# News Archive [### Renewal of Building Reflects Evolution of Divinity School ](https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2021/10/divinity-schools-swartz-hall-brings-inclusivity-and-collaboration/) October 07, 2021 When the renewed Swartz Hall finally reopened its doors this semester, it welcomed members of the HDS and Harvard communities separated since the start of the pandemic to a renewed building, one that reflects a changed (and changing) Divinity School. ![In Harvard Divinity School’s new Swartz Hall, student Minahil Mead (from left), Hindu monk Vandan Ranpurwala, and student and Buddhist monk Mahayaye Vineetha meet in the multifaith space. Photo by Kris Snibbe/Harvard Staff Photographer](/sites/g/files/omnuum3891/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/hds/files/swartz_hall_multifaith_gazette_600x400.jpg?itok=lSNF4ZYL) [### Pastor Bodrick Formally Installed at Twelfth Baptist ](https://www.dotnews.com/2021/pastor-bodrick-formally-installed-twelfth-baptist) September 30, 2021 Reverend Willie Bodrick II, MDiv '14, was installed as Senior Pastor at Roxbury’s Twelfth Baptist Church, making him the second-youngest pastor in the church’s 181-year history, and its youngest in the last 145 years. ![The Rev. Willie Bodrick, MDiv' 14, is surrounded by family and friends at the historic Twelfth Baptist Church](/sites/g/files/omnuum3891/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/hds/files/willie_bodrick_people_rep_39-21.jpg?itok=OGWPcwCy) [### 2021 Convocation: Schools Visible and Invisible ](/news/2021/09/30/mark-jordan-convocation-schools-visible-and-invisible) September 30, 2021 Delivering this year's Convocation address, entitled "Schools Visible and Invisible," was Mark Jordan, Richard Reinhold Niebuhr Research Professor of Divinity at HDS. The ceremony included a welcome from Dean David N. Hempton, music by Christopher... ![Mark Jordan](/sites/g/files/omnuum3891/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/hds/files/jordan-news.jpg?itok=iD4zyFA0) [### Reflecting on ‘The Climate of Sacred Land Protection’ ](https://hds.harvard.edu/news/2021/09/30/reflecting-climate-sacred-land-protection) September 30, 2021 In our second discussion as part of the 10-week fall series, “ Weather Reports: The Climate of Now ,” held September 27, environmentalist, author, and HDS Writer-in-Residence Terry Tempest Williams spoke with Bernadette Demienteff, an Indigenous activist... ![Weather Reports poster art](/sites/g/files/omnuum3891/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/hds/files/wr-news-600-551.jpg?itok=i4CayXbB) [### HDS Dean Hempton to Deliver Prestigious Gifford Lectures ](https://hds.harvard.edu/news/2021/09/29/hds-dean-hempton-deliver-prestigious-gifford-lectures) September 29, 2021 Over the course of its 133-year history, the prestigious Gifford Lectures delivered annually in Scotland have developed deep ties to Harvard University whose faculty—including Professors Diana Eck, William James, and Steven Pinker—have broken new ground... ![Dean David N. Hempton](/sites/g/files/omnuum3891/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/hds/files/hempton.gazette.600x400.jpg?itok=SblXNUBX) [### Mark Jordan on the Future of Christian Theology and Queer Religious Thinking ](/news/2021/09/28/mark-jordan-future-christian-theology-and-queer-religious-thinking) September 28, 2021 From Christian theology to European philosophy, Thomas Aquinas to Michel Foucault, Harvard Divinity School Professor Mark Jordan has explored a range of figures and topics in and around the Christian tradition and has put them in conversation with urgent... ![Mark Jordan](/sites/g/files/omnuum3891/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/hds/files/markjordan-convocation-news-550.jpg?itok=OE6ZLtzN) [### Reflecting on ‘A Burning Testament to Climate Collapse’ ](https://hds.harvard.edu/news/2021/09/23/reflecting-burning-testament-climate-collapse) September 23, 2021 This fall at Harvard Divinity School, environmentalist, author, and HDS Writer-in-Residence Terry Tempest Williams is leading a series of online conversations concerning our response to climate chaos, asking the questions: How might we recast this a time... ![Weather Reports poster art](/sites/g/files/omnuum3891/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/hds/files/wr-news-600-551.jpg?itok=i4CayXbB) [### New Adidas-Wearing Pastor Has a Goal for Salt Lake City Unitarians: Get a Kick out of Life ](https://www.sltrib.com/religion/2021/09/22/new-adidas-wearing-pastor/) September 22, 2021 Salt Lake City’s First Unitarian Church is turning to the Rev. Ian White Maher, MDiv ’04, a contemplative Harvard