HDS 2021 Deans Report

Dean’s Report 2021

FROM DEAN HEMPTON

Renewal & Reflection In the 2020 Dean’s Report, I wrote to you all with hope—hope that our community would weather the many storms we faced safely, hope that we would find strength while navigating uncertainty, and hope that we could ground ourselves in compassion even as the world felt unmoored.

I often reflected on these hopes while looking at the renovation of the newly renamed Swartz Hall from my home in Jewett House across the street. The building became a metaphor.

I watched as the planning team paused, adjusted, and reworked the construction schedule to accommodate public health guidance and governmental regulations. Staff from across the School found ways to connect remotely and carry on the thoughtful design, which includes preserving original stone and repurposing those materials in the renovated building. I watched as the roof was carefully restored with slate from a New England quarry and the stained-glass windows delicately replaced using the same techniques glass workers used to create the original windows a hundred years ago.

As the building was restored before my eyes, I could envision the doors opening to our community— offering a much-anticipated moment of reconnection after many dark months of isolation. This centuryold structure—steeped in history, now retrofitted with cutting-edge technological and environmental advances—is a testament to honoring the past and embracing the future.

This year has laid bare many intersecting causes of suffering and division. As I reflect on the past, present, and future of the School, the country, and the world, it’s clear we still have a long way to go to get to a place of universal health and equality. As W.H. Auden says in his poem “September 1, 1939”: Defenceless under the night Our world in stupor lies; Yet, dotted everywhere, Ironic points of light Flash out wherever the Just Exchange their messages: May I, composed like them Of Eros and of dust, Beleaguered by the same Negation and despair, Show an affirming flame.

Which is to say, the mission of Harvard Divinity School is even more vital, more pressing. Honest inquiry, open minds, and putting the world’s religious resources to work for enlightenment, peace, and justice is at the center of what we do. The world has never needed our affirming flame more than it does today.

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Finding Our Way Back During August 2021, faculty, students, and staff made their way back to Cambridge, judiciously observing the health and safety guidelines so ably set out by Harvard University Health Services and the Provost’s Office—implemented by an exceptional planning team here at HDS. This return to campus was a carefully orchestrated phase-in of in-person teaching and learning. And thanks to the tremendous efforts, stamina, grit, and grace of our community over these long months, we continued our mission of advancing new knowledge and educating students who will make a difference in shaping a better future for all people.

Honoring the Past, Embracing the Future Welcoming our community back to campus was the recently renovated Swartz Hall, whose two-year transformation was completed in July. Built more than a century ago as Andover Hall, the much-needed renovation was a central goal of our recent capital campaign. None of this would have been possible without support from the donors—especially Susan and Jim Swartz; Ralph and Janice James; Ralph’s sister Cathy James Paglia and their father, Robert James; Chris and Anne Flowers; and anonymous donors who made a classroom naming gift in memory of their dear friend, HBS Professor David Garvin— whose generosity and dedication to the School gave this historic building new life. The support from all those who contribute to the HDS Fund played an important role in this work, as well.

The project team and construction crews, led by our just-retired facilities director, Ralph DeFlorio, carried off an extraordinary project that honored our past while embracing the technological, ecological, and pedagogical priorities of the future. You will find more detail in these pages, but I am especially grateful for the team’s innovative re-use of historical physical materials; to take one example, the new fireplace was built from the same stone blocks removed from the old hall during the transformation.

So much has been added, and yet so much has been preserved.

I hope all of you will find time in the coming months, as safety allows, to walk through our lovingly restored main doors to tour this magnificent new heart of our campus.

To honor a towering figure in our history, the School also officially renamed Swartz Hall’s historic chapel the Preston N. Williams Chapel. Preston, the first tenured African American faculty member of Harvard Divinity School and the first to lead HDS (or any other Harvard graduate school) when he was acting dean from 1974 to 1975, was also the founding director of Harvard’s W.E.B. DuBois Research Institute. In addition to many other well-earned accolades, Preston was awarded the Harvard Medal by the University in 2021. In further recognition, both Preston and his wife, Connie, have been honored with the Constance W. and Preston N. Williams Scholarship Fund. Preston and Connie have dedicated 2 | 2021 DEAN’S REPORT

their lives to working for educational excellence and social justice. This fitting tribute honors both their commitment to community and their dedication to a more just and equitable future for all.

Every year brings other transitions. This year we mourned the passing of Constance Buchanan, former director of the Women’s Studies in Religion Program (WSRP), who developed the program into a permanent part of the School and University. A faculty member and associate dean at HDS for 20 years, Connie turned the WSRP into an internationally recognized center for research on the intersections of faith traditions, gender, race, and sexual orientation. The program’s ongoing vitality is her lasting legacy. We owe Ann Braude an ongoing debt of gratitude for leading the next generation of exceptional scholars for the past 20 years (and may she long continue). This year’s cohort is vast and varied in their areas of expertise, as is WSRP tradition. With fellows from the University of Barcelona to the University of Puget Sound, the projects they will be exploring for the year range from interweaving sustainability, spirituality, and Sarvodaya; to studying the female voice in the Qur’an from a gender perspective; to exploring networks of defiance by way of women and heretical conversion in the late Middle Ages. The Women’s Studies in Religion Program continues to connect brilliant minds from around the globe with the HDS community.

Academic Foundations and Innovation Some 50 years ago, HDS began to transform itself from a largely mainline-Protestant seminary to an institution studying all the world’s great religions (and many smaller ones). As we broadened our vision over the decades, so too have we looked to expand the expertise of our academics into new areas of study and new understandings of the past. This complex process, led by our faculty and students, requires not just a vision of multireligious education but also an expansive, long-term commitment to diversity and inclusion in all forms.

This year brought one of most significant additions to our academic foundations in decades, as the faculty approved the new master of religion and public life (MRPL) degree. The MRPL is a unique, one-year graduate program designed for experienced professionals who wish to develop in-depth knowledge of the ways religion influences public life in their field. The MRPL is an opportunity for practitioners from a range of fields to become leaders who foster a better public understanding of religion and address the most difficult issues of our time.

The new degree fits under the larger Religion and Public Life (RPL) canopy, built upon two key pillars of programming: one to advance knowledge of religion in a wide range of professions, including education, journalism, government, humanitarian action, and media; and a second to support peacebuilding and conflict resolution. RPL seeks to both integrate many of our current programs and build new bridges—all in service of bringing the School’s vast expertise in the study of religion to bear on contemporary challenges. Launched this year, the innovative program and curriculum would not have been possible without the vision of Diane Moore. Thanks to her leadership, the first cohort of MRPL candidates joined us this fall—as diverse and accomplished a group as we could have hoped for when we created the degree.

Rev. Teddy Hickman-Maynard

I am delighted to share that Matthew Potts has been named Plummer Professor of Christian Morals and Pusey Minister in the Memorial Church. In this role, Matt serves as both an educator and a spiritual guide for the University community—and he is supremely qualified in both respects. My heartfelt gratitude goes out to Stephanie Paulsell for serving as interim minister throughout the search and seeing us through two extraordinary years.

We also welcomed the Rev. Teddy Hickman-Maynard as the new associate dean for ministry studies in August. A scholar of social justice, church renewal, and practices of ministry in the Black Church tradition, he joins us from Boston University School of Theology. In addition to his roles as associate dean for student and community life and assistant professor of Black Church studies at BU, he also has more than 20 years of ministry experience, serving in roles that include senior pastor, youth pastor, minister to men, and minister of worship. Currently, he is an associate minister at Bethel AME Church in Lynn, Massachusetts, where his spouse, the Rev. Bernadette Hickman-Maynard, is the pastor. With ministry, academics, and public life serving as the core pillars of an HDS education, we are blessed to have Teddy at the helm of our ministry studies program.

I would be remiss if I didn’t recognize the two exceptional leaders who have guided both our ministry studies and field education programs to their current success.

Dudley Rose and Emily Click (our former associate dean of ministry studies, and assistant dean of ministry studies and director of field education, respectively) retired from HDS at the end of June. Dudley had served the School for more than three decades and Emily for 15 years. Their expansive views of ministry and education are largely responsible for the strong programs we have today, and I look forward to seeing many more years of success under Teddy’s leadership.

Emily Click

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I am also pleased to report one of the oldest scholarly theological journals in the United States has a new editor. Giovanni Bazzana, Harvard Divinity School Professor of New Testament, was named the new editor of Harvard Theological Review on July 1. Founded 113 years ago, HTR has been a central forum for scholars of religion and continues to publish compelling original research that contributes to the understanding and interpretation in the history and philosophy of religious thought in all traditions and time periods. Giovanni stepped into this role following HDS Professors Jon Levenson and Kevin Madigan, who served as co-editors for the last decade. Our many thanks to Jon and Kevin for their thoughtful stewardship of this important forum for intellectual exchange.

This year, we continued to expand our faculty expertise. Teren Sevea was appointed to his new role in July 2020 and is now the Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Assistant Professor of Islamic Studies, and Mohsen Goudarzi began his appointment as Assistant Professor of Islamic Studies in July 2021. Looking forward to July 2022, we will also welcome two new Professors of New Testament and Early Christianity to HDS: Benjamin Dunning, professor at Fordham University, working in Christian Antiquity, and Annette Yoshiko Reed, professor in the Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies and the Program in Religious Studies at New York University. Dunning teaches primarily in the areas of early Christianity, critical theory, and gender and sexuality studies. He earned his PhD in the study of religion from Harvard in 2005. Reed’s research spans Second Temple Judaism, early Christianity, and Jewish/Christian relations in late antiquity, with a special concern for retheorizing religion, identity, and difference. She earned her MTS from the Divinity School in 1999 and her PhD from Princeton University in 2002. As illustrated throughout the 2020–21 faculty search process, their intellectual foci, along with their experience mentoring and supervising doctoral candidates, will be a significant asset for students across Harvard.

Building an Anti-Racist and Anti-Oppressive HDS Acknowledging the sins of our past is but one step toward a more equitable future. In last year’s letter, I reflected on the need to actively work together in building an anti-racist and anti-oppressive reality for all.

This year, Associate Dean Rev. Melissa Wood Bartholomew strengthened this commitment by launching a “Reorientation & Common Read Program” at HDS. Community members studied The Little Book of Race & Restorative Justice: Black Lives, Healing, and US Social Transformation by Fania E. Davis.

We held discussions with formerly incarcerated citizens, gave personal witness, and concluded with a discussion led by Dr. Davis herself. These are first steps, “hard/ heart” work in Melissa’s words, but they presage the efforts we will undertake throughout the community to reckon with the past and build a better future. In her first year, Melissa has also worked with students, staff, and faculty across the School to center this vital work in a multitude of ways.

From moderating conversations on intersectionality and health care with hundreds of participants to providing sound one-to-one guidance, her expertise, care, and concern for the community shines like a beacon here at HDS. I could not be more grateful for her leadership.

Connections across Harvard and across the Globe Although the necessary shift to online teaching and learning had its costs, there were unexpected benefits as well. International students unable to move to Cambridge were able to attend classes and pursue their educational goals (some even formed study cohorts in far-flung time zones).

Professors were able to host distinguished global scholars in their “classrooms” without the expense, inconvenience, and environmental footprint of travel. HDS also experienced exponential growth in attendance at our online educational, alumni, and cultural events. These phenomena have reshaped our approach to communicating knowledge and learning. By necessity, we were able to expand our community’s reach out to the world and bring the world into our classrooms as never before. The technology advances made available through the Swartz Hall renovation have primed us to reach deeper into these new ways of teaching and learning.

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Our international vision was further strengthened this year by the establishment of the Yang Visiting Scholars in World Christianity. This fall, we welcomed the inaugural cohort to campus, joining other visiting scholars from the Hindu Monastics and the Buddhist Ho Family Foundation Visiting Scholars programs. I look forward to all the contributions these interconnected networks of thought leaders will yield to our multireligious community—from thoughtful conversations here at the School to the ripple effects their work will create across the globe.

Closer to home, the year brought many collaborations with other Harvard Schools and institutions. The Center for the Study of World Religions co-hosted numerous pan-Harvard events, such as “Indigenous Women Convening for Peace, Justice, and Reconciliation” to “The New Science of Psychedelics, Ecology, and Spirituality,” and more. Other prominent panel discussions focused on religion and the 2020 election, the Harvard Islam in Africa Initiative, and the Matos Moctezuma Lecture Series. As in every year, there are many experiences in life—many voices once silenced or subjugated—that come into focus through important conversations here at HDS.

Gifford Lectures: Networks, Nodes, and Nuclei In spring 2021, I had the welcome privilege of taking my first sabbatical in a decade. This sabbatical was dedicated to researching and writing the 2021 Gifford Lectures. Delivered at the University of Edinburgh, the lectures explore religion, science, and philosophy. It’s been a wonderful experience to return to deep research, and I hope to add some understanding to the evolution of Christianity. Titled “Networks, Nodes, and Nuclei in the History of Christianity, c. 1500–2020,” the series proposes that many of the most important changes and developments within Christianity have been transnational in scope, transdenominational in character, and not easily contained within institutional or hierarchical structures. What difference would it make to reimagine the history of Christianity in terms of transnational networks, nodal junction boxes of encounter and transmission, and a greater sense of the core memes and messages of religious traditions and expressions? That is the principal question to be explored in these lectures.

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I add another note of deep gratitude. For myself, and all of us in the HDS community, I want to thank David Holland, who served so ably as acting dean during my sabbatical. David’s calm, graceful leadership and thoughtful commitment to the highest standards of educational excellence and diversity guided us through the tumult of those months. His service is another example of all we treasure at Harvard Divinity School.

Our Community Endures Throughout the disruptions of these past months and years, I’ve come to respect even more deeply the lived meaning of community at HDS. In safer and more comfortable times, we’ve perhaps taken too much for granted, believing we can carry ourselves into the future on the basis of history and tradition. All of that changed as the vulnerabilities and injustices of our society—and our imperfect attempts to address them—were once again laid bare. But I emerge from these times more admiring of our strengths and dedication than before. It is to this new work that we now turn, with open minds, resolute hearts, and devotion to our mission in the world.

I have talked quite a bit about gratitude throughout this message, with the intention of acknowledging an appreciation that seemingly surpasses the bounds of language. Even in the midst of compounding challenges, our community found ways to connect, to reflect, and to protect the vision of the Divinity School—providing an intellectual home in service of a just world at peace across religious and cultural divides. As you read through the stories in the following pages, my hope is that you can see the many ways in which your generous offers of time and financial support help make this work possible. With a steadfast commitment to excellence and to each other, we persevere.

From my heart to yours, thank you.

David N. Hempton Dean of the Faculty of Divinity Alonzo L. McDonald Family Professor of Evangelical Theological Studies John Lord O’Brian Professor of Divinity 6 | 2021 DEAN’S REPORT

YEAR IN REVIEW

Faculty Awards HDS faculty were recognized with the following honors, awards, and named lectureships in 2020–21.

Ann Braude and student Maisie Luo were awarded $15,000 from the Harvard DIB Culture Lab, for “The Art of Inclusive Excellence” proposal to commission artwork from a local indigenous artist for Swartz Hall.

Jacob Olupona was awarded the D.Litt. (honoris causa), by the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, on June 12, 2021. He delivered the annual Surjit Singh Lecture in Comparative Religious Thought, at the Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, CA, on April 28, 2020.

