Harvard Divinity School

On November 6, 2019, Harvard Divinity School hosted its annual Theological Education Day. The day featured many panel discussions, including this one on ministry studies and field education program. Full transcript here: https://hds.harvard.edu/files/hds/files/ted-ministry-at-hds-2019.pdf Learn more about Harvard Divinity School and its mission to illuminate, engage, and serve at https://hds.harvard.edu/.

On November 6, 2019, Harvard Divinity School hosted its annual Theological Education Day. The day featured many panel discussions, including this one with students and staff describing life at HDS. Full transcription here: https://hds.harvard.edu/files/hds/files/ted-community-2019.pdf Learn more about Harvard Divinity School and its mission to illuminate, engage, and serve at https://hds.harvard.edu/.

A conversation on Nov. 4 with the three Hindu monastics visiting HDS this year, each representing a different Hindu tradition: Swami Sarvapriyananda (Ramakrishna Mission), Brahmacharini Shweta Chaitanya (Chinmaya Mission), and Sadhak Akshar–Guru: Mahant Swami Maharaj (BAPS Swaminarayan Sanstha). They introduced the traditions to which they belong, explained why they joined the traditions, and what it has meant for their lives. Francis X. Clooney, S.J., Parkman Professor of Divinity, moderated the conversation. Video and full transcription here: https://hds.harvard.edu/news/2019/11/04/video-being-hindu-monastic-personal-journeys Learn more about Harvard Divinity School and its mission to illuminate, engage, and serve at hds.harvard.edu/.

Alicia Izharuddin (University of Malaya), Visiting Senior Lecturer on Women’s Studies and Islam, gives a lecture entitled “‘Bureaucratic Islam and the Romance Industry in Southeast Asia.” Video and full transcript: https://wsrp.hds.harvard.edu/news/2019/10/24/video-bureaucratic-islam-and-romance-industry-southeast-asia Learn more about Harvard Divinity School and its mission to illuminate, engage, and serve at http://hds.harvard.edu/.

Anne E. Monius, Professor of South Asian Religions at Harvard Divinity School, passed away on August 3, 2019. A distinguished scholar and engaged as well as engaging teacher, Professor Monius taught for 17 years at Harvard Divinity School, where she specialized in the religious traditions of India. Her research examined the practices and products of literary culture to reconstruct the history of religions in South Asia. HDS faculty and friends remembered Professor Monius during a memorial service on October 11, 2019. Full transcript here: https://hds.harvard.edu/news/video-anne-e-monius-memorial-service

Jyoti Puri, Visiting Professor of Women’s Studies and South Asian Religions Colorado Scholar from Simmons University, presents on “Death in Transit: Cremation, Spectacle, and Looking Off-center.” Video and full transcript here: https://wsrp.hds.harvard.edu/news/2019/09/27/video-death-transit-cremation-spectacle-and-looking-off-center Learn more about Harvard Divinity School and its mission to illuminate, engage, and serve at hds.harvard.edu/.

Marder formulates the paradox of “excessive heat” that, on the one hand, signals the ardency of faith and the love of God and, on the other, the effect of sin configured as ariditas (dryness), undoing viriditas (the greening green, a self-refreshing power of creation). The difference between the two kinds of excessive heat is folded into the material distinction between the woods and wood: while timber is dry and ready to go up in flames, living trees are anything but inert matter ready to be incinerated. Paradoxically, though, the woods themselves are ablaze; they are heat, which Hildegard associates with spirit. In them, solar energy is not only captured and detained but perpetually transformed in an ongoing elemental conversation with water, the earth, and the atmosphere. Michael Marder is IKERBASQUE Research Professor in the Department of Philosophy at the University of the Basque Country (UPV-EHU), Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain. His writings span the fields of phenomenology, political thought, and environmental philosophy. Video and full transcript here: https://cswr.hds.harvard.edu/news/2019/09/26/ardencies-st-hidegard-blazing-plants Learn more about Harvard Divinity School and its mission to illuminate, engage, and serve at http://hds.harvard.edu/.

In this lecture, Ruth Harris examines how Vivekananda conveyed the meaning of “guru-bakhti” to his female disciples, and the spiritual lens through which he sought to mold them in a male spiritual milieu. Ruth Harris is Professor of Modern History at the University of Oxford and Senior Research Fellow at All Souls’ College. She has published widely in the history of religion, science, women’s history, French history, and more recently, global history. The lecture took place at the Center for the Studies for World Religions on September 23, 2019. Full transcript here: https://cswr.hds.harvard.edu/news/2019/09/23/gurus-women-yoga Learn more about Harvard Divinity School and its mission to illuminate, engage, and serve at http://hds.harvard.edu/.

Author, activist, and farmer Leah Penniman discusses the movement for food sovereignty and building a food system based on justice, dignity, and abundance for all members of our community. The talk took place at the Center for the Center for the Study of World Religions (CSWR) at Harvard Divinity School on September 17, 2019. Leah Penniman is a Black Kreyol educator, farmer/peyizan, author, and food justice activist from Soul Fire Farm in Grafton, New York. She has been farming since 1996, and co-founded Soul Fire Farm in 2011 with the mission to end racism in our food system. Her James Beard award-winning book, Farming While Black, offers the first comprehensive manual for African-heritage people ready to reclaim their rightful place of dignified agency in our food system. Video and full transcript here: https://cswr.hds.harvard.edu/news/2019/09/17/video-farming-while-black Learn more about Harvard Divinity School and its mission to illuminate, engage, and serve at http://hds.harvard.edu/.

Professor Davíd Carrasco, Neil L. Rudenstine Professor for the Study of Latin America delivered the 2019 Convocation address "Toni Morrison Stories: Goodness and Mercy and Mexico," on September 5, 2019. Wampanoag elder Ramona Peters welcomed students to the location on the ancestral lands of the Massachuset, Nipmuc, and Wampanoag people. Actress, poet, songwriter, and educator Alexandria Danielle King performed and HDS Professor Cornel West provided a blessing. Jazz pianist Danilo Pérez performed an original tribute to Morrison. Full transcript here: https://hds.harvard.edu/news/2019/09/05/video-convocation-2019-toni-morrison-stories Learn more about Harvard Divinity School and its mission to illuminate, engage, and serve at http://hds.harvard.edu/.