Divinity School-educated minister and educator to help chart its future. ![The Rev. Ian White Maher, MDiv '04, sitting in a church pew with legs crossed](/sites/g/files/omnuum3891/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/hds/files/ian_white_maher_600x400.jpg?itok=ouU0y2q7) [### Boston Vaccine Day Held In Roxbury ](https://wbznewsradio.iheart.com/content/boston-vaccine-day-held-in-roxbury/) September 22, 2021 The Rev. Erica Williams, MRPL '22, spoke about the importance of getting vaccinated against COVID-19 at Boston Vaccine Day held in Roxbury, Massachusetts. ![Banner displaying words National Vaccine Day](/sites/g/files/omnuum3891/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/hds/files/vaccine_day_banner_600x400.jpg?itok=Mr8cZ6M6) [### The Uproar Over the 'Ultimate American Bible' ](https://slate.com/human-interest/2021/09/lee-greenwood-bible-christian-publishing.html) September 16, 2021 “Putting the Bible or placing American history within the Bible, or suggesting the U.S. is a source of revelation, is seen by many evangelicals as a kind of heresy,” said HDS Professor Catherine Brekus. ![A Bible in front of a gray American flag](/sites/g/files/omnuum3891/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/hds/files/bible_flag.jpeg?itok=JqYj1q-W) [### Where Were You When It Happened? ](https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2021/09/harvard-faculty-and-staff-remember-9-11/) September 10, 2021 "My conversation about Islam with my boss on the first day of work had been hijacked by the terrorist attacks, and it would forever change the trajectory of my life," says Khalil Abdur-Rashid, Muslim Chaplain at Harvard University and Lecturer on Muslim... ![Khalil Abdur-Rashid](/sites/g/files/omnuum3891/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/hds/files/abdur-rashid_khalil_600x400.jpg?itok=HvNVhAxo) [### 20 Years after 9/11, Remembering the Legacy of Fr. Mychal Judge ](https://www.ncronline.org/news/opinion/20-years-after-911-remembering-legacy-fr-mychal-judge) September 09, 2021 "So, as we approach the 20th anniversary, we hold in our hearts the memories of all those whose lives were lost, whose innocence was taken or whose existence was forever changed at 7:59 a.m. when American Airlines Flight 11, bound for Los Angeles, lifted... ![Flags and other items surround the grave where Franciscan Father Mychal F. Judge, a chaplain of the New York Fire Department, is buried at Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in Totowa, New Jersey.](/sites/g/files/omnuum3891/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/hds/files/nyfd_chaplain_grave_cns_600x400.jpg?itok=yl8dMiAN) [### From 9/11 to COVID-19: Lessons Learned on Religion and Politics ](https://berkleycenter.georgetown.edu/responses/from-9-11-to-covid-19-lessons-learned-on-religion-and-politics) September 08, 2021 "Religion is conceived very narrowly with exclusive attention to ideas or doctrines, even though we have established that most of the political conflicts related to religion do not pertain to beliefs but belongings," writes Jocelyne Cesari, T. J. Dermot... ![Professor Jocelyne Cesari](/sites/g/files/omnuum3891/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/hds/files/jocelyne_cesari_gazette.600x400.jpg?itok=Mff4klGD) [### Needing 'A Spark of Kindness' ](/news/2021/09/07/needing-spark-kindness) September 07, 2021 HDS Dean David N. Hempton delivered the following remarks at Morning Prayers in Harvard's Memorial Church on September 7, 2021. ♦♦♦ ![Dean David N. Hempton](/sites/g/files/omnuum3891/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/hds/files/hempton.gazette.600x400.jpg?itok=SblXNUBX) [### Could the U.S. Government Take Nonviolence Seriously? ](https://sojo.net/articles/could-us-government-take-nonviolence-seriously) September 03, 2021 “Baked into the international system and into diplomacy, especially in the West, is a great deal of simplistic and often biased thinking about religion,” said Susan Hayward, associate director of the religious literacy and the professions initiative at... ![A soldier stands guard at Kandahar Air Base in Afghanistan on December 8, 2013. REUTERS/Mark Wilson/Pool. THOUGH NONVIOLEN](/sites/g/files/omnuum3891/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/hds/files/soldier_afghanistan_600x400.png?itok=7l1wV0kQ) [### Community Spirit ](https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2021/08/harvard-convocation-welcomes-classes-2024-and-2025/) September 01, 2021 During the University's Convocation for the Class of 2024 and 2025 on Tuesday, the Rev. Matthew Ichihashi Potts, Plummer Professor of Christian Morals at HDS and