process of transformation are the beliefs and practices through which human beings understand and order their lives, defined for most of the world’s population by their religion. HDS is uniquely positioned to lead the effort to understand this fundamental part of human experience. The School produces many of the world’s leading scholars of religion, but it is more than an academic enterprise. HDS prepares leaders of faith communities, but it is more than a seminary. Simply put, HDS takes religion seriously without being bound by a particular doctrine or creed. By providing the resources for the School to advance religious knowledge and leadership, the Campaign for HDS will increase the effectiveness of efforts to address the major challenges of our time. Ultimately, however, the campaign has a greater purpose, one articulated by the late Rev. Peter J. Gomes, STB ’68: to enable “human beings to live up to their full humanity . . . to live in the full implication of our human gifts.” WE URGE YOU TO JOIN US IN THIS ENDEAVOR. THOMAS M. CHAPPELL, Campaign Co-Chair RAM SUDIREDDY, Campaign Co-Chair SUSAN S. SWARTZ, Campaign Co-Chair
HDS is grateful to the late John C. Whitehead for his service as Honorary Campaign Co-Chair until his passing in 2015. To learn more about the Campaign for HDS– and about opportunities to support it—please visit campaign.hds.harvard.edu. 32 | THE CAMPAIGN FOR HARVARD DIVINITY SCHOOL
“[Harvard Divinity School] has never wasted an opportunity to take itself beyond its own expectations. . . . The tensions between
Athens and Jerusalem, the Academy and the Church, the particular and the plural, the
practical and the scholarly, have been creative tensions, requiring that the school renew
and redefine itself in each generation.
And in that very process has been both its continuity and its hope.”
—THE REVEREND PETER J. GOMES, STB ’68
Photographs: courtesy Shelley Brown, Tom Chappell/Rambler’s Way Farm, Jon Chase, Evgenia Eliseeva, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Steve Gilbert, Joel Haskell, Charlayne Hunter-Gault, Chris Glass/IMA World Health, courtesy Xavier Guerrand-Hermès, Justin Ide, International Rescue Committee, courtesy Kalpana Jain, Justin Knight, Rose Lincoln, Stephanie Mitchell, Tony Rinaldo, Rebecca E. Rollins / Partners In Health, Kris Snibbe, courtesy Karen Tse/International Bridges to Justice, Kristie Welsh. ©2016 President and Fellows of Harvard College