Catherine Brekus delivered the 2021 Annual Compagna-Sennett Lecture, titled “Evangelicals, the Bible, and American Nationalism,” at Colby College on April 13, 2021.

Kimberley Patton was presented with The Petra Shattuck Excellence in Teaching Award, 2020–21, at Harvard University Extension School.

Frank Clooney delivered the Plenary Conversation with Jose Cabezon (AAR President) and Jay Garfield (Smith College) on the role the AAR has played in faculty academic careers, December 2020, for the Craigie Lectures at the University of Calgary in March 2021. He also gave the keynote address at an international webinar, Interpretation in Indian Philosophy: New Perspectives and Paradigms, at Sankaracharya University, in Kalady, Kerala, on April 23, 2021. In addition, Reading the Hindu and Christian Classics (2020) was chosen as best book in Hindu-Christian studies 2018–20. (Book event postponed to AAR 2021.)

Cheryl Giles was the Visiting Researcher in Sociology at Chaplaincy Innovation Lab, Brandeis University. She won the Nautilus Book Award, for Black and Buddhist: What Buddhism Can Teach Us about Race, Resilience, Transformation, & Freedom (Gold Award for Religion and Eastern Thought), May 2020. In addition, she was awarded an HDS Internal Faculty Award Grant for “Understanding Buddhist Chaplaincy in North America,” 2011.

Charles Hallisey wrote a special focus section of the Journal of Global Buddhism (vol. 22, no. 1 [2021]) to mark the twenty-fifth anniversary of he 1995 essay, “Roads Taken and Not Taken in the Study of Theravada Buddhism.”

David Holland wrote Moroni: A Brief Theological Introduction (Provo, UT: Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship, 2020), which received the Special Award in Non-Fiction from the Association of Mormon Letters.

Ousmane Kane was named the Weatherhead Center Distinguished Research Faculty Associate and granted a Semester Faculty Leave in International Affairs for spring 2021. The Alwaleed Center awarded him funding to support the fifth Islam in Africa Conference, “The Fayda Tijaniyya in the 21st Century: A Major Articulation of Global Islam,” April 22–24, 2021.

Stephanie Paulsell was scheduled to deliver “The Spirituality of Virginia Woolf,” endowed Spring Lectures in Religion and Literature, at Saint Mary’s College on March 31, 2020, but it was canceled due to the coronavirus. She presented “Practicing Pilgrimage,” the Charles Franklin Finch Lecture, at High Point University on February 10, 2020.

Mayra Rivera delivered “A Procession of Catastrophes,” the Distinguished Guest Lecture at Rice University on February 6, 2020.

Faculty Appointments This list includes faculty who began their appointments in FY21 (July 2020–June 2021).

Terenjit (Teren) Sevea joined the Faculty of Divinity as Assistant Professor of Islamic Studies on July 1, 2020. (He has since been awarded a named chair and is now the Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Assistant Professor of Islamic Studies.) Sevea is a scholar of Islam and Muslim societies in South and Southeast Asia and received his PhD in history from the University of California, Los Angeles. Before joining HDS, he served as Assistant Professor of South Asia Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. Sevea is the author of Miracles and Material Life: Rice, Ore, Traps and Guns in Islamic Malaya (Cambridge University Press, 2020) and co-edited Islamic Connections: Muslim Societies in South and Southeast Asia (ISEAS, 2009). He is currently working on a forthcoming book titled Singapore Islam: The Prophet’s Port and Sufism across the Oceans.

Mohsen Goudarzi, AM ’14, PhD ’18, Assistant Professor in Islamic Studies, began his appointment at the School in July 2021 and will be highlighted in the FY22 report.

Diane Moore was awarded citations for teaching excellence at Harvard Extension School in fall 2020 and spring 2021.

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Highlights 2020–21 JULY NEW ASSOCIATE DEAN FOR DIVERSITY, INCLUSION, AND BELONGING BEGINS AT HDS MELISSA WOOD BARTHOLOMEW, MDIV ’15, JOINS HARVARD DIVINITY SCHOOL AS THE NEW ASSOCIATE DEAN FOR DIVERSITY, INCLUSION, AND BELONGING AND LAUNCHES ANTI-RACIST AND ANTI-OPPRESSIVE INITIATIVES, INCLUDING A YEAR-LONG, SCHOOL- WIDE COMMON READ PROGRAM. THIS PROGRAM AIMS TO REORIENT THE COMMUNITY AROUND ITS SHARED HDS VALUES AND COMMITMENTS FOCUSED ON DISMANTLING AND HEALING RACISM AND OPPRESSION.

SEPTEMBER DEAN HEMPTON DELIVERS MCCOSH LECTURE HDS DEAN DAVID HEMPTON DELIVERS THE MCCOSH LECTURE HOSTED

BY QUEEN’S UNIVERSITY BELFAST. THE TITLE OF HIS TALK IS “NETWORKS, NODES, AND NUCLEI: TOWARDS A NEW THEORY OF RELIGIOUS CHANGE.” OCTOBER

SEPTEMBER CORNELL WILLIAM BROOKS DELIVERS CONVOCATION ADDRESS CORNELL WILLIAM BROOKS, VISITING PROFESSOR OF THE PRACTICE OF PROPHETIC RELIGION AND PUBLIC LEADERSHIP AT HARVARD DIVINITY SCHOOL AND HAUSER PROFESSOR OF THE PRACTICE OF NONPROFIT ORGANIZATIONS AT HARVARD KENNEDY SCHOOL, DELIVERS HDS’S CONVOCATION ADDRESS, “GEORGE AND JESUS: POLICING AN INSURRECTION OF HOPE.”

HDS PREPARES FOR REMOTE FALL DIVINITY SCHOOL LEADERS AND FACULTY SPEND THE SUMMER RETHINKING PEDAGOGY AND TECHNOLOGY AS THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC CANCELS ON-CAMPUS LEARNING FOR ANOTHER SEMESTER.

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CSWR HOSTS ‘GENIUS GRANT’ WINNER, POET THE CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF WORLD RELIGIONS HOSTS POET, PHILOSOPHER, AND CRITICAL THEORIST FRED MOTEN FOR A TALK TITLED “NOTE ON A BLUE NOTE IN THE GOSPEL OF BARBECUE.”

HDS LAUNCHES NEW DEGREE, PROGRAM ON RELIGION AND PUBLIC LIFE HARVARD DIVINITY SCHOOL LAUNCHES RELIGION AND PUBLIC LIFE, A NEW INITIATIVE AND DEGREE PROGRAM WITH THE CORE MISSION TO ADVANCE THE PUBLIC UNDERSTANDING OF RELIGION IN SERVICE OF A JUST WORLD AT PEACE. THE MASTER OF RELIGION AND PUBLIC LIFE IS THE FIRST NEW DEGREE PROGRAM AT HDS IN 50 YEARS, SINCE IT INTRODUCED THE MASTER OF THEOLOGICAL STUDIES.

OCTOBER RECALLING ‘BRAVE SPACES’ FOR LGBTQ+ HISTORY MONTH PROFESSOR MARK JORDAN AND MDIV CANDIDATE JORDAN VENDITELLI DISCUSS HOW STUDENTS HAVE CONTRIBUTED TO CHRONICLING LGBTQ+ HISTORY AT HARVARD, THE FUTURE OF “FRAGILE VICTORIES” WON BY THE LGBTQ+ COMMUNITY, AND WHAT QUESTIONS AND IDENTITIES WE MIGHT BE LEAVING OUT OF OUR WORK AS LGBTQ+ VOICES AND VISIBILITY CONTINUE TO INCREASE. JANUARY DIONNE DISCUSSES BIDEN’S FAITH AUTHOR, POLITICAL COMMENTATOR, AND HARVARD DIVINITY SCHOOL VISITING PROFESSOR IN RELIGION AND POLITICAL CULTURE E.J. DIONNE, AB ’73, JOINS THE HARVARD RELIGION BEAT PODCAST TO DISCUSS HOW PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN’S CATHOLICISM WILL SHAPE THE WAY HE GOVERNS AS PRESIDENT, AND HOW HIS FAITH WILL SERVE AS A ROAD MAP FOR HOW HIS ADMINISTRATION WILL TACKLE ECONOMIC INJUSTICES, EQUAL RIGHTS, RELIGIOUS FREEDOM, AND RACIAL JUSTICE—ALL WHILE TRYING TO HEAL A VERY DIVIDED NATION. SUFFERING AND HEALING IN EL PASO AND AMERICA THE CALL BY HARVARD DIVINITY SCHOOL NEIL L. RUDENSTINE PROFESSOR OF THE STUDY OF LATIN AMERICA DAVÍD CARRASCO TO “SAY THE MEXICAN NAMES” IN OPPOSITION TO ANTI-MEXICAN RACISM IN THE UNITED STATES BRINGS TOGETHER ALLIES FROM HARVARD, FROM THE APPALACHIAN MOUNTAINS, AND FROM EL PASO, TEXAS, AND CIUDAD JUÁREZ IN MEXICO, TO DELIVER A GIFT TO HELP MEMBERS OF A GRIEVING COMMUNITY HEAL.

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FEBRUARY

APRIL

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BLACK RELIGION, SPIRITUALITY, AND CULTURE CONFERENCE THE 5TH ANNUAL BLACK RELIGION, SPIRITUALITY, AND CULTURE CONFERENCE, HOSTED BY HARAMBEE: STUDENTS OF AFRICAN DESCENT AT HDS, IS ORGANIZED AROUND THE THEME OF BLACK LIBERATION, ACTIVISM, COMMUNITY, AND KINSHIP.

SWARTZ HALL NEARS COMPLETION AS THE SWARTZ HALL RENEWAL ENTERS ITS FINAL STAGES, ONE OF THE MORE DELICATE AND DETAILED JOBS OF THE PROJECT IS REVIVING THE STAINED GLASS WINDOWS. THE PROCESS TO REPLICATE THESE UNIQUE WINDOWS INVOLVES TECHNIQUES THAT WERE USED TO CREATE THEM 100 YEARS AGO.

VIRTUAL PROGRAMS HONOR THE CLASS OF 2021 STUDENTS TAKE PART IN A VIRTUAL DIPLOMA AWARDING CEREMONY AS THE EFFORTS TO MITIGATE THE RISK OF COVID-19 CONTINUE.

MARCH INTERSECTIONS OF SPIRITUALITY, SOCIAL JUSTICE, AND CLIMATE CHANGE PROFESSOR DAN MCKANAN, AB ’89, ENGAGES IN A CONVERSATION WITH SOFÍA BETANCOURT, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST THEOLOGIES AND ETHICS AT STARR KING SCHOOL FOR THE MINISTRY; ELIZABETH EATON, MDIV ’80, PRESIDING BISHOP OF THE EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN CHURCH IN AMERICA; AND ROSALYN LAPIER, WSRP ’17, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES AT UNIVERSITY OF MONTANA TO DISCUSS HOW AND WHERE SPIRITUALITY, SOCIAL JUSTICE, AND CLIMATE CHANGE COME TOGETHER AND INTERSECT WITHIN FAITH TRADITIONS. RETURN TO CAMPUS PLANNED FOR FALL ACTING DEAN DAVID HOLLAND SENDS A MESSAGE TO THE HDS COMMUNITY INFORMING THEM THAT THE SCHOOL PLANS TO HAVE FACULTY, STAFF, AND STUDENTS RETURN TO CAMPUS FOR THE FALL TERM, TO THE EXTENT ALLOWED

BY THE EVOLVING PUBLIC HEALTH SITUATION. THE UNIVERSITY CLOSED FOR IN-PERSON LEARNING IN MARCH 2020 DUE TO THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC.

HARVARD MEDAL FOR PRESTON WILLIAMS THE HARVARD ALUMNI ASSOCIATION ANNOUNCES THAT HDS PROFESSOR PRESTON N. WILLIAMS, PHD ’67, WILL RECEIVE THE 2021 HARVARD MEDAL. WILLIAMS, HOUGHTON PROFESSOR OF THEOLOGY AND CONTEMPORARY CHANGE EMERITUS, WAS THE FIRST TENURED AFRICAN AMERICAN FACULTY MEMBER OF HDS AND THE FIRST TO LEAD THE SCHOOL WHEN HE WAS ACTING DEAN FROM 1974 TO 1975. HE WAS ALSO THE FOUNDING DIRECTOR OF HARVARD’S W.E.B. DUBOIS RESEARCH INSTITUTE.

JUNE RELIGION AND PUBLIC LIFE AT HARVARD DIVINITY SCHOOL ANNOUNCE ITS INAUGURAL COHORT OF EXPERT PRACTITIONERS WHO BRING DEEP EXPERTISE AND SOCIAL JUSTICE COMMITMENTS TO A RANGE OF PROFESSIONS (GOVERNMENT, EDUCATION, JOURNALISM, ORGANIZING, AND MEDIA AND ENTERTAINMENT) AND ISSUES (RACIAL JUSTICE, CLIMATE CHANGE, IMMIGRATION ADVOCACY, AND NATIVE AND INDIGENOUS RIGHTS).

MAY

MATTHEW POTTS TO LEAD MEMORIAL CHURCH MATTHEW ICHIHASHI POTTS, MDIV ’08, PHD ’13, A PROFESSOR OF RELIGIOUS STUDIES AND LITERATURE AT HDS, AN EPISCOPAL PRIEST, AND AN ACTIVE MEMBER OF THE HARVARD COMMUNITY, IS NAMED PUSEY MINISTER IN THE MEMORIAL CHURCH AND PLUMMER PROFESSOR OF CHRISTIAN MORALS, EFFECTIVE JULY 1.

WSRP ANNOUNCES 2021–22 RESEARCH ASSOCIATES FIVE NEW RESEARCH ASSOCIATES WILL JOIN THE WOMEN’S STUDIES IN RELIGION PROGRAM (WSRP) AT HARVARD DIVINITY SCHOOL TO WORK ON BOOK-LENGTH PROJECTS DURING THE 2021–22 ACADEMIC YEAR. BY BRINGING TOGETHER SCHOLARS FROM DIFFERENT DISCIPLINES AND RESEARCH AREAS, COMMONALITIES IN RELIGION AND GENDER EMERGE.

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YEAR IN REVIEW

Peter J. Gomes, STB ’68 Distinguished Alumni Honorees Each year, the Alumni/Alumnae Council honors the legacy of Reverend Peter J. Gomes, STB ’68, by recognizing graduates (and a Friend of the School) whose excellence in life, work, and service pays homage to the mission and values of the Harvard Divinity School.

Due to Covid-19, the Gomes award event was held online this year.

To learn more about each of our honorees, we launched a special edition Divinity Dialogues podcast series for a deeper dive into their stories. You can follow Harvard Divinity School on Spotify, SoundCloud, or the podcast platform of your choice to find these episodes and stay connected.

Joshua Eaton, MDiv ’10 A journalist whose stories have held the powerful accountable and given a voice to the vulnerable, Joshua Eaton is an investigative reporter based in Washington, DC. He’s worked on investigations teams at CQ Roll Call and ThinkProgress, with his work featured in notable publications, such as The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, The Christian Science Monitor, and The New Republic. He was recognized as a 2021 Gomes Distinguished Alumni award winner for bringing truth to light by advancing the cause of justice, equality, and peace through responsible journalism.

