HDS Today Scholarship and leadership for the 21st century
Welcome.
The world of religion is changing. So is Harvard Divinity School. This is HDS Today: a community of scholars and graduate students who illuminate, engage, and serve the world.
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Illuminate
The HDS faculty includes some of the world’s top scholars of Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, Islam, and Buddhism.
The World’s Biggest-Ever Bible Course In the Q & A below, Professor Laura Nasrallah discusses the impact of HDS’s first online class. Your January–February 2014 edX/HarvardX course “Early Christianity: The Letters of Paul” drew roughly 25,000 participants from 169 countries. What does that say to you about the interest in biblical studies, especially from those who may not be enrolled in a degree program somewhere? Also, what do you think it says about the way the field can (or should) evolve in terms of how it’s taught and who it can reach? LN: There is a vast interest in biblical studies. I know from communicating with my online students that some participated because they were not Christians and wanted to learn about part of the Christian Testament. Some participated because they are Christians and wanted to deepen their understanding of their own tradition. I still receive emails from folks who are using the materials for an adult Bible study in a Christian community and from parents and their adult children who go through the materials together to discuss them, as well as from individuals. My organizing and teaching in HarvardX was stimulated by my commitment to think about teaching better at Harvard, about how to make the materials I love more accessible and how to present them more clearly. It was a joy to be able to reach so many students. What was the biggest thing that you learned from your experience leading the class? Was there anything that surprised you? LN: I was surprised that so many people were interested in the course and that they were so tenacious in their dedication to responding to the questions and to each other. There was such a tremendous desire to learn. I am, as always, deeply impressed by our doctoral students who made up my teaching staff, who had constructive contributions about the course materials and who responded so thoughtfully to the online students’ posts. I think the international breadth and the level of participation surprised me the most, and I’m so deeply grateONLINE IN JANUARY 2016 ful that the materials are still useful.
“Sacred Texts: Origins and Interpretations” with leading scholars from HDS, Harvard and Wellesley. Introduction: Diane Moore; Hinduism: Neelima Shukla-Bhatt; Buddhism: Charles Hallisey; Judaism: Shaye Cohen ; Christianity: Karen King; Islam: Ali Asani
As an educator and scholar, why was it important for you to be involved in this course online format? LN: I think that all of us in academia should be ready to communicate our research and thinking—and the prominent discussions in our subfields—to a broader audience. I always enjoy the opportunity to talk to “general” audiences in person. I was grateful that, through HarvardX, I had a particularly robust platform to do this online.
At the end of a course like this, how do you measure what success looks like? By the number of participants or people who complete the course? Or, does success lie not in metrics but in the legacy of the engagement of students with the material and their classmates? LN: It is difficult to measure success. I would love to be able to contact course participants in a few years to see what they remember, what their impressions are, and to hear their thoughts. (So too, frankly, for our brick-andmortar Harvard students!) In the absence of that possibility, I’m grateful for the stray email or letter I receive from participants or even those using the materials thereafter. And it’s been even more fun to run into participants in person! Explore the “Letters of Paul” at edX.org or lettersofpaul.org. HDS.HARVARD.EDU/FACULTY-RESEARCH
DYNAMIC COURSES...
Hebrew Aquinas: Incarnation, Narration, Sacrament Lived Religion in South Asia Feminist Theory and The*logy Orthodoxy and Heresy in Ancient Christianity Ugaritic His tory of Western Christianity The Bhagavad Gita and Its Commentators Cities on a Hill: Im ages of America as a Redeemer Nation, 1630–Present Ancient Jewish Wisdom Literature Catholicism Faces Modernity: Classics of Twentieth-Century Roman Catholicism Aramaic Introduc
tion to Buddhist Narrative and Story Literature
Exodus 2 in Three Contexts History o
the Religion of Ancient Israel Introduction to Islamic Mysticism: The Sufi Tradition Genesis: Narrative Artistr
and Theological Meanings
Pragmatism and Religion: Peirce, James, Royce, and Dewey
Islamic Modernism
Bodies and Sexualities in the Medieval Middle Eas Hindu Goddesses and the Virgin Mary The Binding of Isaac (Aqedah) The Letters o Paul: Ethnicity, Sex, Ethics, and the End of the World Queer Theology, Queer Re Syriac Islam in African History
ligions Agency, Spontaneity, and the Education of Emotions: Buddhist Path Writing and Meditation Theory Arabic
Law
Buddhist Ethics
New Directions in Hindu Studies
Voodooizations and Politics of Representation
in Transnational Perspective
Coptic
Introduction to Islamic
Religion, Gender, and Politics
The Bible Uncensored: Journeys into Texts Dark and Darin
from the Hebrew Bible Religions of Latin America: Mexico, Peru, El Caribe Indigenous Religious Tradition
and Modernity
Knowledge and Authority in Muslim Societies
Latin Unitarian an
Universalist Thought in the Nineteenth Century Ancient Greek Sanctuaries: Mysteries of Initiation
and Knowing in Latina Theory
Origen of Alexandria and the Roots of Christian Universalism
...FOR A DYNAMIC STUDENT BODY STUDY OF ALL RELIGIONS AND ALIGNMENT WITH NONE “HDS does not teach you what to think but, rather, how to think. You learn how to get to the heart of important issues and how to identify the difficult but necessary questions.”—Kate DeConinck, ThD ’15
331 STUDENTS
41 56% 20 17%
REPRESENTING
STATES,
COUNTRIES
Being
FEMALE
INTERNATIONAL
27% 161 IN 2013–14
STUDENTS OF COLOR
30
APPROX. RELIGIOUS TRADITIONS REPRESENTED
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HDS STUDENTS TOOK COURSES AT OTHER HARVARD SCHOOLS
Engage
HDS drives public conversations on all major faiths by convening events that explore religion’s influence on individuals, organizations, and societies.