Pusey Minister in the Memorial Church, asked everybody to be “thankful that we are here, that... ![Two people in academic regalia hold up a banner labeled 2025 during the University's Convocation ceremony](/sites/g/files/omnuum3891/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/hds/files/083121_convo_2025_1762-600x400.jpg?itok=E0zqStEu) [### Welcoming the Lost, Lonely and Forgotten ](https://memorialchurch.harvard.edu/blog/welcoming-lost-lonely-and-forgotten) August 30, 2021 "May we always make neighbors of strangers. May we learn to love them as we love ourselves. And may we forever welcome the lost and the lonely and the forgotten as our own into this, our church home," said Matthew Ichihashi Potts, Plummer Professor of... ![Matthew Potts preaching in Memorial Church](/sites/g/files/omnuum3891/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/hds/files/matthew_potts_mem_church_600x400.jpg?itok=7NKfz6ld) [### All Diversities but One: Why American Universities Put Religion Aside ](https://mosaicmagazine.com/observation/history-ideas/2021/08/all-diversities-but-one-why-american-universities-put-religion-aside/) August 25, 2021 "For the way in which an educational institution thinks about religious groups and their distinctive worldviews touches upon the deeper issue of the nature and goals of education in general and upon the mission of individual educational institutions in... ![Jon Levenson](/sites/g/files/omnuum3891/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/hds/files/levenson_justin_knight_600x400.jpg?itok=z_PF0ei1) [### Facebook Has a New Prayer Feature. But Is It Made for Jews? ](https://forward.com/culture/474354/facebook-has-a-new-prayer-feature-but-is-it-made-for-jews/) August 23, 2021 "This is abstracting the relationships that are built through prayer. It’s abstracting just the petitionary from all these other kinds of Christian prayers, which just makes it a less rich experience as part of a community and a less rich prayer life,"... ![Professor Matthew Potts](/sites/g/files/omnuum3891/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/hds/files/matthew_potts_600x400.jpg?itok=vJfX3LeQ) [### Toward a 'Religiously Literate' World ](https://www.harvardmagazine.com/2021/08/jhj-divinity-school-new-religion-public-life-initiative) August 16, 2021 HDS is launching its first new master’s degree program in more than 50 years, the master of religion and public life. Coupled with a similarly named certificate program—the anchors of the of the Religion and Public Life initiative—HDS has embarked upon a... ![Diane L. Moore](/sites/g/files/omnuum3891/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/hds/files/diane_moore_gazette_600x400.jpg?itok=-KFGxzpa) [### HDS’s 2021 Summer Reading List ](/news/2021/08/11/hds-2021-summer-reading-list) August 11, 2021 The final weeks of summer are upon us. Students and faculty will soon return to campus after more than a year away. Orientation starts in two weeks. The fall semester begins on September 1. Nevertheless, there are still more than a few days left to enjoy... ![Michelle Goldhaber holding up a stack of books](/sites/g/files/omnuum3891/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/hds/files/michelle_goldhaber_600x400.jpg?itok=9q4X4u52) [### Spotlight on the William Monroe Trotter Collaborative for Social Justice ](https://www.hks.harvard.edu/faculty-research/policy-topics/fairness-justice/qa-professor-cornell-william-brooks-spotlight) August 05, 2021 HDS Visiting Professor Cornell William Brooks leads the Harvard Kennedy School’s William Monroe Trotter Collaborative for Social Justice, which he calls a think-and-do tank for Harvard students committed to social justice advocacy and rigorous applied... ![Cornell William Brooks](/sites/g/files/omnuum3891/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/hds/files/cornell-brooks_600x400.jpg?itok=sJ_uQMUY) [### Resurrection in the Hebrew Bible / Old Testament ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuJCaRWshHA) August 05, 2021 Professor Jon D. Levenson argues that contrary to a very widespread misconception, the ancient rabbis were keenly committed to the belief that at the end of time, God would restore the deserving dead to life. ![Jon Levenson](/sites/g/files/omnuum3891/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/hds/files/levenson_justin_knight_600x400.jpg?itok=z_PF0ei1) [### Teddy Hickman-Maynard Joins HDS as Associate Dean for Ministry Studies ](/news/2021/08/02/teddy-hickman-maynard-joins-hds-associate-dean-ministry-studies) August 02, 2021 Teddy Hickman-Maynard has been named associate dean for ministry studies at Harvard Divinity School, starting