Dr. Omar Sultan Haque, MTS ’04, MD ’08 A physician, social scientist, and philosopher who studies questions ranging across social medicine, religion, and bioethics, Omar Sultan Haque is a faculty member at Harvard Medical School in the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, the Program in Psychiatry and the Law, and is co-director, UNESCO Chair in Bioethics, American Unit. He was recognized as a 2021 Gomes Distinguished Alumni award winner for illuminating the many intersections of health and intellectual exploration, animated by a love of God and care for human flourishing.

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Robin Coste Lewis, MTS ’97 Robin Coste Lewis is the former poet laureate of Los Angeles and writer-in-residence at the University of Southern California. Her poetry debut, Voyage of the Sable Venus, was honored with the 2015 National Book Award for Poetry—the first poetry debut to do so since 1975, and the first debut to win in poetry by an African American. She was recognized as a 2021 Gomes Distinguished Alumni award winner for honoring the human condition with words that move the spirit and wielding love as a force for truth.

Lama Rod Owens, MDiv ’17 An author, activist, and authorized Lama (Buddhist teacher) in the Kagyu School of Tibetan Buddhism, Lama Rod Owens is considered one of the leaders of his generation of Buddhist teachers. Lama Rod’s recent book, Love & Rage: The Path to Liberation Through Anger, received critical acclaim for its prophetic truth, timing, and wisdom. He was recognized as a 2021 Gomes Distinguished Alumni award winner for honoring the full spectrum of human emotion and tending to the spirits of those he serves.

Drew Gilpin Faust Drew Gilpin Faust is President Emerita of Harvard University and the Arthur Kingsley Porter University Professor. As President of Harvard from 2007 to 2018, Faust expanded financial aid to improve access to students of all economic backgrounds, broadened the University’s international reach, increased support for the arts on campus, and promoted collaboration across academic disciplines and administrative units, which helped raise the global profile of the Divinity School. She was awarded the 2021 Friend of the School award for her humane leadership, guided by a profound commitment to collaboration and an unflinching attention to the past in service of a more just future.

YEAR IN REVIEW

Faculty Books The following printed publications were authored or co-authored by HDS faculty members in 2020–2021.

Francis X. Clooney, S.J., WESTERN JESUIT SCHOLARS IN INDIA: TRACING THEIR PATHS, REASSESSING THEIR GOALS (Brill, 2020) For over thirty years, Francis X. Clooney, S.J., has been writing essays on the Jesuits in India. This volume collects those essays into a comprehensive look back at this long missionary history. In doing so, it asks: how ought interreligious learning take place in the 21st century?

David Holland, MORONI: A BRIEF THEOLOGICAL INTRODUCTION (Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship, 2020) In this volume, David Holland argues the book of Moroni is an intentionally organized collection of artifacts, pointing readers toward the transformative power of divine love. As one part in a new series of brief theological introductions to The Book of Mormon, he interprets Moroni’s teachings as a “theology of the Gift,” a depiction of a God whose nature is to give.

Mark Jordan, TRANSFORMING FIRE: IMAGINING CHRISTIAN TEACHING (Eerdmans, 2021) Considering Jesus himself taught in a variety of ways, it seems that there can be no single, definitive, Christian method of teaching. How then should Christian teaching happen? Mark Jordan addresses this question by sharing depictions of Christian teaching from literature and meditating on what these illustrative examples might mean for Christian pedagogy.

Ousmane Oumar Kane, ISLAMIC SCHOLARSHIP IN AFRICA: NEW DIRECTIONS AND GLOBAL CONTEXTS (London: James Currey, 2021) & ERUDITION ISLAMIQUE EN AFRIQUE: NOUVELLES PISTES DE RECHERCHE ET CONTEXTE MONDIAL (Dakar: CERDIS, 2021) The study of Islamic scholarship in Africa is growing rapidly, transforming both Islamic and African studies. This interdisciplinary volume from leading international scholars fills a gap in presenting not only the history and spread of Islamic scholarship in Africa, but its current state and future concerns.

Dan McKanan, CAMPHILL AND THE FUTURE: SPIRITUALITY AND DISABILITY IN AN EVOLVING COMMUNAL MOVEMENT (University of California Press, 2020) Founded in Scotland at the beginning of World War II, Camphill communities promote the full inclusion and empowerment of persons with disabilities, who comprise nearly half of their residents. This volume traces the complexities of the movement’s history, envisions its possible future, and invites ongoing dialogue between the fields of disability and communal studies.

Teren Sevea, MIRACLES AND MATERIAL LIFE: RICE, ORE, TRAPS AND GUNS IN ISLAMIC MALAYA (Cambridge University Press, 2020) In this groundbreaking study, Teren Sevea reveals the economic, environmental, and religious significance of Islamic miracle workers (pawangs) in the nineteenth- and twentieth-century Malay world.

Through textual analysis of overlooked manuscripts and personal interactions, readers are introduced to a universe of pawangs— uncovering connections between miracles and material life.

Todne Thomas, KINCRAFT: THE MAKING OF BLACK EVANGELICAL SOCIALITY (Duke University Press, 2021) Informed by her fieldwork with Afro-Caribbean and African American churches in the Atlanta metropolitan area, Todne Thomas explores the interiority of Black evangelical community life—a religious constituency often overshadowed by a white evangelical majority and the common equation of the “Black Church” with an Afro-Protestant mainline.

The following book was co-edited by an HDS faculty member in 2020–21: Pamela Ayo Yetunde and Cheryl A. Giles, eds., BLACK AND BUDDHIST: WHAT BUDDHISM CAN TEACH US ABOUT RACE, RESILIENCE, TRANSFORMATION & FREEDOM (Shambhala, 2020) In this powerful collection of writings, African American teachers from all the major Buddhist traditions tell their stories of how race and Buddhist practice have intersected in their lives. As the first anthology comprised solely of writings by African-descended Buddhist practitioners, this book is an important contribution to the development of the Dharma in the West.

The following volume was translated by an HDS faculty member in 2020-21: Charles Hallisey, translator. POEMS OF THE FIRST BUDDHIST WOMEN: THE THERIGATHA (Harvard University Press, 2021) [Revised ed. with translation only of Poems of the First Buddhist Women; the Therigatha, 2015] The Therigatha is one of the oldest surviving literatures by women, composed more than two millennia ago and originally collected as part of the Pali canon of Buddhist scripture. Poems of the First Buddhist Women offers startling insights into the experiences of women in ancient times that continue to resonate with modern readers.

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YEAR IN REVIEW

The Faculty of Divinity As of Fall 2021

LAWRENCE S. BACOW, President DAVID N. HEMPTON, Dean of the Faculty of Divinity, Alonzo L. McDonald Family Professor of Evangelical Theological Studies, and John Lord O’Brian Professor of Divinity GIOVANNI BAZZANA, Professor of New

Testament and Editor of Harvard Theological Review ANN D. BRAUDE, Senior Lecturer on

American Religious History and Director of the Women’s Studies in Religion Program CATHERINE BREKUS , Charles Warren

Professor of the History of Religion in America and Chair of the Committee on the Study of Religion (FAS) DAVÍD CARRASCO, Neil L. Rudenstine Professor of the Study of Latin America, with a joint appointment with the Department of Anthropology (FAS) FRANCIS X. CLOONEY, S.J., Parkman Professor of Divinity and Professor of Comparative Theology DIANA L. ECK, Professor of Comparative Religion and Indian Studies and Fredric Wertham Professor of Law and Psychiatry in Society (FAS)

KAREN L. KING, Hollis Professor of Divinity DAVID C. LAMBERTH, Professor of Philosophy

and Theology JON D. LEVENSON, Albert A. List Professor

of Jewish Studies KEVIN J. MADIGAN, Winn Professor of Ecclesiastical History TEDDY HICKMAN-MAYNARD, Associate Dean

of Ministry Studies and Lecturer on Ministry DAN MCKANAN, Ralph Waldo Emerson

Unitarian Universalist Association Senior Lecturer in Divinity DIANE L. MOORE, Director of Religion and Public Life, Lecturer in Religion, Conflict, and Peace, and Senior Fellow at the Center for the Study of World Religions JACOB K. OLUPONA, Professor of African

Religious Traditions, with a joint appointment as Professor of African and African American Studies (FAS) KIMBERLEY C. PATTON, Professor of the Comparative and Historical Study of Religion STEPHANIE PAULSELL, Susan Shallcross

Swartz Professor of the Practice of Christian Studies MATTHEW ICHIHASHI POTTS , Plummer

MEMBERS OF THE FACULTY EMERITUS AND RESEARCH PROFESSORS LEILA AHMED, Victor S. Thomas Research Professor of Divinity JOHN BRAISTED CARMAN, Parkman Professor of Divinity and Professor of Comparative Religion, Emeritus HARVEY G. COX, JR., Hollis Professor of

Divinity, Emeritus ARTHUR J. DYCK, Professor of Ethics, Emeritus and Mary B. Saltonstall Professor of Population Ethics in the School of Public Health, Emeritus (HSPH) FRANCIS SCHÜSSLER FIORENZA, Charles Chauncey Stillman Research Professor of Roman Catholic Theological Studies WILLIAM A. GRAHAM, Murray A. Albertson Research Professor of Middle Eastern Studies (FAS) and Dean of Harvard Divinity School (2002–12), Emeritus DAVID D. HALL, Bartlett Professor of New England Church History, Emeritus PAUL D. HANSON, Florence Corliss Lamont Professor of Divinity, Emeritus BABER JOHANSEN, Research Professor of Islamic Religious Studies

CHERYL A. GILES, Francis Greenwood Peabody Senior Lecturer on Pastoral Care and Counseling

Professor of Christian Morals and Pusey Minister in the Memorial Church

MARK D. JORDAN, Richard Reinhold Niebuhr Research Professor of Divinity

MOHSEN GOUDARZI, Assistant Professor

MAYRA RIVERA, Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Religion and Latinx Studies

PETER MACHINIST, Hancock Research Professor of Hebrew and Other Oriental Languages (FAS)

of Islamic Studies

MICHELLE C. SANCHEZ, Associate Professor

JANET GYATSO, Hershey Professor of Buddhist Studies and Associate Dean for Faculty and Academic Affairs

of Theology

CHARLES HALLISEY, Yehan Numata Senior

Stendahl Professor of Divinity

Lecturer on Buddhist Literatures

TERENJIT SEVEA, Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Assistant Professor of Islamic Studies

DAVID F. HOLLAND, John A. Bartlett

Professor of New England Church History

ELISABETH SCHÜSSLER FIORENZA, Krister

Professor of Christian Studies

CHARLES M. STANG, Professor of Early Christian Thought and Director of the Center for the Study of World Religions

MICHAEL D. JACKSON, Distinguished Visiting Professor of World Religions

Bible

AMY HOLLYWOOD, Elizabeth H. Monrad

OUSMANE OUMAR KANE, Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Professor of Contemporary Islamic Religion and Society, Professor of African and African American Studies (FAS), and Counselor to Muslim Students

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D. ANDREW TEETER, Professor of Hebrew TODNE THOMAS, Associate Professor of African American Religious Studies

PRESTON N. WILLIAMS, Houghton Professor of Theology and Contemporary Change, Emeritus

ADVANCING KNOWLEDGE OF GLOBAL RELIGION Janet Gyatso Hershey Professor of Buddhist Studies and Associate Dean for Faculty and Academic Affairs

Todne Thomas Associate Professor of African American Religious Studies

Annette Yoshiko Reed, MTS ’99 Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity (Incoming)

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Compassion in Crisis Professor Janet Gyatso on Empathy, Ethics, and New Epistemologies Scholar, professor, academic leader, author, animal rights advocate—Janet Gyatso contains multitudes

BY AMIE MONTEMURRO

Gautama Buddha delivered his first sermon in Deer Park (Sarnath, India). This sermon contained essential teachings of the Dharma, including the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path. Illustrations of this first teaching show the Buddha’s peaceful presence, which was so wondrous even the animals were drawn to listen.

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ADVANCING KNOWLEDGE OF GLOBAL RELIGION

“One of the critical features of Buddhist philosophy is that it connects abstract thought to actual practices that can effect change. In many forms of Western philosophy, an argument can be laid out convincingly without connecting to a practice. Buddhist thought stresses the importance of embodying ideas; there’s no point in philosophizing if it’s not going to change you in a deep way.”

AS ASSOCIATE DEAN FOR FACULTY AND ACADEMIC AFFAIRS HERE AT HDS, Gyatso has helped lead the School through the many challenges of 2020 and 2021 by grounding herself in the practice of compassion. As a professor of Buddhist studies, she has shifted the focus of her classes to explore current issues from new Buddhist perspectives. As a scholar with a fierce appreciation for the welfare of all sentient beings, Gyatso has started working on her next book: an exploration on the connections between animal welfare and empathy.

Gyatso earned her PhD from the University of California in Berkeley, where she focused on Tibetan and South Asian cultural and intellectual history. In addition to serving on a number of University, national, and international committees, she has been deeply involved with developing the Divinity School’s curriculum since she was appointed as the first faculty member to hold the Hershey Chair in Buddhist Studies back in 2001. Pluralism—one of HDS’s defining commitments—had been a part of her life well before she joined the ranks of Harvard faculty.

Gyatso reflects: “I come from an Ashkenazi Jewish family, and I grew up with a sense of being in a marginalized community in the United States with a complicated history. And then, I studied Buddhism, which has been marginalized in academia until very recently.”

When she first came to the Divinity School 20 years ago, the curriculum was centered on Christianity as the normative tradition. Driven by her own pluralistic experience with religion, Gyatso was instrumental in broadening the areas of expertise at HDS: “With the help of others, I had a hand in shifting our curriculum towards a more multireligious perspective.”

Wary of the politics of identity, however, Gyatso is quick to put the idea of self and belonging into a more expansive Buddhist context: “At HDS, our knowledge of the world—our knowledge of history, and literature, and religion, and philosophy—is skewed because we’re too Western-centric. We’re too male-centric. We’re too white-centric. It’s important that we diversify. But no matter who we are, it’s important to know more than just our own, singular identity.”

Buddhist Notions of Compassion Gyatso’s reminder to be aware beyond the self hints at a core component of Buddhist philosophy— anatta, the concept of no-self.

Gyatso explains: “No-self is not saying we don’t have an identity, but rather that identity, and whatever else we want to say about the self, is constructed, provisional, and not essential. Once we know the self is a mere construct, then we know it can shift. And then we can talk about how the shift away from our obsessive attention to our own ego or identity allows us to perceive the situation of others. Once we discern the suffering of others, we can then feel genuine compassion and a natural aspiration to help alleviate said suffering.”

When we shift our attention from the singular self, we can begin to see the world as more than a collection of people, places, and things to consume. Expanding our worldview allows us to create more meaningful connections. This concept is one of many that inspired Gyatso’s next book on exploring human empathy with animals and the compassion we feel for other sentient beings.

With this book, Gyatso hopes to contribute to people’s awareness of the beings and world around 2021 DEAN’S REPORT | 15

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“Any of our classes can be looked at through the lenses of intersectionality and impact.

Students are hungry for real-world relevance. They are looking to be leaders who are committed to advancing social justice and bringing a pluralistic view with them into their work beyond HDS.”

them, which necessitates grappling with factory farming and the connected issues of animal cruelty, environmental destruction, and the climate crisis. “Not to mention,” she is quick to add, “the many dreadful injustices suffered by human groups around the world.”

