Harvard Divinity School

Sixty years ago on Good Friday, a famous experiment took place at Boston University's Marsh Chapel conducted by Harvard Divinity School student Walter Pahnke, where he tried to answer the question: Do psychedelic drugs occasioned mystical experiences? In 2022, conversations about the connections between psychedelics, science and medicine, and spirituality are again top of mind, from Harvard and the academy to research hospitals and beyond. In this episode, Harvard Divinity School student Paul Gillis-Smith speaks to scholar J. Christian Greer about the impact of the “Marsh Chapel Miracle,” what role psychedelics might play in the future of religion, and why, he says, there’s potential for great harm, but reasons to be hopeful, too. Full transcript: https://hds.harvard.edu/news/2022/05/12/psychedelics-spirituality-culture-seekership

Our year-long, intentional engagement with our Common Read text, "Red Nation Rising: From Bordertown Violence to Native Liberation," by Nick Estes, Melanie K. Yazzie, Jennifer Nez Denetdale, and David Correia, concluded with a powerful session with all four authors who engaged in conversation with HDS faculty, staff, and students. Dean Teddy Hickman-Maynard, Dean Steph Gauchel, and MDiv candidates Rebecca Mendoza Nunziato and Emma Thomas explored the themes of this urgent text with the authors and discussed ways our community can respond to their call to advance the work of decolonization and Native liberation at Harvard and beyond.

Jocelyne Cesari, J. Dermot Dunphy Visiting Professor of Religion, Violence, and Peacebuilding, discussed her recent publication, "We God's People: Christianity, Islam and Hinduism in the World of Nations" with David F. Holland and Ousmane Kane. This event took place on April 21, 2022. Learn more: https://cswr.hds.harvard.edu/

Each spring, the Office of Ministry Studies organizes the Billings Preaching Prize Finals, an annual preaching competition open to second- and third-year MDiv students. Congratulations to MDiv candidate Mauricio Bruce, the 2022 Billings Preaching Prize Competition winner, and to finalists Sharon Christner and Erica Williams for their incredible talents. The finals were held during Noon Service on April 20 in Williams Chapel. The event also featured a reading from Carolyn Beard, the Massachusetts Bible Society scripture reading winner, and jessica young chang, the non-scripture reading winner.

Spiritual leader, human rights activist, and grassroots organizer Erica Williams’ project for the MRPL was to launch the “Set It Off Movement” which is aimed at ending the dehumanization, destruction, and death-dealing of poor Black women in America. The movement was inspired by the 1996 film Set It Off, which follows four Black women friends in Los Angeles, California, who plan to execute a bank robbery—each doing so for different reasons—to achieve better for themselves and their families. This event took place on April 26, 2022. Learn more: https://rpl.hds.harvard.edu/

Nurhaizatul Jamil, Visiting Assistant Professor of Women's Studies and Islam and 2021-22 Women's Studies in Religion Program Research Associate, delivered the lecture, "Islamic Self-Help, Gendered Anxieties, and Racial Capitalism in Singapore." This event took place on April 12, 2022. Learn more: https://wsrp.hds.harvard.edu/

In this webinar, speakers showcased the unique impact of Divinity School alumni in the world, discussing the critical importance and need for ethical practices and religious literacy in the field of journalism today. This event took place on April 27, 2022. Learn more: https://rpl.hds.harvard.edu/

As writers and poets, we often wonder: who is this porous and gullible and hungry person writing my poems, who is feeding her and is she for real? Is it truly me who wrote this? Is that my story, my voice? Why don’t I sound like myself—or worse, why does my self sound…not quite right? These questions can be painful, discouraging, silencing. Let’s move beyond them and go deeper into the real mysteries, the useful ones, the ones that help us write and propel us further into our journey as writers. In this talk, Brenda Shaughnessy examined why some “first words” last, what trusting your voice means, and how inchoate feelings can be transformed into art. This event took place on April 19, 2022. Learn more: https://cswr.hds.harvard.edu/

A yearly tradition at HDS, the Stendahl Symposium honors the memory of former professor Krister Stendahl, who tirelessly sought to repair fractions between Jews and Christians, supported the ordination of women, and pushed for the full inclusion and participation of women and minority voices in academia and interfaith work. Each year, the symposium carries Stendahl’s legacy forward by presenting student papers centered around the topic of “Conversations Across Religious Boundaries.” This year's symposium centered the political nature of Stendahl's legacy by engaging the following subtheme: "Solidarity, Resistance, and Liberation In and Through Religious Difference." This event took place on April 19, 2022.

Erik Davis’ first book, the celebrated "Techgnosis: Myth, Magic, and Mysticism in the Age of Information," was published almost twenty-five years ago. Still in print, this cult classic of media studies continues to inform conversations about technology, consciousness, and new digital expressions of religion and esotericism. In this Gnoseologies event, speakers discussed Davis’ intellectual trajectory, the relevant lessons of 1990s "cyberdelia," and how techgnostic themes continue to inform our era of AI, post-truth polarization, the simulation hypothesis, and the explosion of digital occultism, from Insta-witches to TikTok “reality shifters." This event took place on April 13, 2022. Learn more: https://cswr.hds.harvard.edu/