On Campus: Jimmy Carter on Women, Violence, and Religion
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peaking inside the Memorial Church on November 19, 2014, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter purposely painted a bleak picture when discussing the driving factors behind his latest book, A Call to Action: Women, Religion, Violence, and Power. The 39th president of the United States and 2002 Nobel Peace Prize recipient came to Harvard during a visit sponsored by HDS. Carter’s words made an impact on the hundreds of students, staff, and faculty from across Harvard, as well as members of the public, who filled the Memorial Church to hear him speak. Many of those in attendance gasped when Carter recited statis-
tics on the abuse, rape, human trafficking, and killing of women and girls in the United States and across the world. “We tend to distort the truth in order to benefit ourselves, and that doesn’t just include people who are persecuting others, but people who sit quiet while others are persecuted,” he said. “There is an exact same parallel between the way black people were treated in some parts of this country when I was a child and the way women and girls are treated all over the world now.” Following Carter’s talk, the former president sat down for a conversation with HDS Dean David N. Hempton. Hempton said he was staggered by the sheer size of the problem laid out by Carter in his book, but that the former president offers “a striking example of what we mean at Harvard Divinity School when we speak of bringing religious resources to bear on life and the world’s greatest challenges.” Hempton also presented Carter with a surprise gift: the inaugural President Jimmy Carter Scholarship, awarded to an HDS student dedicated to advancing studies of human rights issues. The first recipient of the award, MDiv student Karlene Griffiths Sekou, joined Carter on stage for the presentation and received a hug from the former president, who said that he will devote the rest of his life to tackling issues of violence against women.
ENGAGEMENT In 2014–15 HDS: Held
57
public events on religious topics
visiting scholars from around the world
101
Hosted
Hosted
26
full-time residents at the Center for the Study of World Religions and five research associates in the Women’s Studies in Religion Program.
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“A lack of love can cause people to have no help when they need help, no friends when they need a friend. So, in a sense, the most dangerous thing in the world is apathy. We think of weapons, violence, warfare, disease as terrible dangers, and indeed they are, but we can take measures to avoid them. But once our apathy takes hold of us, we can no longer avoid it.”
On March 26–27, 2015, HDS hosted His Holiness the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje, who spoke about caring for life on earth in the twenty-first century, discussed the Buddhist reform to include ordination of women, and hosted a blessing for members of the Boston Karma Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism.
PROGRAMS AND CENTERS Bringing distinguished scholars and leaders to engage on vital topics
CSWR
The Center for the Study of World Religions fosters the development and growth of scholars by providing a space to examine the historical and contemporary interrelationships among religions.
RLP
WSRP
The Women’s Studies in Religion Program produces new primary research and explores the fundamental role played by religious traditions in defining roles for women and men.
SRC
The mission of the Science, Religion, and Culture program at HDS is to open space for the study of how science and religion become enmeshed with, distinct from, and implicated in broader social, political, and cultural structures.
RPP
The Religious Literacy Project provides resources and training opportunities for educators, journalists, public health workers, interfaith/multifaith groups, and others wishing to better understand the complex roles that religions play in contemporary contexts.
The Religions and the Practice of Peace initiative seeks to stimulate cross-disciplinary conversation and scholarship to explore how individuals and communities worldwide have drawn on religious and spiritual resources to foster mutual understanding and peace.
Pluralism Project The Pluralism Project seeks to help Americans engage with the realities of religious diversity through research, outreach, and the active dissemination of resources.