“I’m using some of the practices of attention, observation, and self-awareness from Buddhist meditative traditions as a way of helping me unpack a phenomenology of animal life. What is the shared life of humans and animals? How do we deepen our awareness of that connection? And how do we translate that into beneficial actions? The latter is really the key question because there are plenty of people who love animals but are completely disconnected from the harm and global suffering caused by consumer choices and production practices.”

Disembodied Connections: Lessons Learned from a Year of Virtual Reality Training herself to be more highly attuned to the situations of others helps Gyatso view the world with active compassion. This practice might have given Gyatso an unusual perspective on pandemic teaching.

These last few semesters have been unprecedented and punctuated with uncertainty, Gyatso reflects. With a global pandemic and ongoing structural inequities continuing to threaten wellbeing across the globe, Gyatso shifted her attention to helping students navigate the often-daunting physical, psychological, social, economic, and educational challenges the 2020–21 academic year posed.

It’s no surprise that technology helped many of us stay connected with the rapid shift to teaching, learning, and working online, but Gyatso found that remote technologies offered some benefits that may outlast our need to use them for the sole purpose of social distancing. When talking about her teaching, she shares: “It’s sometimes possible to see class members’ faces better [on Zoom] than what we can see in person. It’s also easier to share documents and online resources directly with students when everyone is tuned into the same station.”

She also observes that both class attendance and event participation were up, thanks to the ease of connecting via virtual platforms: “For academic events, we’ve been able to connect with students and participants from around the world without the need for transportation. We now get hundreds of people to join us for discussions in my small field of Buddhist studies that might normally garner 15 in-person attendees. Our ability to communicate with students, colleagues, and those interested in HDS’s work from across the globe is amazing, and technology made that possible.”

Additionally, Gyatso was impressed by how willing students were to adapt. Not only did they creatively find quiet spaces to study in homes filled with family members or roommates—students also used their sense of urgency to help shape pedagogy.

When identifying lessons learned in a (virtual) Dean’s Leadership Forum discussion earlier this year, Gyatso affirmed: “There’s been a shift in our [HDS] consciousness—and I’m guessing there’s been a parallel shift in other universities around the country—to bring the relevance of the material that we teach into much more obvious connection with the social and global conditions of today.”

One example of this shift in Gyatso’s manner of teaching: A class that previously focused on the textual history of meditation began implementing the practice as part of the course assignments. Gyatso clarifies that practicing meditation was an optional addition to the other assignments, but everyone in the course chose to participate. This update to her syllabus imparted traditional knowledge while also creating moments of mindfulness to help students find quiet in an otherwise turbulent time.

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In the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, a monastery that holds the “Kangyur” and “Tengyur” collections of texts could be identified with this symbol of deer and the Dharma-wheel on the rooftop. These depictions of deer refer to the Buddha’s first teaching of the Dharma in India’s Deer Park.

Another shift, notes Gyatso, is that classroom conversations have skewed toward impact, with students asking, “How can knowledge of this subject matter affect the world today?” In her Buddhism and Women course, for instance, the discussion leaned toward current issues, rather than historical context. The #MeToo movement became a central theme of the course, in addition to new issues around female ordination emerging today within Buddhist traditions. Declaring, “We don’t have time anymore to just talk in the abstract,” Gyatso recognizes the heightened sense of urgency students now bring to her classes.

From Abstract to Action: The Real-World Relevance of an HDS Education When reflecting on the growing urgency to understand the world more expansively, to cultivate compassion, and to do this all not just in theory, but in practice, Gyatso points to the importance of education. She also reminds us that HDS not only educates religious ministers and faith leaders, but also experts from different fields in academia, such as the humanities, medicine, law, industry, and government.

“Any of our classes can be looked at through the lenses of intersectionality and impact. Students are hungry for real-world relevance. They are looking to be leaders who are committed to advancing social justice and bringing a pluralistic view with them into their work beyond HDS.” This emphasis on real-world relevance stems from a knowledge base, including how we teach and learn, that continues to evolve. Building on her points about expanding curriculum and updating pedagogy, she concludes: “We’re in the process of discovering new epistemologies right now.”

While traditional ministry has informed academics (and vice versa) since Ralph Waldo Emerson’s time at the School in the 1800s, we now see a new focus emerging for much of the current teaching and learning at HDS. This new focus prompts the question: “What kind of knowledge contributes most to flourishing?”

If you ask Janet Gyatso, the answer can be found in the study—and active practice—of compassion.

JANET GYATSO SHARES AN EARLY LOOK AT HER NEW BOOK “My book in progress (yet to be titled) has three chapters. The first reflects on how animals (both wild and domesticated) comport themselves in ways that lead most humans, and especially children, to love and connect with them so much. It focuses on how animals inhabit a ‘thick present’ in which there is time and room for sharing life with others—along with maintaining a highly intelligent interaction with our material environment.

The second chapter, challenging the assumption that we can never know the mind of another, insists that there is much we can learn from our animal compatriots if we are attentive and quiet enough.

This chapter explores the ways that animals think both impulsively and slowly, while building their own senses of the past and the future.

The final chapter explores how humans can adapt both animal ways of knowing and Buddhist contemplative techniques to enrich our appreciation of animals and our commitment to the betterment of all life on our imperiled planet.”

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ETHNOGRAPHY AND CRAFTING THE STORY OF COMMUNITY From kincraft to Black Church burnings, Professor Todne Thomas teaches about the multidimensional character of human experience

BY AMIE MONTEMURRO

TODNE THOMAS, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF African American Religious Studies, is an esteemed ethnographer and an expert on kinship studies. But when it comes to titles, Thomas prefers something more personal: “My favorite titles are daughter and mother,” she shares. Her preferred honorifics point to who Thomas is at her core—a person who understands the eminence of connection.

The acknowledgments at the beginning of her first book, Kincraft: The Making of Black Evangelical Society, reveal the depths of appreciation Thomas feels for community. After a heartfelt dedication to her family, and thanks to God for endowing her with life, Thomas recognizes the many folks who helped bring the book to fruition—from fellow church members, to friends and colleagues, to the crew at her favorite local coffee shop. Thomas writes about kinship from a place of knowing, and it shows.

An Act of Will: Kincraft, Community, and Ethical Constructions of Love Thomas describes Kincraft as “an ethnographic exploration of the community created by the members of a Black evangelical

church association in the Atlanta metropolitan area.” Set in two Afro-Caribbean and African American evangelical congregations (Dixon Bible Chapel and Corinthian Bible Chapel), the book examines spiritual enactments of family among church members. (Thomas mentions “brothers and sisters in Christ” and “spiritual mothers/fathers” as examples of faith-based kinship.) While these spiritual relationships are grounded in shared religious aspirations, they also speak to shared experiences of racialization and social mobility.

“One of the things I say in my Religion and Family class,” Thomas remarks, “is that kinship is about how people create solidarities, but it’s also about conflict and power.”

From our most intimate relationships to international social structures, conflict and power emerge at nearly every scale of existence. But just as imbalances in power can beget inequality and hate, solidarity and community can beget ethical constructions of love.

Thomas clarifies that she does not talk about love in a lightweight way. We’re not evoking the overly romanticized version seen in the movies, nor the spiritual bypassing seen all too often online. Thomas talks of the tender-yet-fierce

PRAISE FOR KINCRAFT “Anthropology as a discipline had no love for the objects of study. But what if love is a theoretical and methodological component? What does that look like? It looks like moving into spaces without hubris.

It looks like moving through spaces without knowing and being okay with that. And what does love as a theoretical, methodological component yield? It yields counterintuitive findings, it yields ‘both/and’ analysis, it yields seeming contradictions, and it yields beautifully layered complexity, which is exactly where [Todne Thomas] is sitting with this text.”

Professor Judith Casselberry, renowned anthropologist

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ADVANCING KNOWLEDGE OF GLOBAL RELIGION A photo from the Mechanicsville neighborhood in Knoxville, TN, home to the College Hill Seventh-Day Adventist church that was burned in 2015

form required to love your neighbor as you love yourself. “Love is an act of the will,” one church sister reflects in Kincraft. This steadfast, intentional commitment to care breathes life into our personal connections, our sacred spaces, our communities, and our understanding of true justice.

Behind the Seams: The Craft of Ethnography As with any field of study, ethnographers must consider their own positionality and potential biases. Where should an ethnographer stand in relation to their craft? It’s a question Thomas continues to explore with her fieldwork and her teaching, noting that ethnography involves a lot of different voices: “You have the voices of your research collaborators, the voices of your theorists, and your own author voice. Trying to triangulate those perspectives is a continual work in progress.”

Thomas’s care for honoring multiple perspectives while telling communal stories was quite literally illustrated in her first book.

The cover of Kincraft is a quilt—an apt metaphor, she explains: “Ethnography is also about, to use a craft metaphor, letting some of the seams show. When you have a quilt, the top looks pristine.

But if you turn a quilt top over, you see all the work. You see the mistakes and the mess of threads, but that constructedness helps demystify the process. It shows the different contributions and stories that were all stitched into one piece.”

Black Church Burnings: A Portal to Look at America In 2015, an unknown arsonist burned down a Black church, College Hill Seventh-Day Adventist, in Thomas’s hometown of Knoxville, Tennessee. This hate crime launched a wave of confusion and fear in the community. Thomas went home to listen, learn, and help the community navigate the horrific attack on their sacred space.

Her conversations with church members, clergy, and community leaders garnered more questions and grew into the premise for her next book. “No one was apprehended,” she

explains. “The project I’m working on in Knoxville asks, ‘who or what is responsible?’ So, it becomes a way to look at Black church arson, but it also becomes a portal to look at America.”

In addition to her fieldwork in Knoxville, Thomas is also researching Black church burnings in Springfield, Massachusetts (one in 2008 and another in December 2020).

Racially motivated arson is “not just a Southern thing,” Thomas reminds us. While she has yet to conduct in-person fieldwork in Springfield, she has been interviewing community members remotely. Citing overlapping crises, she explains: “Even as the pandemic prevented ethnography as I know it, it’s important to note that white supremacy didn’t take a break.”

Thomas also notes that the volume of calls and eagerness to process she has seen this year are like nothing she’s experienced before—perhaps in response to Covid-related isolation. In the wake of the December 2020 church burning, Thomas found herself with even more parishioners wanting to process the lived experience of losing their sacred space. She recounts: “I’m grateful that I got support from the dean’s office to make connections in Springfield. The urgency of that work— and the timing—was understood.”

To share her teachings and learnings with students, Thomas is creating a new course for the 2021–22 academic year (tentatively titled “The Burning Black Church”).

The Balance of Both/And Ethnography can be both a burden and a blessing. On any given day, Thomas may be listening to someone who has found unparalleled kinship through their place of worship or someone who has suffered immeasurable grief when their place of worship was burned to the ground. Reflecting on this duality, she shares: “Even as you’re doing this work, you have moments, speaking of love, that really break your heart...and I still struggle with trying to depict the beauty. I’m not interested in the resilience frame; that’s overdone. Because replying on the Black resilience narrative, to me, exonerates anti-Black violence.

The Black community doesn’t need to be tested to be beautiful.”

She goes on to describe moments of beauty she has witnessed while conducting interviews in Knoxville: a little girl doing a cartwheel outside the sanctuary and tears welling up in the eyes of a man talking about how much church means to him. “Balancing those things means figuring out multilayered complexity. So, a ‘both/and’ approach (as opposed to ‘either/or’) might be showing the violence and showing the beauty in a way that doesn’t move towards quick frames of resilience.”

And that balance, Thomas affirms, is what we need to hold together—and revel in—the multidimensional character of human experience.

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The Art of the Forgotten What Professor Annette Yoshiko Reed will teach us about ancient religion and our modern understanding of storytelling

BY AMIE MONTEMURRO

As a student at HDS, Reed immersed herself in the study of Greek and Hebrew languages, as well as classes that ranged from biblical interpretation to ancient history. “Jon Levenson was my advisor and, I must say, he was very generous in letting me take as many Classics classes as I wanted!”

Sections of the Dead Sea Scrolls were first found in 1947 on the northwestern shore of the Dead Sea. 20 | 2021 DEAN’S REPORT

ANNETTE REED, MTS ’99, IS CURRENTLY A PROFESSOR IN THE SKIRBALL Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies and Department of Religious Studies at New York University, where she has been a member of the faculty since 2017. Her research spans Second Temple Judaism, early Christianity, and Jewish-Christian relations in late antiquity, with a focus on retheorizing religion, identity, and difference. She will join the HDS faculty as Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity when her appointment begins on July 1, 2022.

Trees of Knowledge Annette Yoshiko Reed went to college with big questions about art’s role in shaping humanity and delved into ancient history for answers. Interests in culture and religion sculpted the contours of her scholarship, which led Reed to become a “collector of languages” throughout her graduate studies. She works in Hebrew, Greek, Aramaic, and ancient Ethiopic, in addition to speaking English and Japanese.

In talking about language, Reed connects her family’s background and her affinity for biblical stories.

“My great-grandmother was a Shinto priestess in Japan. She spoke to foxes—which, my mother explains, is why animals are drawn to me. So, we have this real tradition in my Japanese-American family, and I was raised with very little knowledge of Western religions.”

Reed became fascinated with art history at Bard College but quickly recognized that she had limited understanding of biblical iconography. Remembering one such instance, she quips: “I loved medieval European manuscripts, but I would be like, ‘oh, there’s this great image of these two people with the fruit. Maybe it symbolizes fertility?’”

For Reed, it was a Bible as Literature class recommended by her art history professor that changed everything.

“All this poetry, all this literature, all this art that I was familiar with suddenly had added layers of meaning. It was a powerful experience, because I was really able to recognize the cultural power of biblical literature from having a gap in my own knowledge that was then filled with rich context.” Since then, she says, “I have been drawn to biblical history: its reception in early Judaism and Christianity, the biblical past as a place for conversation, contestation of different identities, renewal of different identities, and a site for thinking about change.”

Reed saw the power of the Bible not just as a spiritual guide but as a historical text that serves as the “continuous touchstone for Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and global culture.” And as Reed deepened her expertise with an MTS degree from Harvard Divinity School and a PhD from Princeton, her focus

ADVANCING KNOWLEDGE OF GLOBAL RELIGION

Cave of the Dead Sea Scrolls (known as Qumran cave 4), which is one of the caves where the scrolls were found at the ruins of Khirbet Qumran in the desert west of the Jordan River.

on contextual cultural history grew to include an exploration of intertwined histories and intersectional identities.

Forgotten Stories After her graduate studies, Reed converted to Judaism. In sharing her identities, she explains: “I’m a Japanese-American Jewish scholar of Christianity. And maybe partly because of that, I’m drawn to questions of identity, recovering intertwined histories and looking back to ancient texts that have been marginalized. I like to study noncanonical stories—Enoch texts, for example—that were highly influential in premodern times.

Literature that centers the distant, distant past. The time before the flood.”

(For those not familiar with the intricacies of biblical antiquity, “the time before the flood” refers to anything that happened before 2348 BCE—a mere 1,656 years after God created everything in year 0, if we follow the timeline of Genesis.)

