News Archive
Graduate Profile: Alex Jensen, MDiv '21
HDS communications reached out to our 2021 graduating students to hear from them in their own words about their experiences at HDS, the people who've helped and inspired them along their grad school journeys, and their plans for the future. Words of...
Graduate Profile: Mia Appelbaum, MTS '21
HDS communications reached out to our 2021 graduating students to hear from them in their own words about their experiences at HDS, the people who've helped and inspired them along their grad school journeys, and their plans for the future. Favorite Class...
Graduate Profile: Jason Adam Sheets, MTS '21
HDS communications reached out to our 2021 graduating students to hear from them in their own words about their experiences at HDS, the people who've helped and inspired them along their grad school journeys, and their plans for the future. How I've...
Pastor Puts Entrepreneurial Skills to Work This Time to Get People Vaccinated
Dallas pastor Richie Butler, MTS '96, has blazed a trail through the worlds of real estate and ministry in Texas and nationwide, developing more than $500 million in urban properties, leading iconic Black churches and launching initiatives to combat...
Historical-Critical Scholarship Alone Does Not Constitute 'Torah'
Professor Jon Levenson discusses the circumstances that influenced his choice to pursue biblical studies and how his involvement in the field may have affected the nature of his religious beliefs and behavior.
Matthew Potts Named Pusey Minister at Memorial Church
An Episcopal minister and HDS professor of religious studies and literature, Matthew Potts begins his new position July 1.
Beyond the Coup in Myanmar: Don’t Ignore the Religious Dimensions
HDS Fellow in Religion and Public Life Susan Hayward explains the history of religious political action in Myanmar and why this time is different.
Black, Buddhist, and Free
Cheryl Giles, Francis Greenwood Peabody Senior Lecturer on Pastoral Care and Counseling at HDS, discusses her coedited anthology of “freedom stories” exploring what it means to be Black and Buddhist in America.
Video: Information Session for Religious Resources for Living Beyond Crisis Program
This session is of interest to anyone considering attending the HDS Executive Education Program—Religious Resources for Living Beyond Crisis—being held virtually June 6 through June 10. Our Faculty Director, Charlie Hallisey, walked through the program’s...
Video: Reimagining and Rewriting Jewish Liturgy
This conversation featured RCPI Topol Fellow Rabbi Brant Rosen and Professor Susannah Heschel, and was moderated by RCPI Senior Fellow Professor Atalia Omer.
Video: The Hindu Margins: Third Gender and Women Spiritual Partners
This lecture focused on the Hindu view of life from the margins. While the “Hindu margin” is a fairly large heterogeneous group, this lecture laid the lens on the third gender, Kinnars (pejorative term hijṛā) and spiritual partners, categorized as...
The Glorians—A Commemoration of Grace in the Desert
"The red rock desert of Utah is my sacred text, alive and awakened in spring," says HDS writer-in-residence Terry Tempest Williams.
Ensuring the Floyd Trial Becomes a Turning Point
Cornell William Brooks, Visiting Professor of the Practice of Prophetic Religion and Public Leadership at HDS and Hauser Professor of the Practice of Nonprofit Organizations at Harvard Kennedy School, discusses the significance of the conviction of former...
Podcast: Finding Beauty in a Broken World
The modern environmental movement was born 51 years ago when millions of people took part in protests and rallies in streets, parks, auditoriums, and on college campuses as part of the first-ever Earth Day. Yet today, as species continue to face...
Video: Religion and the Rise of Capitalism
Where do our ideas about how the economy works, and our views on economic policy, come from? Critics of contemporary economics complain that belief in free markets, among economists as well as many ordinary citizens, is a form of religion. The...
Video: Follow-up Panel on Abuse of Power in Alternative and Emerging Spiritual and Cultural Organizations
In the wake of our February 25 Virtual Panel, “ Abuse of Power in Alternative and Emerging Spiritual and Cultural Organizations,” many people have expressed a desire to continue the conversation. Therefore, we are launching an ongoing discussion on our...
A Poem for Venus
HDS student Suzannah Omonuk wrote a poem imagining what life was like for an enslaved woman who lived and worked on campus in the 18th century.
Video: How God Becomes Real: Kindling the Presence of Invisible Others
This webinar features a dialogue between Tanya Luhrmann and CSWR director and HDS Professor Charles Stang on her Luhrmann's book How God Becomes Real: Kindling the Presence of Invisible Others.
Preston Williams to Receive 2021 Harvard Medal
The Harvard Alumni Association announced 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...
Fewer Americans Belong to a House of Worship. What's Filling the God Gap?
"As people are leaving formal institutions—they're no longer members of a congregation—it doesn't mean that their spirituality no longer exists. They're still looking for community. They're still looking for mentorship and intergenerational connection...
Terry Tempest Williams: We Have to Bridge Our Divides
"Healing this uncivil war, especially within our own families, is not about changing our minds or even our hearts but first creating a space where we can meet unarmed. Here, an opening can occur. We are not abandoning our principles, but expanding our...
Faith, Fear, and Change
"As we stand with those women at the open, empty tomb, may we feel our desire for resurrection and its transformations rising within us. And may we be brave enough to take up the story where they left off, brave enough to resist going back to the way...
Courage and Compassion in a Volatile World
In a year unlike any other, HDS celebrates the diversity of alumni impact in the public sphere with the 2021 Gomes Honors. Each year, the HDS Alumni/Alumnae Council (AAC) recognizes the Peter J. Gomes, STB ’68 Distinguished Alumni Honors, celebrating...
Humans of HDS: Forming Identity, Finding Belonging
“I had one interaction with a patient who had trouble talking and had to communicate by writing on notebook paper. And as she struggled to write, she told me that she was preparing to be her husband’s co-caretaker now that they were both in a place of...
Religious Leaders Say Sacramentans Relied More on Faith during Pandemic
HDS Professor Catherine Brekus discusses how people have turned to religion in times of crisis.
Rallying Religious and Health Leaders to Prevent Child Abuse
Preventing and healing child abuse involves more than medical care or social work. For many, particularly those whose abuse involved religious figures, it must incorporate faith as well. “Faith and Flourishing: Strategies for Preventing and Healing Child...
Holy Memories of the Faith, Lived Anew, Together
Francis X. Clooney, S.J., Parkman Professor of Divinity and Professor of Comparative Theology, offers a reflection for Holy Week. This week Christians across the world mark the holiest days of the Christian calendar: Holy (Maundy) Thursday, Good Friday...
The Coloniality of Apocalypse
Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Religion and Latinx Studies Mayra Rivera and Drew University Professor Catherine Keller reflect on "the end of the world," "climate apocalypse," and the aftermath of Hurricane María.
Video: What Do We Really Know about Evangelicals and American Politics?
Rev. Dr. Ray Hammond, Co-founder and Pastor of Bethel AME Church, led a conversation with Dr. Marla F. Frederick, Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Religion and Culture at Emory University, and D. Michael Lindsay, the eighth president of Gordon College...
Are We There Yet
Emily Click, assistant dean for ministry studies and field education and Lecturer on Ministry, offers a reflection for Holy Week. Anyone who has taken a long-distance drive with young children can tell you their four most dreaded words: “Are we there yet...
