Harvard Divinity School

In conjunction with the HDS Committee on Racial Justice and Healing and in cooperation with the courses "Theories and Methods in the Study of Religion" (T&M) and "Introduction to Ministry Studies" (IMS), Professors David Holland and Matthew Potts hosted a two-part series of community conversations on issues of white supremacy and anti-blackness in the study of ministry and religion. On September 2, Professor Potts, Associate Professor of Religion and Literature and of Ministry Studies, moderated a discussion on white supremacy in the study and practice of ministry. Panelists included: Cheryl Giles, Francis Greenwood Peabody Senior Lecturer on Pastoral Care and Counseling; Karen King, Hollis Professor of Divinity; Ousmane Kane, Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Professor of Contemporary Islamic Religion and Society, Professor of African and African American Studies (FAS), and Denominational Counselor to Muslim Students; Dan McKanan, Ralph Waldo Emerson Unitarian Universalist Association Senior Lecturer in Divinity; and Michelle Sanchez, Associate Professor of Theology. These community-wide events seek to facilitate conversations among students, staff, faculty, and alumni on essential topics. We hope all in the HDS community can join us for these critical discussions as we launch into a promising, and challenging, new academic year. Full transcript here: https://hds.harvard.edu/news/2020/09/02/video-white-supremacy-study-and-practice-ministry

Cornell William Brooks, Visiting Professor of the Practice of Prophetic Religion and Public Leadership at HDS and Professor of the Practice of Public Leadership and Social Justice at Harvard Kennedy School, virtually delivered the 205th Convocation address at Harvard Divinity School. Brooks's address was entitled "George and Jesus: Policing an Insurrection of Hope." Full transcript here: https://hds.harvard.edu/news/2020/08/27/convocation-2020-george-and-jesus-policing-insurrection-hope

John Camardella’s students have learned how to go beyond the textbook and embrace the “complex ways that religions function in the human experience.” Camardella is a world religions educator at Prospect High School in Illinois. Interview Transcript: We want our students to make a difference in society and all of us in education have to examine that if our time in the classroom is preparing them to do that or not. Before they were leaving my classroom thinking they knew the answers because of some Scantron tests. And now they're leaving aware that they do have the vocabulary in the context of certain religions, but now they're leaving being comfortable with the questions. The most common shifting that students have in the class is that they are now hyper-aware that a lack of understanding about sort of these complex ways that religions function in different cultures and in different human experiences that it actually can fuel racism and prejudice and bigotry, right? And it does not lead to cooperative endeavors, you know, in local areas and national areas. That's invaluable for these young men and women who are entering our society as citizens. The program was instrumental in helping me as a person and as an educator make that shift and now it's serving the students in my classroom and I'm forever grateful for that.

Religious literacy is one of the “most urgent issues that anyone serious about social justice can undertake.” An RPL fellowship gave Greg Khalil the space to critically think about his work. Khalil is the co-founder and president of Telos Group. Interview Transcript: I do a lot of work in building social movement, including communities of faith, across lines of difference. And this work is complicated because, to build movement, you have to invite people on a journey that's theirs. That's not yours. And I think, through RLP, it gave some affirmation. But it also challenged me to think more critically about that ethical dilemma, which you feel on a day-to-day basis when you're in the trenches but you don't really examine. And so learning literacy with regards to religion is one of the most urgent issues that anyone who is serious about social justice, peacemaking, political change can undertake. There is not just a blind spot among academia and among many liberals. There is a willful disdain for religion, faith, and theology. And yet these are essential parts of the human experience that drive us as individuals, as communities, and as a body politic. What I walk away with is a great sense of hope that there are serious people doing this work and an even greater sense of drive to say, hey, so many of our friends need to be involved in this conversation. It's not a question of whether religion, faith will shape our world. It's a question of how. And if we sit back on the sidelines and if we don't learn to be literate and how to engage honestly as peers, unfortunately, fundamentalist, supremacist, extremist religious narratives will continue to gain prominence and shape our world.

