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 Hossfeld, director of music and ritual at HDS, and readings by HDS students Cassandra Montenegro and Alex Baskin.... Read more about 2021 Convocation: Schools Visible and Invisible

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 in the studies of religion, science, and philosophy.... Read more about HDS Dean Hempton to Deliver Prestigious Gifford Lectures

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.... Read more about Video: How God Becomes Real: Kindling the Presence of Invisible Others

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 foundational transition in thinking about what we now call economics, beginning in the eighteenth century, was decisively shaped by the hotly contended lines of religious thought at that time within the English-speaking Protestant world.

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 “consorts.” Both these groups were discussed within the ritual praxis of “lived religions,” within the larger world of Śākta Tantra (Goddess esoteric traditions).... Read more about Video: The Hindu Margins: Third Gender and Women Spiritual Partners

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 platform around this complex and sensitive topic.... Read more about Video: Follow-up Panel on Abuse of Power in Alternative and Emerging Spiritual and Cultural Organizations

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.... Read more about Video: What Do We Really Know about Evangelicals and American Politics?

A reflection and panel discussion on how and where spirituality, social justice, and climate change come together and intersect within faith traditions.... Read more about Video: Intersections of Spirituality, Social Justice, and Climate Change

One of the core mandates of Harvard’s new Program for the Evolution of Spirituality is to look honestly at both the positive and negative dimensions of emerging spiritual movements.... Read more about Video: Abuse of Power in Alternative and Emerging Spiritual and Cultural Organizations

Buddhism is a way of life, a philosophy, a psychology, a set of ethics, a religion, or a combination thereof. Central to the many ways Buddhism is understood is the achievement of emotional, mental, and psychological wellness. African Americans are at perpetual risk of psychological imbalance and trauma due to the social realities of racism in the United States. In  this video, the authors engage the question: What can Buddhism offer African Americans who want to be emotionally resilient in a context they cannot singlehandedly change?... Read more about Video: Black And Buddhist: What Buddhism Can Teach Us about Race, Resilience, Transformation, and Freedom

Fred Moten, a 2020 MacArthur Fellow, discussed a poem called "On Listening to the Two-Headed Lady Blow Her Horn," which is from Honorée Fanonne Jeffers's extraordinary collection, The Gospel of Barbecue.... Read more about Video: Fred Moten: Note on a Blue Note in The Gospel of Barbecue

This conversation was presented on August 27, 2020, by the HDS Women’s Studies in Religion Program, which brings five scholars in gender from around the country each year to enrich the experience of HDS students. The research associates shared their thoughts on the ethical responsibility of scholars to be engaged in the study of gender.

Celebrated by Italian immigrants in the United States since 1792, Columbus Day became a federal holiday in 1937 to commemorate the "arrival of Christopher Columbus in the Americas." The explorer’s reputation has darkened in recent years as scholars have focused more attention on the killings and other atrocities he committed against Indigenous peoples of the Caribbean.... Read more about Pushing to End Myth of Columbus, Honor History of Indigenous Peoples