Harvard Divinity School

The entire HDS and Harvard community, friends, alumni, and guests were invited to the opening of HDS's 208th year. The 2023 Convocation featured remarks by Harvard President Claudine Gay, Interim Dean David F. Holland, and David N. Hempton. This event took place on September 7, 2023. Read transcript here: https://hds.harvard.edu/news/9/7/2023/convocation-2023 Find more information for this event here: https://hds.harvard.edu/news-events/convocation-2023

The Constellation Project is pleased to announce the publication of our second “Prayer Book,” by HDS student Morgan Curtis. “The Decolonial Dames of America,” is a landmark essay about the importance of ancestral repair work needed to be taken by the white descendants of oppressors to cultivate the soil of healing. This event featured a reading by Morgan Curtis in conversation with Melissa Bartholomew, associate dean for diversity, inclusion, and belonging. This event took place April 19, 2023. Read the transcript: https://hds.harvard.edu/news/2023/10/06/video-decolonial-dames-america-book-launch-and-reading Learn more: https://www.planetaryhealthalliance.org/the-constellation-project

As part of the Transcendence and Transformation initiative, the Center for the Study of World Religions at Harvard Divinity School is proud to announce its first ever podcast. Pop Apocalypse explores the mystical and the mythic, the paranormal and the psychedelic in popular culture. The show features interviews with musicians, artists, and writers about how their spiritual experiences and practices inform their work. We also explore the mythological universes in film and fiction with show-runners, writers, and directors. These candid, first-person reflections will be complemented by interviews with scholars who situate these artistic products in the study of mysticism and esotericism. Together, the podcast offers descriptive, interpretive, and theoretical scholarship on religion and popular culture in real-time that will be of interest to scholars and laypersons alike. Hosted by Matthew J. Dillon, postdoctoral fellow at the CSWR, in conversation with Laurence Caruana. A full transcript can be found online: https://cswr.hds.harvard.edu/news/2023/05/15/audio-pop-apocalypse-psychedelic-gnosis-and-imaginal-double-laurence-caruana Learn more: https://cswr.hds.harvard.edu/

As part of the Transcendence and Transformation initiative, the Center for the Study of World Religions at Harvard Divinity School is proud to announce its first ever podcast. Pop Apocalypse explores the mystical and the mythic, the paranormal and the psychedelic in popular culture. The show features interviews with musicians, artists, and writers about how their spiritual experiences and practices inform their work. We also explore the mythological universes in film and fiction with show-runners, writers, and directors. These candid, first-person reflections will be complemented by interviews with scholars who situate these artistic products in the study of mysticism and esotericism. Together, the podcast offers descriptive, interpretive, and theoretical scholarship on religion and popular culture in real-time that will be of interest to scholars and laypersons alike. Hosted by Matthew J. Dillon, postdoctoral fellow at the CSWR, in conversation with Alex and Allyson Grey. A full transcript can be found online: https://cswr.hds.harvard.edu/news/2023/05/15/audio-pop-apocalypse-waking-flesh-dream-alex-and-allyson-grey Learn more: https://cswr.hds.harvard.edu/

Audre Lorde is one of the most significant and influential Black feminist writer/activists of the twentieth century. In this talk at Harvard Divinity School, Dr. Beverly Guy-Sheftall, founding director of the Women’s Research and Resource Center at Spelman College, examined Lorde’s prolific writings in the context of contemporary Black feminist ethics, discourse, and activism. As the nation faces increasing political resistance to social justice reform in the aftermath of the Black Lives Matter Movement, Dr. Guy-Sheftall reflected upon the importance of returning to Lorde’s work as a resource for imagining and building social transformations in society, electoral politics, the criminal justice system, and the academy. This event took place on April 25, 2023. Full transcript: https://hds.harvard.edu/news/2023/04/25/video-i-am-your-sister-audre-lorde-context-black-feminist-activism-and-ethics? Learn more: https://hds.harvard.edu/

The Center for the Study of World Religions hosted a talk by Raashid Goyal, who researches the history, languages, and literature of the early Islamic and pre-Islamic Near East, with a particular interest in the development of legal and political ideas in the early centuries of Islam. This event took place July 20, 2023. A full transcript is forthcoming. Learn more: https://cswr.hds.harvard.edu/

The principle factor determining what we experience is our mind. During an event hosted by the Buddhist Ministry Initiative at Harvard Divinity School, Khentrul Rinpoche spoke about how to harness the potential of mind to transform unwanted conditions into positive circumstances. When we stop our hate of suffering, we learn how to befriend adversity and find strength in the midst of all that we experience. Not only does this transform our own lives, but it gives us the capacity to better serve others. By cultivating greater compassion and reducing oversensitivity we can effectively help others with the challenges that they face. This event took place April 20, 2023. A full transcript can be found on the HDS website: https://hds.harvard.edu/news/2023/06/22/video-power-mind-talk-khentrul-lodro-thaye-rinpoche Learn more: https://hds.harvard.edu/

A new religious philosophy aims to help humans understand again that they are part of and utterly dependent on the living Earth. This is a special audio version of "Following the Gaian Way," a feature written by Erik Assadourian and appearing in the Spring/Summer 2023 issue of Harvard Divinity Bulletin. Read by Michael Dowd. Read or follow along on the Harvard Divinity Bulletin website: bulletin.hds.harvard.edu/following-the-gaian-way/

"I see my craft as a poet as being first and foremost grief work. To re-imagine and commit ourselves to a more peaceful and just world, we must first grieve the harms that have necessitated this pursuit." Religion and Public Life at Harvard Divinity School hosted a poetry reading with Suzannah Omonuk, MDiv '23. This event took place April 19, 2023. A full transcript can be found online: https://rpl.hds.harvard.edu/news/2023/07/20/video-garden-we-sat-weeping-poetry-reading-suzannah-omonuk Learn more: https://rpl.hds.harvard.edu/

The Religion and Public Life program at Harvard Divinity School hosted a talk with Larry L. Rasmussen, Christian Environmental Ethicist, and Reinhold Niebuhr Professor Emeritus of Social Ethics, Union Theological Seminary. He was in conversation with: Diane L. Moore, Faculty Director of Religion and Public Life; Lecturer on Religion, Conflict, and Peace; and Senior Fellow at the Center for the Study of World Religions; Terry Tempest Williams, author, environmental activist, HDS Writer-in-Residence; and john gehman, MTS '24, Council of Student Sustainability Leaders. This event took place April 20, 2023. A full transcript can be found online: https://rpl.hds.harvard.edu/news/2023/07/20/video-book-event-planet-you-inherit Learn more: https://rpl.hds.harvard.edu/