News

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...

Needing 'A Spark of 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. ♦♦♦

Could the U.S. 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...

Community Spirit

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...

Welcoming the 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...

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...

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,"...

Toward a 'Religiously Literate' World

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...

HDS’s 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...

Resurrection in the Hebrew Bible / Old Testament

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.

Spotlight on the William Monroe Trotter Collaborative for Social Justice

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...

Teddy Hickman-Maynard Joins HDS as Associate Dean for 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...