Much of Reed’s work focuses on recovery: looking at documents that have been lost and found, and then trying to see early Jewish and Christian history through the lens of those recovered or neglected documents. From the Book of the Watchers (one of the oldest Jewish books, outside of the Hebrew Bible) to New Testament apocrypha (like the PseudoClementines), Reed seeks out the stories time has forgotten— stories well known in antiquity but lost in modern times.

Lost stories from these early works create holes in the long tapestry of human history, she explains. To compensate, we

tend to stitch together different details or cultural reference points to smooth over gaps and seams in imperfect narratives.

“We had a myopia in some ways, because our current preference for a print Bible with select stories shrunk our understanding of the past...but I want to think about forgetting as an engine of cultural creativity. How was the loss, itself, a product of meaning making and culture making and identity making? That’s what my new book’s about—recovering what has been left out of our shared history and exploring how forgetting shaped our past.”

However, Reed offers some cautionary advice on jumping to overly simplistic conclusions about what gets lost and how.

“There are two temptations with regard to what didn’t get preserved: 1) the assumption that everything that got preserved is better, akin to survival of the fittest; and 2) the idea of seeing loss as a deliberate suppression that must be villainized. But those two positions—passive loss or active exclusion—do not adequately capture the way traditions were passed on, or selectively not passed on, in antiquity. It’s much more nuanced.”

That nuance sheds light on a new and more thoughtful approach to teaching history.

Practicing What She Teaches Reed sees her academic interest in identity stemming from her personal positionality. In what she deems “the Audre Lorde question,” Reed emphasizes the importance of thinking about models of difference that are nonhierarchical. Pointing to the work of Donna Haraway, a prominent scholar who studies the philosophy of science, Reed emphasizes the necessity for understanding “situated knowledges,” knowledge that is embodied—and thus affected by—the concrete historical, cultural, linguistic, and value context of the knowing person.

“Part of our challenge as scholars is that the myth of objectivity presumes that the only question to ask is what happened versus who gets to say what happened. Some of the most important questions we can ask include: Who gets to tell the story? Who gets to decide when a story begins, and who is omitted with that choice? How can we take multiple narratives seriously?”

Looking back on her time at HDS in the 90s and forward to her upcoming faculty appointment in 2022, Reed offered this reflection: “One of the things I noticed when I was interviewing is that HDS is much more inclusive than it was in the past... in terms of demographics, but also general approach and priorities. There is much more to do, of course, but it’s exciting to see how multireligious the School has become. As a scholar, I’m committed to a more global antiquity, and I look forward to bringing that commitment with me back to Cambridge.”

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MODELING MULTIRELIGIOUS COMMUNITY CSWR New Transcendence and Transformation Initiative

Student Profiles Swati Chauhan, MTS ’22 Suzannah Omonuk, MDiv ’23 Cody Hooks, MDiv ’22 Nadia Milad Issa, MTS ’22

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MODELING MULTIRELIGIOUS COMMUNITY

Transcending and Transforming Psychedelics

BY ALICE DENISON

TO SOME, THE WORD “PSYCHEDELICS” IS A SYNONYM FOR THE 1960S. THIS name—coined in 1957 for a class of drugs that profoundly alter our states of consciousness—derives from the Greek deloun and psyche meaning to “manifest the soul” or, as Michael Pollan puts it, to “change your mind.” If you’ve been on an extreme media fast these past 10 years, the wave of articles, books, and programming about psychedelics might not have reached you. But the wave is now cresting, and we are currently surfing the so-called Psychedelic Renaissance.

There are people, especially those with ties to indigenous communities, who object to the name psychedelics and prefer to speak of entheogens or plant medicines—not least because they have an exceptional history grounded in religious and healing practices. Studies out of Johns Hopkins University show that psilocybin, for example, has remarkable therapeutic outcomes for patients who experience depression and substance use disorder, especially when they experience what the researchers call “mystical-type” experiences from the drug. Studies at New York University are administering high doses of psilocybin to religious professionals (priests, ministers, rabbis, etc.) in hopes of understanding how their personal sense of religious vocation and spirituality is affected by the drug. Other studies are exploring how another psychedelic, MDMA (aka Ecstasy), can effectively treat post-traumatic stress disorder, including among veterans.

In response to this renaissance of interest in psychedelics and how they intersect with religion and spirituality, the Center for the Study of World Religions (CSWR) launched a year-long series in September 2020 called “Psychedelics and the Future of Religion,” which consisted of eight Zoom webinars (all available on YouTube). The series was a wild success, with record numbers of participants from across the globe. The webinars explored a range of topics, including: bold claims made by psychedelic researchers about religion, spirituality, and mysticism; limitations inherent in the scientific study of psychedelics (and the need for the humanities, especially the study of religion to take more of a lead); the possibility of training spiritual guides for psychedelic experiences, sometimes called “psychedelic chaplaincy”; the evidence for psychedelic use in the ancient Mediterranean and Near East, from the Eleusinian Mysteries to early Christianity; and how to honor and include indigenous voices that are often sidelined in popular discourse.

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We asked current CSWR affiliates how the new Transcendence and Transformation Initiative will advance our understanding of spirituality and religion. Here’s what they had to say from their scholarly perspectives. (You can learn more about the current visiting scholars and senior fellows on the CSWR site.)

“Attracting practitioners and scholars from different fields, the Initiative represents a unique interdisciplinary space to study the relationships between spiritual and religious transcendence and personal and political transformation. We will challenge current reductionist interpretations of ‘altered states of consciousness’ and offer new analytical tools and perspectives to better understand these widespread phenomena.”

Giovanna Parmigiani, PhD, CSWR Research Associate

“The Transcendence and Transformation Initiative will pave the way for scholarship on religion and spirituality that is sophisticated but also sympathetic to the reality of the sacred. Far from assuming a neat, static definition of mysticism, this initiative is designed to experimentally broaden, explore, and better understand the vast dimensions of human experiences of the more-than-human.”

Hadi Fakhoury, PhD, CSWR Postdoctoral Fellow in Transcendence and Transformation

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MODELING MULTIRELIGIOUS COMMUNITY

“Psychedelics are one means to an end, and so are fasting, meditation, prayer, dancing, deep study, extended silence, wandering, and other practices.”

Charles M. Stang, Director of the Center for the Study of World Religions

In the first event of the series, Charles M. Stang, CSWR Director and Professor of Early Christian Thought, hosted Dr. Roland Griffiths of John Hopkins University, perhaps the leading researcher into the healing possibilities of psilocybin.

Stang pushed Griffiths on how his studies seem to sanitize mystical experiences by defining them as profoundly moving encounters with a loving, transcendent source, and sidelining harrowing experiences of the divine as abysmal, dark, and even terrifying. Stang remarks: “This is where the history of religion is important, because it is shot through with the full archive of experiences. Religions know how to deal with harrowing experiences of God as an abyss because, guess what, people regularly have experiences of God as an abyss. And communities have to hold that, have to help people work with those experiences.”

In the second session of the series, we meet the Reverend Rita Powell, the Episcopalian chaplain at Harvard, who reflected on her participation in the 2016 NYU study on the effect of psilocybin on religious professionals. Powell describes a profound psilocybin experience (God as an abyss, no less!), but counts it as one of many ways she has sought to further her knowledge of God—ways that also include yoga, the arts, cooking, living in a monastery, and reading religious texts.

Rev. Powell reflects: “Lots of practices can crack someone out of a limited sense of self in the world. Finding a way out of a limited view and into the expansive infinity of God is a matter of urgency for our spiritual health.” She concludes, “Before we even get to psychedelics, I think the call for the church is to reinvest in the transcendent.”

Stang decided to translate the enthusiasm for psychedelics and their relevance for the study and practice of religion into a broader, multiyear initiative he has named “Transcendence and Transformation.” The psychedelics series will continue, but under the aegis of this new initiative. Echoing Powell, Stang reminds us: “Psychedelics are one means to an end, and so are fasting, meditation, prayer, dancing, deep study, extended silence, wandering, and other practices.” The end, simply put, is the transcendence of our normal states of being, consciousness, and embodiment, and the resulting

transformation of individual, community, and society.

Implicit in this pursuit is the conviction that reality—sacred and profane, seen and unseen—is multilayered. There are different modes of access to those layers, including, but by no means limited to, those afforded by psychedelics. The initiative will connect with traditions across time and place that have cultivated practices of transcendence and transformation, as well as the many worldviews that inspire such practices. It will take seriously reports of extraordinary experiences of the sacred and the changes such experiences elicit in our minds, souls, and bodies—pairing disciplined inquiry with an openness to the archive of such experiences, ancient and modern.

The Transcendence and Transformation Initiative builds on foundations the Center has established under Stang’s directorship these past four years: not only the series of psychedelics, but also the “Matter and Spirit: Ecology and the Non-Human Turn” series and past conferences on the future of “Spiritual, But Not Religious,” and “Theosophy and the Study of Religion.” A significant aspect of the initiative will be to explore traditions excluded by the framework of world religions, such as indigenous traditions, and those that have been, for better or for worse, grouped under such categories as animism, paganism, shamanism, and folk religion. A goal will be both to study these different traditions for their own sakes and to attend to the ways elements of these traditions are continually disassembled and reassembled for contemporary use—especially by seekers who identify as spiritual, but not religious.

The Transcendence and Transformation Initiative will support visiting scholars, research associates, postdoctoral fellows, grants for students, staff, and faculty at HDS (as well as Harvard more broadly), international conferences, lecture series, workshops, and reading groups. As the pandemic winds down, the initiative will keep some of its programming online—to continue reaching broader audiences—and will return to in-person gatherings as soon as possible. These efforts are all in service to the CSWR’s mission of creating a sustainable community of inquiry for students and scholars and serving as an international think tank in the study of religion.

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Swati Chauhan, MTS ’22

BY SARAH FLEMING, MDIV ’21 As an undergraduate at Ambedkar University Delhi in India, Swati Chauhan (she/her) started reading the many Ramayanas in a comparative literature class. At first, she approached the tradition strictly through a literary lens, focusing on character development and plot structure. When asked about its theological content, she saw this as outside her scope: “People would ask me questions like, ‘What do you think about Rama as a god?’ or ‘What do you think about the Ramayana’s appropriation by the ‘Hindu nationalists’?’ and I would say, ‘That’s not my thing.’”

But little by little, Chauhan began grappling with the theological depths of the text. “I realized that I was limiting the text in ignoring these deeper, religious questions, so I began to explore the tradition for its theological discourses.”

Religious studies programs are rare in Indian universities, so Chauhan sought out programs abroad, which is how she found Harvard Divinity School.

Chauhan was largely drawn to HDS for its language program. “The emphasis HDS places on learning the original language is rare,” she says. “There are very few places where I could learn all of the languages that bring me closer to the texts and the questions I want to study.”

From her very first semester, Chauhan took full advantage of Harvard’s language offerings, studying classical Sanskrit, ancient Vedic Sanskrit, and Old Hindi.

When she discovered an ancient Sanskrit text available only in German translation, she enrolled in Theological German through HDS’s Summer Language Program.

Her language courses have helped her explore a vast array of sacred poetry, including the Ramacaritamanasa, an epic poem that is considered one of the greatest works in Indian literature.

“For me, theology and textual study are not abstract concepts. I’m continually asking myself: How can I approach religious texts in ways that will be meaningful outside academia? How can I be a peacemaker as a responsible scholar?”

Chauhan has also expanded beyond Hindu studies to take courses in Islam and Buddhism, as well as comparative religion more broadly. She is grateful for HDS’s holistic approach to religious studies, as she gets to hear “brilliant, vibrant voices sharing perspectives that are not as commonly studied,” like Professors Ali S. Asani and Teren Sevea on the practice of Islam, Professor Charles Hallisey on scripture as a human activity, or Professor Diana Eck on approaching South Asian religious texts today.

For Chauhan, none of this work is strictly abstract—she sees studying religious texts as a powerful way to encounter and examine the way we form our perceptions and associations. “The simple acts of reading, writing, and analyzing are powerful tools, and we have a responsibility to use these tools to address the social problems in the world today.”

After HDS, Chauhan plans to pursue a PhD in South Asian religious traditions, where she will continue to approach ancient texts with an eye to their everyday practice. “Academia doesn’t need to be an ivory tower apart from the rest of society,” she says. “I’m invested in reading these texts in ways that will benefit my community. That’s my responsibility as a scholar.”

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Learn more about the Summer Language Program at hds.harvard.edu/SLP.

MODELING MULTIRELIGIOUS COMMUNITY

Suzannah Omonuk, MDiv ’23

BY SARAH FLEMING, MDIV ’21 Soon after Suzannah Omonuk (she/her) began studying at HDS, she came across an application for a student grant funded by Harvard and the Legacy of Slavery Initiative, which examines Harvard’s connections to slavery through ongoing discussions, programming, and research. Omonuk learned about slavery as a child growing up in Uganda, but these lessons did not fully explain the aftermath seen and felt in the US and beyond. She began writing a poem, “The Story of Venus,” both to give voice to an enslaved young woman who worked on Harvard’s campus in the 1700s and to process her own experience as a young African woman in the United States. “I thought, what better way to do it than place myself in the shoes of another young Black woman who came to this country and who walked the streets of Harvard under completely different circumstances?”

From “The Story of Venus” Oh, daughters of the great green savannah, Weep for me.

I have been uprooted from among you where I grew and have been carried into a diabolic land where ashes fall from a raging heaven Bitter.cold.beautiful Weep for me, for I will never again dance on dewy grass on a moonlit night, surrounded by the song of a tribe.

No more shall I be burnt by the black desire of a warrior’s lust, and in a wild daze wonder to myself how a man whose very hands had torn apart bears and lions could yet hold me softer than an early morning rain.

Weep for me For the way I shall slowly be forgotten, because little slave girls with sad eyes do not get invited into history How shall you remember me?

By the men that made me an orphan How shall you remember me?

By a tablet of stone that bears the name that I received in a baptism of chains How shall you remember me?

Shall you remember me?

Listen to “The Story of Venus” in full at hds.harvard.edu/SOV.

Though they are separated by centuries, Omonuk feels a strong kinship with Venus, and this kinship has grown stronger as she continues to reflect on the poem and the ways it has been received. At times she worried that her writing wasn’t enough and that she should be doing more to directly address the racial injustices in this country, but then she began to see the impact “The Story of Venus” had on those around her. When others shared how transformative and healing the poem was for them, Omonuk was humbled. “Seeing the response helped me realize that my art is in some ways separate from me,” she explains. “It’s bigger than me. And it connects me to a whole range of people who are also asking themselves, ‘What can I do?’”

“I see myself as a co-worker in God’s plan of redemption and beauty, and HDS is the best place for me to do this work.”

Omonuk sees writing not only as a response to injustice but also as a mode of cultivating belonging and relationship. She believes that human beings have a unique gift to be able to bring into being that which isn’t. “We’re all born with an innate desire for goodness and beauty,” Omonuk maintains, “and when we give ourselves authentically and sacrificially to that cause, the effects can be mindblowing.” This authentic, sacrificial giving is a fundamental piece of her work as a writer and as a Christian: she has come to see herself as a co-worker in God’s plan of redemption and beauty.

Being at HDS has provided Omonuk with the opportunity to carry out this work of beauty and redemption, in part through institutional support and in part through the relationships with peers and faculty she has built. “If there’s one thing that HDS does well,” Omonuk reflects, “it’s belonging.” She believes this is because people at HDS are invested in understanding each other, an aspect that is lacking in society at large: “In these times where ideological dissent has led to such widespread division, it’s inspiring to see HDS stand out as a model of what it could look like for people to exist in a pluralistic way and belong together.”

