News

Humans of HDS: Accepted Inside, Rejected Outside

March 08, 2021

“I had not intended to go on into a ministry. I really had intended to take a year out and go back into foreign service, but after I had been there for about six months studying, I knew that this was the place where I wanted to be. I felt my calling was...

Neoliberalism and Ambient Apocalypse

March 04, 2021

HDS Professor Todne Thomas and Columbia University Professor Courtney Bender c onsider the big destructive events or scenes associated with the end times with more subtle infrastructural degradations, moral shifts from government to citizen, deregulation...

Radicalization and Religion: How It Happens?

March 04, 2021

"People are not more fervent believers than they used to be, but their identification to religion has certainly shifted, creating a conjunction of religious and political identities that facilitate political mobilization and sometimes radical actions,"...

Ralph Potter, Professor Emeritus, Dies

March 02, 2021

Ralph Benajah Potter, Jr., Professor of Social Ethics Emeritus at Harvard Divinity School, died February 25, at age 89. Potter passed away at home in the care of his family after a number of years in declining health. Potter began teaching at HDS in 1965...

Humans of HDS: The Place of Spirituality in Public Health Discourse

March 02, 2021

"Taking the HDS course 'Change, Adversity and Spiritual Resilience' opened my eyes to the extent of the spiritual crisis that people are walking through whenever they are undergoing change, whether positive or negative," says Keona Wynne, PhD candidate at...

Why Does Christianity Have so Many Denominations?

March 01, 2021

"There's kind of an anti-corruption mechanism in the fragmentation," said Associate Professor of Theology Michelle Sanchez said.

Meritocracy and Community Solidarity: A Conversation between Michael Sandel and Stephanie Paulsell

March 01, 2021

Harvard Professor Michael Sandel, renowned political philosopher and author of The Tyranny of Merit: What’s Become of the Common Good?, was interviewed by HDS Professor and Interim Pusey Minister at Memorial Church Stephanie Paulsell, during the First...

Love and the Lenten Journey

February 25, 2021

"As we take our first steps on a path whose dimensions we can’t quite make out, whose edges we feel for in the dark, love can give us direction," says Stephaine Paulsell, Interim Pusey Minister in the Memorial Church, and Susan Shallcross Swartz Professor...

Seeded Amid the Many Surprises of COVID Times, Some Unexpected Positives

February 22, 2021

"We are slowed down, yet living in a world of urgency and woe, where there is so much to be done. It is surely for the good that we are asking ourselves, 'Why do I do the research, writing, and teaching that I do?' This existential crisis may be a good...

A Reminder about Hope, Grace, and Deliverance: An Islamic Perspective

February 22, 2021

"Hope in the grace and love of God is a hallmark of the righteous and those who love God and are beloved by God, the ability to see light in spite of darkness, to hope instead of despairing, and to know with conviction that with every difficulty comes...

Finding God in the Book of Esther

February 16, 2021

HDS Professor Jon Levenson discusses finding God in the Book of Esther ahead of the upcoming Purim holiday.

Death Has Many Names

February 16, 2021

"Death as a palpable force looms large in the Yoruba religious and social consciousness. From cosmology to various ritual practices and genres of oral traditions such as proverbs, poetry and short stories are all brought to bear on the reality of death...