Gathering Historias, an initiative of the Arnold Arboretum, envisions an outdoor landscape that fully includes and connects the stories of our expanding Latino communities. Developed by Steven Fisher, a master’s degree candidate at the Harvard Divinity School, this project recognizes that the diverse voices of Latino communities can contribute to our cultural narratives of the environment. In this recording we hear from Wendy Estrada who has lived throughout Latin America. Now living in Brookline, Mass., with her family, Wendy remembers some of her favorite sounds she experienced in her former home in Panama City. You can read the English and Spanish transcript of this recording, and listen to others, on the Gathering Historias project site: https://www.arboretum.harvard.edu/visit/gathering-historias/. You can read a story about the project for more information: https://www.arboretum.harvard.edu/gathering-historias-reveals-deep-rooted-connections-to-nature-and-community/

Casper ter Kuile, MDiv '16, MPP '16, and Angie Thurston, MDiv '16, map and convene the Millennial leaders of spiritual communities at the forefront of religious change. From CrossFit to dinner churchers, Muslim small groups, and maker spaces, their work illuminates the rapidly shifting generational patterns in American religious life today. Full transcript here: https://hds.harvard.edu/news/2020/04/02/video-religion-new-generation Learn more about Harvard Divinity School and its mission to illuminate, engage, and serve at https://hds.harvard.edu/.

This week, the HDS Episcopal/Anglican Fellowship is offering a podcast version of Noon Service on the topic “Mary’s YES, our YES!” Celebrate the Feast of the Annunciation with Anne Stetson MDiv II, Jonathan Robert Smith MDiv II, Joris Bürmann, MDiv II, Carolyn Beard MDiv I, and The Rev. Dr. Regina L. Walton, Counselor to Episcopal/Anglican Students. Permission to podcast/stream the music in this service obtained from One License with license number A-715440.

Three Hindu monastics visiting Harvard Divinity School this year spoke on March 11, 2020, on the great tradition of the Upanisads and Vedanta, and why this wisdom is relevant in today’s global society. Featuring: Swami Sarvapriyananda (Ramakrishna Mission); Brahmacharini Shweta Chaitanya (Chinmaya Mission); Sadhak Akshar–Guru: Mahant Swami Maharaj (BAPS Swaminarayan Sanstha). Moderated by Francis X. Clooney, S.J., Parkman Professor of Divinity and Professor of Comparative Theology, Harvard Divinity School. The discussant was Anantanand Rambachan, Professor of Religion, Saint Olaf College. Made possible by support from the Nagral Fund. Full transcript here: https://hds.harvard.edu/news/2020/03/19/video-vedanta-21st-century Learn more about Harvard Divinity School and its mission to illuminate, engage, and serve at https://hds.harvard.edu/.

Considerable attention has been directed to the possibility of a technological singularity when artificial intelligences “wake up” and start acting in their own self-interest. Long before then, however, humanity will confront an ethical singularity—a point at which the evaluation of values systems acquires infinite value. The computational factories and intelligence-gathering infrastructure of the global attention economy have begun to function as karmic engines, perfecting values-reinforcing feedback loops that are transforming everything from the dynamics of social interaction to geopolitics. Drawing on Buddhist resources, this talk made the case that our prospects of realizing more humane global futures depends on changing how we are present and developing both capacities for and commitments to compassionate ethical creativity. Peter D. Hershock is director of the Asian Studies Development Program at the East-West Center in Honolulu. He has authored or edited more than a dozen books on Buddhism, most recently "Philosophies of Place: An Intercultural Conversation" (edited, 2019). His current project, initiated as a 2017-18 Fellow of the Berggruen Institute in China, is a monograph on The Intelligence Revolution: The Challenges of Humane Presence in an Era of Artificial Agents and Smart Services—a reflection on the personal and societal impacts of the attention economy and artificial intelligence. Video and full transcript here: https://cswr.hds.harvard.edu/news/2020/02/19/intelligence-revolution-and-new-attention-economy-ethical-singularity Learn more about Harvard Divinity School and its mission to illuminate, engage, and serve at https://hds.harvard.edu/.

This event, held February 11 at the CSWR, is part of a year-long series titled "Theological Bioethics Within Marginalized Communities." This lecture is a womanist critique of a longstanding racist campaign of domestic terror in the United States. It investigated the intersectionality of racism, in particular the racist acts condoned by religious communities and by the health care system. It gave special attention to the 40-year Syphilis Study at Tuskegee conducted by the United States Public Health Service. The Rev. Dr. Joan R. Harrell is a womanist practical theologian and journalist committed to social justice. Her scholarship investigates the intersectionality of racism, sexism, xenophobia, religion, politics, media and public health inequities in marginalized communities. She is a Journalism Lecturer and the inaugural Diversity Coordinator for the Auburn University School of Communication and Journalism and Associate Pastor at the historic Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church in Montgomery, Al. Video and full transcript here: https://cswr.hds.harvard.edu/news/2020/02/13/video-becoming-beloved-community-midst-domestic-terror Learn more about Harvard Divinity School and its mission to illuminate, engage, and serve at https://hds.harvard.edu/.