Harvard Divinity School

Dune. The Matrix. Blade Runner. Star Wars. We know that fantasy and sci-fi use religion, but do they change actual religion in the process? Do they impact how we believe, what we believe, and even the nature of belief itself? In this episode, we investigate why fantasy and sci-fi use religious elements in storytelling and even create full religions of their own. Do they appropriate or appreciate, respect or denigrate? View the full transcript here: https://hds.harvard.edu/news/2021/10/27/fantastic-faiths-and-what-we-can-learn-them

This week, we conclude our Divinity Dialogues Gomes Award podcast series with a reflective conversation between Dean Hempton and our 2021 Gomes Friend of the School honoree, Drew Gilpin Faust. Faust holds several titles, including President Emerita of Harvard University and Arthur Kingsley Porter University Professor. She has also been a longtime partner and advocate for the Divinity School and was recognized as this year’s Friend of the School for her humane leadership, guided by a profound commitment to collaboration and an unflinching attention to the past in service of a more just future. This episode includes an excerpt from the discussion Dean Hempton had with President Emerita Faust at the award ceremony in May 2021. View the full transcript here: https://hds.harvard.edu/transcript-divinity-dialogues-gomes-honoree-president-emerita-faust-conversation-dean-hempton

"The notion of a stranger, for me—the way I was raised and the way that I studied—is that the stranger just might hold the key to your liberation" Continuing "Divinity Dialogues"—a special edition podcast series from Harvard Divinity School that puts conversations on faith, purpose, and bearing witness at the center of today’s most pressing issues. Today, we hear from HDS alum Robin Coste Lewis, MTS ’97. Robin is a poet laureate, National Book Award winner, Doctor of Creative Writing and Literature, LA Woman of the Year, and avid Sanskrit scholar whose current research focuses on the intersecting production histories of early African American poetry and photography. She is also one of this year's Gomes Distinguished Alumni Honorees. In the interview, Robin delves into the connections between Sanskrit and the time-space continuum and what Shiva might be able to teach us about liberation by way of strangers. Note: The full conversation was edited for time to keep this podcast in the 30-minute range. Transcript available: https://hds.harvard.edu/news/07/06/2021/divinity-dialogues-robin-coste-lewis-epic-poetry-and-sacredness-female-deities

Continuing "Divinity Dialogues"—a special edition podcast series from Harvard Divinity School that puts conversations on faith, purpose, and bearing witness at the center of today’s most pressing issues. Today, we hear from HDS alum Omar Sultan Haque, MTS ’04, MD ’08. Dr. Haque is a physician, social scientist, teacher, and philosopher who studies questions ranging across social medicine, religion, and bioethics. He is also one of this year's Gomes Distinguished Alumni Honorees. In the interview, Haque shares how he began his spiritual journey as an atheist, what psychiatry misses with its materialistic bias, and how to navigate moral pluralism within the medical field. Full transcript available here: https://hds.harvard.edu/news/2021/06/17/divinity-dialogues-medicine-metaphysics-and-moral-pluralism

Continuing "Divinity Dialogues"—a special edition podcast series from Harvard Divinity School that puts conversations on faith, purpose, and bearing witness at the center of today’s most pressing issues.  Today, we hear from HDS alum Rod Owens, MDiv ’17, author, activist, Buddhist Lama, and one of this year’s Gomes Distinguished Alumni Honorees. Considered one of the leaders of the next generation of Dharma teachers, Lama Rod blends his formal Buddhist training with experiences from his life as a Black, queer male, born and raised in the South, and heavily influenced by the church and its community. In the interview, Owens talks about practicing non-attachment, seeking spaciousness rather than rigidity, and finding freedom. Full transcript available here: https://hds.harvard.edu/news/2021/06/10/divinity-dialogues-lama-rod-owens-love-rage-and-freedom

Episode 1 - Introducing Divinity Dialogues—a special edition podcast series from Harvard Divinity School that puts conversations on faith, purpose, and bearing witness at the center of today’s most pressing issues. Today, we hear from HDS alum Joshua Eaton, MDiv ’10, investigative journalist and one of this year’s Gomes Distinguished Alumni Honorees. Based in Washington, D.C., Joshua Eaton holds the powerful accountable and gives a voice to the vulnerable. He has worked with investigative teams at CQ Roll Call and ThinkProgress. In the interview, Eaton talks how spirituality has moved him in his career, what we can do to bring ethics and compassion back to leadership, and how to keep the vital work of storytelling alive in a world governed by the “hot take industrial complex.” Full transcript available on the HDS site: https://hds.harvard.edu/news/2021/06/04/investigative-journalist-joshua-eaton-hot-take-industrial-complex

A dialogue between CSWR director and HDS Professor Charles Stang and Tanya Luhrmann on her book, "How God Becomes Real." Tanya Marie Luhrmann is the Albert Ray Lang Professor at Stanford University, in the Stanford Anthropology Department (and Psychology, by courtesy). Her work focuses on local theory of mind and the world of the spirit: on voices, visions, and the presence of invisible others. She was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2003 and received a John Guggenheim Fellowship award in 2007. "How God Becomes Real" was published by Princeton University Press in 2020. Full transcript available: https://cswr.hds.harvard.edu/news/2021/04/26/2021/video-how-god-becomes-real-kindling-presence-invisible-others

Todne Thomas, HDS Assistant Professor of African American Religions, discusses her recent publication, "Kincraft: The Making of Black Evangelical Sociality." Judith Casselberry (Bowdoin College) and Soong-Chan Rah (North Park University) served as respondents. Full transcription available: https://cswr.hds.harvard.edu/news/2021/05/10/video-author-discussion-todne-thomas-kincraft-making-black-evangelical-sociality

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). Sravana Borkataky-Varma is a historian, educator, and social entrepreneur. As a historian, she studies Indian religions focusing on esoteric rituals and gender, particularly in Hinduism (Śākta Tantra). As an educator, she is currently working as a Lecturer at Harvard University’s Faculty of Divinity and at University of North Carolina-Wilmington, where she teaches introductory courses on World Religions and higher-level courses on Hinduism, Buddhism, Religion and Film, and History of Yoga. Full transcript available: https://cswr.hds.harvard.edu/news/2021/04/27/hindu-margins-third-gender-and-women-spiritual-partners

How do we face the harsh realities and the loss associated with climate change, while still finding joy in the natural wonder that surrounds us? Today, we're speaking with Terry Tempest Williams, activist, conservationist, Harvard Divinity School Writer in Residence, and author of numerous books, including the environmental literature classic, "Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place." In this episode, Terry talks about the spiritual implications of climate change, the class she's teaching at HDS, and how we can still find beauty despite the chaos that surrounds us. View the full transcript here: https://hds.harvard.edu/news/2021/04/21/terry-tempest-williams-finding-beauty-broken-world