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“I’m learning to follow my intuition into more liminal, creative spaces, letting go of self-imposed barriers. That’s where I find greatest healing—and that’s how I can show up for others as a human and as a caregiver.”

Cody Hooks, MDiv ’22

BY SARAH FLEMING, MDIV ’21 The summer before starting at HDS, Cody Hooks (he/him) undertook a pilgrimage through northern New Mexico to visit LGBTQIA+ elders and gather up fragments of their collective history. Many had lived through the peak of AIDS and forged ways of caring for one another in the midst of devastation, “making lives of soulful abundance out of a sometimes impossible world.”

“HDS has been the place where I can ask myself essential questions that are welling up inside of me,” Hooks says. A writer, astrologer, and gardener with roots in the American South and Southwest, Hooks gravitates toward spaces of unknowing. Being at Harvard Divinity has allowed him to lean into these liminal, in-between places of creativity and self-discovery.

While at HDS, Hooks has continued to marinate in this “plague wisdom,” drawing upon it in his work as a writer and as a caregiver.

This past summer, he carried these lessons forward as he served as a chaplain intern at Brigham and Women’s Hospital for his HDS field education placement. This placement allowed Hooks to explore the darker sides of spirituality and end-of-life care, learning from the death doulas of the AIDS crisis and taking seriously practices of connecting with those who he calls his “queer ancestors.”

These explorations have led Hooks to new spaces of discovery, sometimes by surprise. During his first semester, Hooks created a handful of oracle cards for his Introduction to Ministry Studies course.

Now, the cards have turned into his master’s thesis, as he allows himself to explore what it means to create “necessary art,” art that helps make sense of the loss and devastation of the world. Hooks reflects, “I’ve come to see that whatever happens in the moment is a worthy creation.”

Accompanying patients at the bedside and guiding family members through grief, he continued to call upon the legacies of his queer ancestors—how we can make sense of collective grief, honor the dead, and come together in true intergenerational intimacy, learning to let ourselves belong to one another.

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Hooks’s artistic practice keeps him grounded as he takes on the often-difficult work of end-of-life care, and his art helps foster unique spaces of connection and intimacy in moments of grief. As he finishes up at HDS, he plans to continue exploring the convergences between healthcare chaplaincy and community-based modes of healing.

Read “Plague Wisdom” in Harvard Divinity Bulletin at hds.harvard.edu/PW.

MODELING MULTIRELIGIOUS COMMUNITY

Nadia Milad Issa, MTS ’22

BY SARAH FLEMING, MDIV ’21 Nadia Milad Issa (they/them) is a scholar-practitioner, dance educator, and an Iyalochá (fully initiated high priestess of Regla de Ocha-Ifá). A lifelong dancer, Nadia graduated from Hampshire College with an individualized degree in dance, anthropology, and Africana studies. They’ve continued fusing art and activism in their work at HDS, where they focus on Afrikan-derived traditions in the Afro-Caribbean diaspora, particularly Afro-Cuban and Afro-Brazilian traditions of Regla de Ocha-Ifá, Candomblé, and Umbanda.

The only initiated Orisha practitioner at Harvard Divinity, Milad Issa is carving their own academic path, taking the space and care to share stories of their Egún (ancestors) and honor their traditional practices with faculty and peers. Milad Issa says they are guided by their Egún and orishas (deities of Regla de Ocha-Ifá) in all they do.

“As an Afro- Domincanx and Lebanese scholar-practitioner, artistacademic, and Iyalochá, I need to bring all of myself to the table.”

This past year has imparted in Milad Issa a fierce sense of urgency, yet it has also brought about a deeper spiritual shift in their approach to activism. As a younger activist, Milad Issa tended toward the front lines of protests. Now, they’ve taken their sense of living and mobilizing for Black Liberation to the page—and the dance floor.

Whether they’re writing autoethnographies, conducting fieldwork in Cuba, México, and soon Brazil, performing as a company dancer with a Haitian folklore and contemporary dance company, or presenting at academic conferences, Milad Issa sees their work as an act of embodied ritual and resistance grounded in spirit.

Their current academic and personal focus? Spiritual Reparations (a term they coined) for marginalized communities. “Yes, we can ask for money and for land and for education,” Milad Issa shares. “But what does that mean if Black people’s spirits are still broken in ways that can’t be compensated for monetarily?”

“In my tradition, everything is done in community—initiation, ritual practices, ceremonies. Without that community, there is no me.”

Milad Issa is particularly interested in Spiritual Reparations in the face of catastrophes, like the devastation of the environment as a multiverse of sacred spaces, and the religious racism targeting Afro-Brazilian and Afro-Cuban spiritual-religious traditions. As a fully initiated high priestess in the Yoruba tradition that manifested in Cuba, Milad Issa is invested in protecting and preserving the generational embodied knowledge of their ancestors and other spiritual and ritual kinship networks. The Yoruba spiritual-religious practice is a nature-based tradition, and it permeates every aspect of their life: “My practice is not just a Sunday at church—it’s every day. It’s how I wake up, it’s how I walk down the stairs, it’s how I talk to people, how I respect my elders.”

As they finish their MTS, Milad Issa plans to continue developing their own unique blend of art and activism, honoring the traditions of their ancestors, while co-creating spaces of spiritual healing and world-changing liberation with their HDS peers. “My cohort is truly incredible,” they reflect. “I’m continually blown away by the radical, transformative work they’re doing.”

Learn more about “Dancing Deities in the Diaspora” by visiting hds.harvard.edu/ABR.

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LEADERS WHO SERVE Matthew Ichihashi Potts, MDiv ’08, PhD ’13 Plummer Professor of Christian Morals and Pusey Minister in the Memorial Church

Alumni Conversations Celene Ibrahim, MDiv ’11 Quardricos Driskell, MTS ’08

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LEADERS WHO SERVE

JOYFUL RESPONSIBILITY Matthew Potts fosters a place of welcome as campus reopens

BY SUZANNAH LUTZ

MATTHEW ICHIHASHI POTTS, MDIV ’08, PHD ’13, DIDN’T PLAN ON BECOMING Pusey Minister at Memorial Church, but service has always been at the heart of his work. After studying English literature at the University of Notre Dame, Potts served as an officer on a guided missile cruiser in the United States Navy. He later opted for conscientious objector status after a tour of active duty and found his way back to higher education at Harvard Divinity School. An Episcopal priest, Potts has served as a pastor at several parishes in Massachusetts, including St. Barnabas Episcopal Church in Falmouth, Massachusetts.

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LEADERS WHO SERVE

“As a church in the middle of a multireligious, nonsectarian community, we have an accountability and an obligation not just to the people who show up at our church but to the whole University. Especially those who don’t feel at home in a Christian church and don’t have a sacred space otherwise.”

What drew Potts to HDS was its multireligious character.

His mother is Japanese and converted to Christianity from Buddhism just before he was born. Growing up in a multireligious family allowed him to develop an early appreciation for spiritual diversity, which he hopes to continue to cultivate in his new role. Potts reflects that the School has been deepening its commitment to pluralism since he first arrived as an MDiv student in 2005.

“Even then, religious and ministerial formation at HDS was not about separating into silos that form single-tradition communities,” Potts says. “It was about the idea that faith leaders who are going to serve in the world need to be formed in a pluralistic space that respects, honors, and reflects the world’s multitude of beliefs and religions.”

After earning his PhD at Harvard, Potts joined the faculty of Harvard Divinity School in 2013 as assistant professor of ministry studies. He studies the thought and practice of contemporary Christian communities through attention to diverse literary, theological, and liturgical texts. In 2017, he was promoted to associate professor; this past spring, he was granted tenure.

Throughout his journey at HDS, the lessons Potts has learned as a student have deeply shaped his work and his ministry, especially those he gleaned from Stephanie Paulsell, who served as interim Pusey Minister during the two-year-long search, and Dudley Rose, former associate dean for ministry studies and lecturer on ministry.

Potts recalls one of Dudley Rose’s stories about the time he was a seasonal pastor of a small island in Maine right after he was ordained. Rose was only there for three or four months one summer, and just within three days of being there, people would share things with him—just because he was the pastor—that they might not have revealed to their spouses or dearest ones.

“I remember thinking that once you step into that role, people are going to trust you in a way that nobody actually deserves to be trusted, not the best of us, whether it’s with their time on Sunday morning or with deep secrets that they don’t know how to share with anybody else,” Potts says. “I think about this every time I do a funeral: how strangers who don’t know me trust me with the care of their loved ones. That privilege comes with a sense of responsibility—but joyful responsibility.

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It is a grace I have been given, and those who are trusting me deserve that I give it my best.”

Serving a Multifaceted Community As Potts begins his role as Pusey Minister and Plummer Professor of Christian Morals, he is committed to the joyful responsibility of leading Memorial Church and serving the Harvard community. At what Potts calls the “literal and figurative crossroads of the University,” Memorial Church is a center of religious and spiritual life on campus—serving an array of Christian students on campus, a congregation that has been faithful for generations, and many other members of the Harvard community in Cambridge and beyond.

“As a church in the middle of a multireligious, nonsectarian community, we have an accountability and an obligation not just to the people who show up at our church but to the whole University,” Potts says. “Especially those who don’t feel at home in a Christian church and don’t have a sacred space otherwise.”

Potts believes that serving the multifaceted University community will involve a lot of listening and collaboration, and he is hopeful about working with other religious leaders and chaplains on campus—noting Khalil Abdur-Rashid, Muslim chaplain, and Jonah Steinberg, the leader of Hillel, as two examples—to cultivate a religious space where people can celebrate each other’s differences in a real way. For Potts, it is a particular Christian value to attend to the other.

“I feel that the call of the Christian is about more than just acknowledging or even respecting the outsider,” he says.

“It’s about privileging and honoring the outsider, extending love and goodness towards them, learning from them who you are and who God is, and being of service to others and to the whole world.”

He is also focused on continuing the community’s commitment to diversity, inclusion, and belonging. Potts is the first person of Asian American descent to hold the title of Pusey Minister and is proud to carry that identity into a place where diversity and inclusion are so central to its mission.

“A deep commitment to diversity and equity means thinking about people’s religious identities as well, because religion intersects with race, gender, sexual orientation, and other identities in really complicated ways,” he says. “The

LEADERS WHO SERVE

LOVE WITHOUT CONDITION “When I was a kid, I remember this children’s book at my church about the parable of the prodigal son.

When the prodigal son decides to return home after spending all of his father’s inheritance, he thinks, ‘I’m going to go home and tell my father that I was in the wrong. I’m going to repent, and I’m going to tell him that he doesn’t have to treat me like a son anymore.

He can just let me be one of his hired servants, and that will be enough—that will be enough.’

I think what moves me so much about that story is before the son is even at home—before he has a church is in a position to add to that conversation and recognize how religion also plays a role in excluding identities.”

chance to get a word out, before he has a chance to say I’m sorry—his father has already run to him and embraced him. The father weeps tears of joy, and he

Cultivating Calm Amidst Uncertainty

tells his son with overflowing acceptance, ‘You don’t

As people around the world continue to get vaccinated and the community returns to campus, Potts is committed to making Memorial Church a place of welcome to students, many of whom will be experiencing campus for the first time this fall after more than year of remote teaching and learning: “Welcoming students back, connecting and reconnecting those students to campus, and fostering a sense of community are going to be big priorities for the church.”

“Even the students who have lived on campus before are coming back to something completely different. We don’t know what the community is going to look like. We don’t know what sort of restrictions will be in place or for how long,” Potts says. “This is something that we’ve all become too well trained in, but it’s something we have to keep cultivating—calm amidst uncertainty.”

Last year, Potts was a faculty director for HDS’s Executive Education program, Religious Resources for Living through Crisis, which explored the ways the spiritual, moral, and historical lessons of the world’s religions can help us understand crises like the pandemic. He is particularly focused on fostering a nurturing environment here at Harvard— especially for students who face trying times during their college years.

“What I would hope for Memorial Church is that people would feel like it’s a place where we ask nothing of them, where it’s a place for us to just love them because they are, especially at Harvard where everyone is so driven and feels like they need to produce and get results. I hope that teaching people to love and be loved unconditionally will be at the center of our ministry.”

need to do anything, that I love you because you are...

It doesn’t mean that you didn’t do things wrong, or that there aren’t any consequences for your actions.

But I love you for no other reason than you exist.’

I remember being really moved by that story—the idea and ideal of a sort of reckless and unconditional love is one that has stuck with me. It’s why I ended up writing a book about forgiveness. It’s the kind of love I hope to show to the people I care about most. I hope that my kids and my spouse believe that I would behave the same way. And to a degree, I think it’s also the way I want to think about ministry—what we give to others is without condition. It’s not because you decided you’re a Christian that we’re going to love you. It’s not because you’re willing to come on Sunday morning that we’re going to love you. It’s not because you put something in the collection plate that we’re going to love you. We’re going to love you because you deserve it, and you deserve it because you are.”

Matthew Potts, MDiv ’08, PhD ’13

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LEADERS WHO SERVE

Alumni Q&A Celene Ibrahim, MDiv ’11 Chaplain, teacher, writer, mother, wife, and gardener extraordinaire

BY GIANNA CACCIATORE, MTS ’22

Celene Ibrahim always knew she wanted her life to involve both the practice and study of religion. But when she first graduated from HDS, she wasn’t quite sure what that would look like in her dayto-day experience.

Ten years later, Ibrahim teaches religious literacy, cultural studies, and applied ethics to high school students at Groton School, a New England boarding school with Episcopal roots. There, she is a member of the faculty in the Department of Religious Studies and Philosophy, and, notably, the first Muslim chaplain in the school’s over onehundred-year history. She also offers courses in religious leadership and Qur’anic studies at the Boston Islamic Seminary.

sociology of religion, anthropology, and more. I like to bring to my students this sense of being able to look at issues involving religion and philosophy from many different vantage points. I want them to understand that there is a political history to look at when studying a religion, but also material culture, art, and literature.

At the core, my teaching is about helping the students understand that they, too, are part of particular histories, narratives, and worldviews.

So, when we do our global survey of religious and philosophical traditions, I always take it back to, “Okay, where do you locate yourself in this picture?”

When she’s not teaching or leading study groups, Ibrahim fills her time with research (she has published two scholarly books to date and has another forthcoming), interfaith leadership (you can find her speaking from the Unitarian Universalist pulpit), family (with a particular affinity for DIY projects with her husband and sports with her teenage daughter), and gardening (her backyard is an oasis, with a small pond and an array of seasonal flowers). We spoke with Ibrahim about life post-HDS, the joys of teaching religious literacy, and how to stay grounded in the world today.

Many of my students have previously only had exposure to a thin slice of human religious and spiritual expression, but through my class, they have opportunities to think deeply about questions of meaning and identity. It’s phenomenal that my students have this exposure to spirituality, religion, and ethics at this time in their lives—to this plurality of ways in which human beings have tried to understand themselves and their vulnerabilities and their finitude and their creativity. I enjoy watching the students think about their values and how they want those values to show up in the world. What do they care about? What’s meaningful to them, given the possibilities?

HDS: What’s it like to teach religious literacy at the high school level?

HDS: Is this similar to the learning that happens at HDS?