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Serve
The women and men of HDS are working for a better world.
Serving Our Neighbors: The Outdoor Church
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ince 2003, the Rev. Jedediah Mannis, MDiv ’04, and community members from Harvard and Cambridge have met weekly for the Outdoor Church. On Sunday mornings, the handful of attendees and volunteers can be found near the Porter Square MBTA stop in Cambridge for one of their weekly prayer rituals, where they transform a small metal table into an impromptu altar, complete with a plate of communion wafers and a small glass pitcher of apple juice to fill in for the communion wine. The open-air services welcome everyone, but primarily serve homeless and street-involved men and women. Organizers said that in all the church’s 13 years, they have missed only three services because of
bad weather. They celebrate outside in keeping with their founding philosophy. In addition to helping the homeless, the church serves as a training ground for students in HDS’s master of divinity program, many of whom are preparing for parish- and churchrelated ministries. As part of the master’s program, students are required to complete 350–400 hours of field experience, and many choose the Outdoor Church for fieldwork. Students assisting the Outdoor Church begin to understand how to connect with people in ways that go beyond what a church can generally offer, and they also figure out how to “live with the limits” of what they can do, said Emily Click, assistant dean for ministry studies and field education at HDS. Through their internships, Click said, students learn that “you offer what you can,” and that you don’t always “get to make everything OK. That’s not what it’s about.” Mannis and his volunteers try to help the homeless in any way they can. Through the years, he said, Harvard’s support in that effort has been invaluable. “We typically have two or three interns from Harvard Divinity School, and lots of people who make sandwiches for us or go around with us on Sunday afternoons who are members of the Harvard community. We are also supported by the Memorial Church . . . Harvard has played a big role in all the work we do.”
“When you come to Harvard Divinity School, you come with the intention of stepping outside of your comfort zone and connecting with people from diverse religious traditions, and with those who do not claim a particular faith. When you come, you commit to a way of being that creates an openness for these connections in order to feel like you are a part of everything.” —Melissa Bartholomew, MDiv ’15 Commencement Class Speaker HDS.HARVARD.EDU/ACADEMICS/FIELD-EDUCATION
Values Investor Connecting business with people, ethics, and the environment
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atherine Collins, MTS ’11, was a rising star at Fidelity Management & Research Company, one of the country’s leading investment firms. During her 18-year career at the company, she managed diversified mutual funds with assets of over $4 billion and rose to head of equity research. Over time, however, Collins was troubled by the expansion of a more convoluted approach to investing that she saw throughout the financial sector. She decided that she wanted her career to be about cultivating the bonds among resources, people, communities, and even the natural environment. That passion for value and connection brought her to Harvard Divinity School. Today, thanks in part to the philosophical and ethical foundation she developed as a student in the master of theological studies program, she heads her own research and consulting firm, Honeybee Capital, which focuses on “integrated investing.” “Whether you’re talking about investing in stocks or investing your time,” she says, “the fundamental question for any investor is, ‘What do you value and
how can your actions best reflect those values?’ HDS helped me make sense of that.” Collins’s 2014 book, The Nature of Investing, lays out the nature-inspired principles she claims could transform the trillion-dollar U.S. financial sector. As a step in that direction, she made an investment of her own. Collins’s 2015 gift to HDS will foster “meaningful engagement between students and faculty at the Divinity School and Harvard Business School.” “I want to get every investor thinking about fundamental questions with every decision they make,” she says. “Is the company involved in a good endeavor and not stealing from the future? What is this company doing that is of real value in the world?”
HDS GRADUATES PURSUE CAREERS OF MEANING AND LEADERSHIP IN MANY FIELDS Business Community development/advocacy/social services Counseling/psychology Education: University teaching or research Education: University administration Education: Secondary/other educational field Law Ministry: Ordained Ministry: Chaplaincy Public Policy/government, or mediation Other
■■■■■■6% ■■■■■■■■■ 9% ■■■ 3% ■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■ 19% ■■■■■■■■■■■■■ 13% ■■■■■■ 6% ■■■ 3% ■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■ 19% ■■■■■■ 6% ■■■ 3% ■■■■■■■■■■■■■ 13%
Source: 2015 alumni survey for graduates 15 years out (Year 2000 graduates).
HDS’s Office of Career Services provides tools for navigating the job search process and encourages lifelong professional development through a variety of services for both students and alumni. HDS.HARVARD.EDU/LIFE-AT-HDS/CAREER-SERVICES
HARVARD DIVINITY SCHOOL
The Campaign for HDS will enable the School to bring global religion, values, meaning, and the most important questions of life into focus for the future. Find out more about this critical effort at campaign.hds.harvard.edu.