August 2. In this role, Hickman-Maynard will oversee the School’s master of divinity program. “I am delighted that Teddy Hickman-Maynard will... ![Teddy Hickman-Maynard](/sites/g/files/omnuum3891/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/hds/files/t.hickman-maynard_head_shot_600x400.jpg?itok=T-DZWQoL) [### Francis Fiorenza on His Esteemed Teaching Career, the Pluralization of Theology, and Studying with the 'Stars of the Stars' ](/news/2021/07/29/francis-fiorenza-discusses-his-esteemed-teaching-career-pluralization-theology-and-studying) July 29, 2021 Harvard Divinity School celebrates and honors the distinguished career of Professor Francis Schüssler Fiorenza, who, in July 2021, retired from full-time teaching at HDS and now serves as the Charles Chauncey Stillman Research Professor of Roman Catholic... ![Francis Schüssler Fiorenza](/sites/g/files/omnuum3891/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/hds/files/fiorenza-retirement-news.jpg?itok=0KK4kYLS) [### Should Chaplains Be Involved in Psychedelic Experiences? Are 'Trips' Inherently Religious? ](https://religiondispatches.org/should-chaplains-be-involved-in-psychedelic-experiences-are-trips-inherently-religious/) July 21, 2021 Harvard University’s Center for the Study of World Religions held a discussion titled “What is Psychedelic Chaplaincy?”, the purpose of which was to explore the role that spiritual caregivers might play among those seeking and undergoing psychedelic... ![Recreation of a psychedelic clinical trial at the Imperial Center for Psychedelic Research. Photograph by Thomas Angus, Imperial College London/Wikimedia C](/sites/g/files/omnuum3891/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/hds/files/psych.jpg?itok=NsKXEE1H) [### Humans of HDS: Pursuing Deeper Questions ](https://humansofhds.tumblr.com/post/657331937341587456/sarah-sturm-mts-20-we-dont-have-to-have-all) July 21, 2021 Sarah Sturm, MTS ’20, works as the program coordinator for partnerships at Telos, a nonprofit that builds communities of American peacemakers and equips them to help reconcile global conflicts. ![Sarah Sturm, MTS '20](/sites/g/files/omnuum3891/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/hds/files/sarah-sturm-news-600x400.jpg?itok=aE5jEyoo) [### Divinity Dialogues: President Emerita Drew Faust in Conversation with Dean Hempton ](/news/divinity-dialogues-gomes-honoree-drew-faust-david-hempton) July 20, 2021 This week, we conclude our Divinity Dialogues Gomes Award podcast series with a reflective conversation between Dean Hempton and our 2021 Gomes Friend of the School honoree, Drew Gilpin Faust. Faust holds several titles, including President Emerita of... ![Dean David Hempton and Drew Faust, President Emerita of Harvard and Arthur Kingsley Porter University Professor.](/sites/g/files/omnuum3891/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/hds/files/divinity-dialogues-hempton-faust-900-500.jpg?itok=j8-SZVJz) [### 'Month of Unity' Aims to Help El Pasoans Heal from 2019 Walmart Mass Shooting ](https://www.elpasotimes.com/story/news/local/el-paso/2021/07/02/month-events-seek-help-el-paso-heal-2019-mass-shooting/7843710002/) July 06, 2021 “The healing garden is about curing, not just remembering. It’s about restoration, it’s about hope of transformation, coming out of this,” said HDS Professor Davíd Carrasco. "It's also saying to the people who have tried to put a boot in the face of... ![Paintings of the victims of the 2019 El Paso shooting](/sites/g/files/omnuum3891/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/hds/files/el_paso_victims_paintings_600x400.jpg?itok=p3LLyYA7) [### Divinity Dialogues: Robin Coste Lewis on Epic Poetry and the Sacredness of Female Deities ](/news/07/06/2021/divinity-dialogues-robin-coste-lewis-epic-poetry-and-sacredness-female-deities) July 06, 2021 "The notion of a stranger, for me—the way I was raised and the way that I studied—is that the stranger just might hold the key to your liberation" Continuing Divinity Dialogues—a special edition podcast series from Harvard Divinity School that puts... ![Portrait shot of Robin Coste Lewis](/sites/g/files/omnuum3891/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/hds/files/robin-coste-lewis-news-600x450.jpg?itok=Pmix4lty) - Previous page chevron\_left - [1](?page=0 "Current page") - [2](?page=1 "Go to page 2") - [3](?page=2 "Go to page 3") - [4](?page=3 "Go to page 4") - [5](?page=4 "Go to page 5") - [6](?page=5 "Go to page 6") - [7](?page=6 "Go to page 7") - [8](?page=7 "Go to page 8") - [9](?page=8 "Go to page 9") - [ Last page 73 ](?page=72 "Go to last page") - [ Next page chevron\_right ](?page=1 "Go to next page")