Ibrahim: I’m trained in religious studies, which includes history, the

Ibrahim: Faculty and students at HDS have developed innovative

A Week in the Life 34 | 2021 DEAN’S REPORT

MONDAY

TUESDAY

WEDNESDAY

Kick off a full week of high school religion and philosophy classes.

Settle into the writing couch to make some progress on the next book.

Coach a Groton School sports match. (We’re the Zebras, and yes, I have Zebra hijab.)

Attend a classical Arabic reading group.

LEADERS WHO SERVE

“I was inspired by students training in many different career areas, from medicine to diplomacy, who were wrestling with ethical questions or trying to help their profession be cognizant of—or more empathetic toward—a wider range of human expression.”

approaches to engaging with religious literacy in the professions, and I’m giving my students a similar type of pre-professional exposure. I have assignments where my students role-play real-life situations where religious literacy could be valuable. How might an environmental activist work with or appeal to an interfaith coalition?

How might a civil rights attorney work with religious groups who are also active in this sphere?

worked with undergraduate and graduate students across professional schools. I was inspired by students training in many different career areas, from medicine to diplomacy, who were wrestling with ethical questions or trying to help their profession be cognizant of—or more empathetic toward—a wider range of human expression. I’m actively thinking about these practical experiences as I’m designing religious literacy curriculum.

In thinking about these assignments, I draw on my studies of religion in society and on my chaplaincy experience at Tufts University, where I

HDS: How does this teaching compare to the faith-based teaching you do at the Boston Islamic Seminary?

Ibrahim: I’ve learned how to step in and out of different worldview paradigms in order to be an effective teacher. The teaching that I do with Muslim groups is from an Islamic worldview, whereas the classroom teaching I do at the secondary school level is rooted in a more secular framework. Of course, I show up to the classroom with my whole being, and I am rather conspicuously Muslim. I can’t take that out of my being or my experience, and I don’t want my students to think they have to separate out who they are either. I think that we can be deeply rooted and still open to transformative learning. I’m aiming to build a classroom that’s a transformative learning space, whether the transformation is one that deepens people’s Islamic commitment in a faith-based context or that stirs a high school student’s curiosity about spirituality in the world.

HDS: Teaching is difficult work, especially in today’s challenging contexts. How do you restore and take time to care for yourself?

Ibrahim: The rhythm of the daily prayers, the Friday day of gathering, and practices like fasting keep me centered. These practices also help me bring intentionality and commitment to the work that I do. I also garden a lot when I’m not researching, writing, teaching, or lecturing.

There’s something about the process of getting covered in dirt and getting out in the sun that is rejuvenating. So much of my day is spent on electronics that I need that time outside to stay grounded and recharged.

THURSDAY

FRIDAY

SATURDAY

SUNDAY

Lecture time!

Mentor Muslim students and spend some extra time with the Qur’an.

Saturdays are DIY time.

Time to get creative in the garden, then take some time to refresh and relax with family.

Teach an afternoon seminar on my latest book for the Boston Islamic Seminary.

Speak with an interfaith group about the importance of religious literacy in today’s world.

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LEADERS WHO SERVE

Alumni Q&A Quardricos Driskell, MTS ’08 Pastor, educator, policy expert, lobbyist, and outdoor enthusiast

BY GIANNA CACCIATORE, MTS ’22

Quardricos Driskell has always believed in God. But that doesn’t mean he hasn’t had questions.

to pluralism, and his views on the roles of religion and politics in the world today.

“The church I went to was historically Black, but the image of Christ on the stained glass was white,” says Driskell. “So, I asked, who is this white man that we are praying to?”

HDS: You’re a professor, a reverend, a lobbyist, and a writer. How do you describe your multifaceted work when people ask what you do?

The church clergy, though formally educated, didn’t have an answer that was sufficient for Driskell, and he began to wonder more.

“I began asking deeply theological questions about human sexuality, gender, and the end times,” he explains. “I was always a bit of an oddity in the church space.”

transcending social change at the intersection of religion, politics, and education. It is often hard for people to categorize me or give me a title because I have multiple things going on. For example, for my day job, I manage the legislative and political affairs department for a medical professional trade association. I also teach graduate and undergraduate students at The George Washington University and serve as pastor at the Beulah Baptist Church, a historic African American congregation in Alexandria, Virginia.

Driskell’s habit of exploring his faith evolved alongside his political consciousness, which he developed from helping his mother support political campaigns in his hometown of Atlanta, GA. By the time Driskell enrolled as an undergraduate at Morehouse College, he had grown into someone political, faithful, and curious. He wanted to know, why do people believe what they believe? Pray like they pray?

Vote like they vote?

He brought these questions with him to Harvard Divinity School, where they shaped his studies. Today, these same questions shape his work as a health care lobbyist, professor, and pastor. Curious about how religion and politics intersect in his current vocations, we spoke with the Reverend Professor Driskell about his work, his commitment

A Week in the Life 36 | 2021 DEAN’S REPORT

Driskell: I describe the work that I do as making—hopefully—a

One of the things that I loved about the Divinity School is that it allowed me to not be completely limited to one aspect of study. HDS said to me, in a very academic way, that it’s okay to have and explore multiple interests.

HDS: In your eyes, how are religion and politics connected?

Driskell: We often think of politics as being separate from religion— but it’s not. Religion is political, and we must understand that first. We also must realize that not all religious beliefs are the same. Even people within the same faith tradition can believe vastly different things. So,

MONDAY

TUESDAY

WEDNESDAY

Set priorities and schedule accordingly.

Teach classes on religious and political identity.

(Start thinking about this week’s sermon!)

Hold office hours to talk with students.

Meet with members of Congress to plan getting a bill passed.

LEADERS WHO SERVE

“Pluralism, for me, is holding space and the acceptance of various identities and complexities that meet at the intersection where worlds collide. In my different professional and personal spaces, I hold these tensions at the forefront.”

we know that religion is vitally important for most people in the world, but few people really understand religion. Yet, we operate in the polis, the city-state. That results in these two competing, and sometimes complementary, identities: religious identity and political identity.

One of the reasons why America was founded was simply because of religious freedom, right? This allows America to be this melting pot, which allows for religious pluralism. Now the question becomes, how does that play out politically? What does that look like when all these religious voices are coming to the public square, or they’re advocating for certain policies or for certain legislation?

HDS: We talk a lot about pluralism—the idea that multiple beliefs can and should coexist in the same space—at the Divinity School.

How has pluralism shaped your path?

Driskell: When I was a kid, I remember my dad saying something along the lines of, “Son, we’re not Republicans, we’re Democrats.”

I asked why, and he said, “Well, we’re Black.” And that didn’t make sense to me. I knew that his father, my paternal grandfather, was a Republican.

That conversation led me to decide I was a Republican at an early age.

It was within that identity that I began to explore political pluralism.

In college, I really began to interact with people who believed differently than I did. I was at Morehouse College, where I re-chartered Morehouse Republicans. We worked closely with Morehouse Democrats and the NAACP, and I was heavily involved in the Georgia Association of College Republicans. I was also involved in the Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel, a pre-seminarian program. At the same time, I was beginning, informally, to study Buddhism.

In the political space, I’ve always been bipartisan—a liberal Republican or a conservative Democrat, if you will. I’m always having courageous conversations within this identity, from both a political and religious perspective.

Pluralism, for me, is holding space and the acceptance of various identities and complexities that meet at the intersection where worlds collide. In my different professional and personal spaces, I hold these tensions at the forefront.

HDS: Your work involves spending a lot of time caring for others.

How do you restore and take time to care for yourself?

Driskell: I practice the sacredness of self-care. I love the outdoors, and I’m an avid hiker. I’ve been hiking across the world. I’m intentional about my time, and I often take time for myself, because that time is just as important as my work. I’ve told my congregation and students: if I am not healthy and whole, then I cannot be present for you. I have to take time to rejuvenate and to have fun. There is always suffering around us, but life is meant be enjoyed and lived.

THURSDAY

FRIDAY

SATURDAY

SUNDAY

Attend health care fundraiser (on Zoom).

Hold time and space for pastoral care.

Time to climb a mountain or meet up with some family and friends (the importance of self-care)!

Preach at Beulah Baptist Church.

Meet virtually with church leaders to talk through COVID-related challenges and future plans.

Spend time with congregants, eating good food and catching up on their lives.

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NEW RESOURCES FOR RELIGIOUS EDUCATION A Message of Thanks

From Restoration to Reinvention: Swartz Hall Fosters Meaningful Connection

Nancy and X.D. Yang on Building an Intellectual Community

38 | 2021 DEAN’S REPORT

NEW RESOURCES FOR RELIGIOUS EDUCATION

A Message of Thanks This is a remarkable moment in the 200+ year history of Harvard Divinity School. We’re celebrating the return to campus and the ability to gather in community once more after more than a year of remote teaching, learning, and working. We’re also celebrating the renewal of Swartz Hall—the heart of our campus and community—after a careful renovation to better serve our community’s needs while preserving the building’s historical charm.

I want to recognize the power of your collective generosity and its ripple effect on our community and all communities HDS serves. I think of the dedicated group of supporters of the Women’s Studies in Religion Program, who this year, led by Dean’s Council member Arlene Hirschfeld, achieved a goal to raise $1 million for the Constance H. Buchanan Endowment for the Women’s Studies in Religion Program. This endowment honors Connie Buchanan, the past director who passed away last year, and enables us to fund crucial research about the role of women in the study of religion.

Many of you joined us in celebrating the ongoing impact of Preston and Connie Williams as a part of the renaming of Andover Chapel to the Preston N. Williams Chapel and establishment of the Constance W. and Preston N. Williams Scholarship Fund. Your kindness helps us honor their service to HDS and the broader Harvard communities by ensuring support to future generations of HDS students actively working toward belonging and inclusion, including anti-racism work.

We also offer our deep appreciation to Susan and Jim Swartz, the James Family, including Ralph and Janice James, Cathy James Paglia and Louis Paglia, their father Robert James, and other donors to the building for their generous contributions. This extends to the many members of the HDS community— including a record-breaking number of alumni—who gave to the HDS Fund this year. Supporters of the HDS Fund have provided vital unrestricted funding for the renewal of Swartz Hall and other priority areas, such as financial aid. Gifts of all sizes advance our work in religious scholarship, ethical leadership, and compassionate ministry. Your dedication helps the HDS community sustain a home for future generations of scholars and leaders for years to come.

As I think about your care and commitment, I remember the words of Rumi: Your acts of kindness are iridescent wings of divine love which linger and continue to uplift others long after your sharing With your collective support, you lift up so many at Harvard Divinity School and around the world. It is our honor to celebrate you and your acts of kindness that will resonate long after your sharing. Thank you.

Gratefully,

Lori Stevens Associate Dean for Development and External Relations

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NEW RESOURCES FOR RELIGIOUS EDUCATION

From Restoration to Reinvention: Swartz Hall Fosters Meaningful Connection

BY CAROLINE CATALDO & AMIE MONTEMURRO

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WHILE VISITING AN EXHIBIT at a gallery on Martha’s Vineyard years ago, Preston and Connie Williams found themselves taken by the vibrant colors and stunning texture of the paintings. Preston leaned closer to one of the pieces—noticing a small notation where an author’s mark would normally melt into the work. He turned to the artist and asked for the meaning of the inscription.

“To the glory of God,” the artist answered. “That’s why I paint.”

That artist was Susan Shallcross Swartz, an American impressionist painter with art in galleries and personal collections around the globe. She has received international recognition for solo exhibitions in museums throughout the United States and Europe.

Like a brush stroke from a higher power, this introduction ignited a lasting friendship centered on conversations of faith, compassion, and the divine inspiration that exudes from Susan’s work—conversations that have forever altered the fabric (and face) of the Divinity School. “One day,” Connie fondly remembers, “Preston said, ‘She ought to be introduced to HDS. So many students share an interest in art and religion.’”

In 2005, Preston introduced Susan, P ’91, P ’93, and her husband, Jim Swartz, AB ’64, P ’91, P ’93, to (then) Dean William Graham, who invited Susan to join the School’s community as an artist-in-residence. The initial collaboration illustrated a clear and meaningful connection, which led to an invitation to join the Dean’s Council.

NEW RESOURCES FOR RELIGIOUS EDUCATION

CELEBRATING PRESTON AND CONNIE WILLIAMS

Now, more than 15 years since Susan’s first encounter with Preston and Connie, the Swartzes are two of the School’s most devoted supporters.

They have given generously for student financial aid, established the Susan Shallcross Swartz Professorship of the Practice of Christian Studies (currently occupied by the Rev. Stephanie Paulsell), and, most recently, launched the renovation of the School’s main building on campus, formally known as Andover—now named Swartz Hall in honor of Susan, Jim, and their family. One of Susan’s paintings, Heaven, is displayed in Swartz Hall as a visual reminder of this divine intervention.

As Preston reflected when recounting the poignant bond made by one good question at an art gallery, it all flowed from these, “wonderful, as they say, back stories.”

Building Community: A Space for Kinship, Worship, and Scholarship Harvard University’s only example of collegiate-Gothic architecture, Swartz Hall is the signature building on the Divinity School’s campus. Its stone walls, soaring bell tower, impressive woodwork, and grand chapel all summon the School’s long history as a training ground for religious leaders and scholars. While HDS has evolved beyond its origins as a residential seminary for Protestant ministers, this renovation represents the first major upgrade to the building since the original construction took place over a century ago.

When the lead gift from the Swartzes was first announced in 2018, Dean Hempton shared his gratitude: “The renewal will allow us to prepare 21st-century students for lives of scholarship, ministry, service, and religiously literate leadership in all fields,” he said. “It will create new spaces that enable them to learn from each other in an atmosphere of safety, authenticity, and mutual respect. It will centralize and modernize

With the opening of Swartz Hall, the Divinity School honored Preston N. Williams, PhD ’67, Houghton Professor of Theology and Contemporary Change Emeritus, and Dr. Constance W. Williams. In recognition of their exceptional service and leadership across HDS (and broader Harvard communities), Andover Chapel has been renamed the Preston N. Williams Chapel. Additionally, the Constance W. and Preston N. Williams Scholarship Fund has been established to support future leaders at the School.

Preston, a renowned scholar who has taught at the Divinity School since 1971, has spent his entire ministry on college and university campuses. He was the first tenured African American faculty member of HDS and the first to lead the School as acting dean, from 1974 to 1975. Preston still teaches a course on the ethical and religious thought of Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Harvard Alumni Association recently recognized Preston’s service to the University with a 2021 Harvard Medal.

Connie, Associate Professor Emerita of The Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University, has an extensive background in direct practice, public service, and education. From 1972 to 1983, she was the founding director of the undergraduate social work program at Boston University’s Metropolitan College. She also served as the chief policy analyst in the MA Governor’s Office of Human Resources.

A professor, policy expert, and author, Connie has dedicated her life to improving social conditions for all.

Preston and Connie have been steadfast advocates for equality throughout their many leadership roles in higher education and their devotion to the Harvard community for over 50 years. To honor their legacy of fostering opportunity for students of all races, genders, and backgrounds, the Constance W. and Preston N. Williams Scholarship Fund will support HDS students actively working toward belonging and inclusion, including antiracism work, through their studies and experiences.

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NEW RESOURCES FOR RELIGIOUS EDUCATION

all we do to support the academic endeavor. And it will leverage technology in new ways to bring knowledge of religion to the world far beyond our little corner of Cambridge.”

When asked about the inspiration for the largest gift in the Divinity School’s history, Susan shared that she and her husband wanted to extend their support of the School’s mission with a gift that would truly transform HDS as it began its third century: “Jim and I have seen the impact our previous gifts have had on the lives of HDS graduates and the communities they serve.”

Thanking Dean Hempton and President Emerita Faust— who was leading Harvard at the time this gift was announced— Susan affirmed, “We are thrilled to be their partners in ensuring that this unique and historic building will become an innovation lab for the future of religious education and ethical leadership.”

With the groundbreaking just two years ago, that vision quickly became reality.

A Legacy of Faith and Inclusivity One of the many gifts this renovation has inspired is the renaming of Andover Chapel, now known as the Preston N. Williams Chapel (or Williams Chapel for short). Befitting Preston’s devotion to faith and inclusivity, the chapel has been a center of spiritual life at HDS for over a hundred years.

Established in the Christian religion, it has served many traditions and purposes in more recent times. The annual Billings Preaching Competition Final and the ecumenical Noon Service—a weekly gathering hosted by different student groups to pray, meditate, and engage in rituals across the School’s many faith and spiritual practices—are but two of the many events that traditionally take place in the chapel’s sacred spaces.

After an early look at the renovated chapel, Connie Williams shared her appreciation for what this space symbolizes.

“I am comforted to know that generations of HDS students will worship and celebrate meaningful rites of passage in the Preston N. Williams Chapel. This interfaith chapel signifies HDS’s respect for—and commitment to—all faiths.”

“During my half-century in this community,” she continues.

“I am fortunate to have observed this growth and change.

Swartz Hall affirms that we are citizens of the world and will welcome the diverse and gifted students who come to HDS.”

A Place for Pluralism One of the new areas this renovation inspired was the multifaith space—an expansive room, with lofted ceilings and stunningly beautiful lighting, created to complement the chapel. One of the crown jewels of the project, the new multifaith space reflects one of the primary goals of the renewal project: to create a building that serves all members of the community. The movable seating, prayer rugs, and meditation cushions allow for those using the space for a multitude of rituals to feel welcome. There is also a new, adjacent ablution room for practicing Muslims to use before daily prayers.

With over 30 different traditions (including those unaffiliated with any particular belief) represented at the School, the design of this new space aligns with HDS’s mission to not only educate leaders who come from all religious and spiritual backgrounds, but also ensure they have space to pray, reflect, and engage while at HDS.

Enhanced Classrooms for Intellectual Exchange As the physical representation of the Divinity School’s three pillars—ministry, scholarship, and public life—the building also includes both new and vastly improved classrooms and convening spaces, particularly in the glass addition that

HONORING THE PAST A goal of renewing our century-old main campus building was preserving the historical significance and character-defining details...

WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT THE RESTORATION OF SWARTZ HALL: Samples of the 100-yearold slate roof and original wood doors were used to craft new versions in the closest matching material and style from when the building was first constructed. Once identified, the slate was brought in from a quarry in Vermont.

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The exterior doors (as well as the doors to both the Braun Room and the Williams Chapel) were restored in Newburyport, MA, by a woodworking company—certified by the state as a Minority/ Woman-Owned Business Enterprise—that uses leftover scraps and sawdust to fuel its cleanburning biomass furnace.

The replacement of the building’s stained-glass windows used the same traditional techniques that created the original windows 100 years ago.

The medallions in the center of some of the windows in the Braun Room and staircases are comprised of nearly 80 pieces of glass.

Tucked inside of each Swartz Hall window is a vapor barrier, which helps protect the wooden frame, allowing it to last longer. The insulation helps keep the building airtight and minimizes the loss of heat in the winter and cool air in the summer, reducing energy consumption.

In order to create new entryways between the addition and the existing Swartz Hall structure, pieces of granite stone had to be removed.

Instead of disposing of these stones, they were repurposed to create the new Commons fireplace.

EMBRACING THE FUTURE while increasing energy efficiency and creating a welcoming, accessible, and modern environment.

WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT THE REINVENTION OF SWARTZ HALL: The James Room, a 200-seat auditorium and classroom space, will encourage connections, transform emerging teaching and learning possibilities, and welcome global conversations in real time through improved technology.

A new wireless network has been installed for the entire campus, providing better coverage both inside and outside the buildings. New points of coverage were also installed to allow for better Internet access on the campus green.

Throughout the building, new ramps, elevators, accessible entryways, gathering spaces, and restrooms make the building more accessible to all.

The sustainability measures included in the building renovation will help advance the University’s effort to combat climate change and to make Harvard a fossil-fuel-free campus by 2050.

The glass addition that connects the original structure with the HDS Library also creates a window to the landscape outside—bringing the beauty of nature inside the new building.

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NEW RESOURCES FOR RELIGIOUS EDUCATION

seamlessly connects the original building with the HDS Library.

With gratitude to Dean’s Council member Ralph James, MBA ’82, HDSEE ’18, HDSEE ’19, Cathy James Paglia, and the Robert and Ardis James Family Foundation for their lead gift, the building now includes a new, state-of-the-art space for teaching, learning, and gathering.

Championing the idea of “One Harvard,” Ralph contributes support and guidance to several Schools across the University, including the Harvard Graduate School of Education and the Harvard Radcliffe Institute. At HDS, he has also generously donated to the new Religion and Public Life program in support of the innovative curriculum and cross-disciplinary approach to scholarship.

“Harvard is bigger than the sum of its parts. Its impact on the world is greatest when all the parts work together,” he observes. “And there are many ways we can enhance the leadership of the Divinity School to inform and improve much— if not all—of the good work happening across the University.”

Ralph’s affinity for innovation can be seen in the new James Room. Enhanced equipment (such as projectors, cameras, and microphones) was installed to facilitate communication and intellectual exchange here in Cambridge and virtually around the globe. With a flexible design that can accommodate in-person audiences of up to 200 people, or smaller gatherings split into separate sections (James East and James West), this magnificent space greatly expands the School’s convening power for vital conversations about the role religious traditions play in the world.

The renovation of Swartz Hall embodies the School’s vision for a campus that is truly inclusive—a place where students from every imaginable tradition and background can come

44 | 2021 DEAN’S REPORT

together in pursuit of humanity’s most fundamental questions and answers—both in classrooms worthy of their brilliance and in communal spaces that nurture the informal interactions from which new ideas and new relationships so often flow.

The Power of Collective Giving One of the ways HDS makes a world of difference is by being a model of a multireligious community that brings together people from many different traditions in an atmosphere of authenticity and mutual respect. The Williams Chapel and new multifaith space are physical representations of the School’s commitment to pluralism. And while the modernization of Swartz Hall brought the School technologies that have become part of the fabric of our pedagogy as online teaching and learning has become more necessary, the building also includes thoughtful spaces where students can enjoy the irreplaceable experience of living and working side by side. One only need to walk by the fireplace lounge or the Commons Café to witness the warmth of long-awaited face-to-face connections.

Building on the generosity of both the Swartz and James families, this renovation came to life with collective generosity.

Artfully placed throughout the vibrant new center of the HDS campus, we see tributes to community and connection.

The new Garvin Room was named with an anonymous gift in memory of a beloved HBS faculty member and friend of the School—David Garvin. Chris and Anne Flowers also generously contributed an unrestricted gift, recognized with a plaque honoring a family member who was a minister ordained the same year HDS celebrated its opening in 1816.

Supporters of the HDS Fund also helped make this moment possible. With more than a thousand gifts ranging from $5 to $50,000, the HDS Fund fortifies the School in a number of important ways—including bolstering financial aid for students and providing instrumental funds for infrastructure needs. A plaque recognizing the many supporters who gave $250 or more in fiscal year 2021 will be displayed to celebrate the power of collective giving.

Dean Hempton often reflects that Harvard Divinity School is only as great as the people who learn, teach, and work together in support of the School’s vision. Building on a strong foundation, the new Swartz Hall offers the HDS community a renewed space for kinship, worship, and scholarship in service of a just world at peace across religious and cultural divides.

NEW RESOURCES FOR RELIGIOUS EDUCATION

Nancy and X.D. Yang on Building an Intellectual Community Insights on establishing the Yang Visiting Scholars in World Christianity and supporting religious education

BY ALICE DENISON

As the fall semester began in 2021, the first two Yang Visiting Scholars in World Christianity joined the HDS community eagerly awaiting them in Cambridge.

Both Dr. Chandra Mallampalli, Professor of History at Westmount College in California, and Dr. Oluwakemi Abiodun Adesina, Associate Professor of History and Head of the Department of History and International Studies at Redeemer’s University in Nigeria, research and teach about Christianity as a worldwide religion. As the inaugural Yang Scholars, they are creating a foundation of experts that will expand over the years, numerically and geographically, thanks to the vision and generosity of Nancy and X.D. Yang.

X.D. Yang, AB ’87, MBA ’92, came to Harvard College from Shenyang and studied economics, later earning his MBA from HBS. His career took him from Goldman Sachs to Carlyle, where he has been a leader for 20 years. Nancy, a native Texan, earned degrees from Wharton and the Kellogg School of Northwestern University.

She worked as a management consultant at A.T. Kearney and co-founded a mobile gaming company in Beijing. Nancy also founded a nonprofit organization that provides pro bono services to small nonprofits and serves on Wharton’s Executive Board. They have three children: two currently studying at Harvard College and one in primary school.

The inaugural Yang Visiting Scholars, Drs. Mallampalli and Adesina, have expertise in the growing Evangelical and Pentecostal dimensions of world Christianity. Each will have faculty mentors and guides at Harvard to help them reach their full potential as scholars, teachers, and community participants.

We paused just before the semester began to discuss with the Yangs their reasons for investing in HDS and the individuals who will contribute to, and benefit from, the HDS community.

HDS: While you were connected to Harvard overall as parents and as an alum (X.D.), what originally drew you to the HDS community?

X.D. YANG: I met Dean Hempton through one of the Harvard Global Council events—I happened to sit next to him at dinner. We had a great chat, and I was really impressed and inspired by what he’s trying to do.

Nancy and I had been Christians for many, many years.

So, we had a clear interest in Harvard Divinity School.

Then we hosted Dean Hempton and a few others on their trip to Hong Kong. We invited local Christian community members as well as people interested in Harvard Divinity School. The idea was to broaden the reach of the school in Hong Kong and China. That was a fantastic dinner and led to further conversations with David about HDS. As we had more discussions, we got more interested and excited.

HDS: What is important to you personally about the Harvard Divinity School’s mission?

NANCY YANG: It’s the building up of an intellectual community. I remember a conversation with Dean Hempton and his team about the need for robust, constructive dialogue about world religions, and HDS is the place to foster that type of dialogue.

X.D. YANG: Also, HDS is part of the Harvard University community. It’s not just HDS, but the chance to leverage all the resources of Harvard— whether it’s dialogue or intellectual pursuits that might not be possible in most other universities.

NANCY YANG: Absolutely. I think that kind of opportunity for integration, whether it be for research or just in building up community and dialogue, can’t be found anywhere else in the world. And knowing that graduates from the different schools will go out to be all kinds of leaders and influencers on their own.

X.D. YANG: And frankly, I’m also hoping some of the other Harvard community members will pay more attention to HDS. 2021 DEAN’S REPORT | 45

NEW RESOURCES FOR RELIGIOUS EDUCATION

“...the growth of Christian communities is big in parts of Asia, whether it is China, or India, South Asia, Southeast Asia, as well as Africa, and certainly also Latin America.

So, there is excitement in the part of the world that we are from about Christianity specifically, as well as about other religious beliefs.” X.D. Yang

HDS: You made a very generous gift to the HDS Dean’s Leadership Fund to help Dean Hempton respond to needs and opportunities around and beyond responding to the pandemic. Can you share your reflections on why that kind of unrestricted support is important and powerful?

NANCY YANG: That was very important for both X.D. and me. It’s important to give in an unrestricted way so that leadership is in the best position to provide opportunities for innovation, for piloting new projects, for being opportunistic. It’s where creativity and innovation can be released, in a sense. From a philanthropic lens, we’ve always wanted to give on both sides—for program initiatives, as well as on the unrestricted side.

HDS: You also responded to Dean Hempton’s vision to expand HDS’s international reach and engagement with the world by funding the Yang Visiting Scholars in World Christianity. Why do you think this overall vision is important?

The Yang Visiting Scholars contribute to research and teaching about Christianity as a worldwide religion. The two inaugural fellows are Dr. Oluwakemi Abiodun Adesina, Associate Professor of History at Redeemer’s University in Nigeria, and Dr. Chandra Mallampalli, Fletcher Jones Foundation Chair of the Social Sciences at Westmont College in California.

46 | 2021 DEAN’S REPORT

X.D. YANG: As our discussion with Dean Hempton raised, the growth of Christian communities is big in parts of Asia, whether it is China, or India, South Asia, Southeast Asia, as well as Africa, and certainly also Latin America. So, there is excitement in the part of the world that we are from about Christianity specifically, as well as about other religious beliefs. A lot of the societies here are going through fundamental changes—growth and urbanization of the people who have left poverty to live a better life. Those people are turning to spirituality, because in this time of change, there’s a lot of anxiety and pressure. To have a platform like HDS, which can attract world-class scholars—young scholars particularly—from different parts of the world to be able to bring their perspective to the HDS community to share, brings an element of not just different perspectives, but excitement that people probably wouldn’t experience otherwise. We view this community as the starting point. And we were very pleased with the first two scholars; we couldn’t imagine more interesting and qualified people. Just their backgrounds, what they’re doing, what they’re trying to do. And so, hopefully, over time, there will be a stream of these scholars and we will really create something that will be lasting and impactful.

HDS: What do you hope that the Yang Visiting Scholars will bring to HDS and glean from their time here?

NANCY YANG: That they will benefit from being in this kind of world-class research environment, with established scholars within the HDS community, so they may share their own life experiences and contribute to the intellectual discourse in the broader Harvard community as well and then bring that back, and over time, forge longer-term relationships between Harvard or HDS and the institutions or universities that they’re coming from.

Just on a personal reflection, a bit of the pandemic was about isolation. But I think it made everyone hungrier for community and connection. And I hope we can build a broader global community, or sense of community, if you will, for those who are on campus—whether or not you’re able to travel.

COVER: CAROLINE CATALDO PHOTOS: CYNTHIA ABATT, JONATHAN BEASLEY, CASSANDRA CHASE, CREATIVE COMMONS, JOHN DEPUTY, EVGENIA ELISEEVA, ELLEN ELMES, TOM FITZSIMMONS, ANDREW FORRESTER, DIANNE FOX, STEVE GILBERT, SIMON GOODACRE, AHMED IBRAHIM, ISTOCKPHOTO, JUSTIN KNIGHT PHOTOGRAPHY, ROBERT ADAM MAYER, STEPHANIE MITCHELL, OLIVIA MOON, SHUTTERSTOCK, KRIS SNIBBE, KRISTIE WELSH ADDITIONAL IMAGES COURTESY OF: ROBIN COSTE LEWIS, JOSHUA EATON, DR. OMAR SULTAN HAQUE, REV. TEDDY HICKMAN-MAYNARD, LAMA ROD OWENS, ANNETTE YOSHIKO REED

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