Harvard Divinity School

The ongoing destruction of Earth’s natural systems is the result of decisions, made daily, by billions of people. These decisions are voluntary and involuntary at once, collective and personal. The question must be asked: what is driving our actions? How do we reignite and reimagine a spiritual relationship with this beautiful planet we call home? From traditions around the world, and from within...

This talk contradicts the longstanding reading of Emerson as invested in idealism and instead charts his obsession with matter both organic and inorganic, organized and unorganized. By attending to his interest in sciences of life, Branka Arsić reconstructs the geological and botanical theories that led him to formulate a genuinely vitalist ontology; and by outlining his vitalism through readings...

Damaris S. Parsitau, 2018-19 WSRP Visiting Associate Professor, delivers the lecture “The Kingdom of Holy Women: Pentecostalism, Sex and Women’s Bodies in an African Church,” which is based on five years of ethnographic research carried out at the Ministry of Repentance and Holiness, a new and controversial Pentecostal church based in Kenya. Her book-in-progress explores the Ministry’s aims to con...

The Harvard Divinity School Buddhist Community (HBC) hosted the Fifth Annual Buddhism and Race Conference: Centering Intersectionalities, on March 8, 2019 at Harvard Divinity School, Cambridge, MA. During this conference, scholars, sangha leaders, activists, and students from diverse backgrounds joined together to engage in conversations about issues at the intersection of Buddhism, race, and beyo...

Dr. Alaa Murabit discusses the promotion of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), at Harvard Divinity School, highlighting the intersection between women's leadership, religion, and sustainable development. She presents unique examples of women's religious leadership to advance human rights, societal development, and peacebuilding and explores the importance of leveraging religious scholars...

Presented as a rational, scientific, and practical religion, modern Buddhism appears to have all the answers. Even the secular forms of mindfulness promise ever-increasing practitioners that Buddhist meditation will provide the solutions to all their mental, emotional, and spiritual issues. But is there a problem with all of this? In his new book, "A Critique of Western Buddhism: Ruins of the Budd...

On March 1, 2019, Harvard Divinity School hosted its third annual Black Religion, Spirituality, and Culture Conference. The theme was Blackness at the Margins. The day featured many panel discussions, including this one. The revolutionary artist Nina Simone once said, “It’s an artist’s duty to reflect the times.” What does it mean to create art that reveals and speaks to the contemporary social, c...

On March 1, 2019, Harvard Divinity School hosted its third annual Black Religion, Spirituality, and Culture Conference. The theme was Blackness at the Margins. The day featured many panel discussions, including this one. This conversation addressed immigration, gentrification, and the politics of displacement. Full transcript here: https://hds.harvard.edu/files/hds/files/brsc-panel-2.pdf Learn mor...

On March 1, 2019, Harvard Divinity School hosted its third annual Black Religion, Spirituality, and Culture Conference. The theme was Blackness at the Margins. The day featured many panel discussions, including this one. This panel addressed the ways in which Afro-religious traditions are represented within the movie, "Black Panther," and shape the relationship between those on the African contine...

The Harvard Divinity School Buddhist Community (HBC) hosted the Fifth Annual Buddhism and Race Conference: Centering Intersectionalities, on March 8, 2019 at Harvard Divinity School, Cambridge, MA. During this conference, scholars, sangha leaders, activists, and students from diverse backgrounds joined together to engage in conversations about issues at the intersection of Buddhism, race, and beyo...

The Annual Greeley Lecture for Peace and Social Justice took place February 27, 2019, at the HDS Center for the Study of World Religions. (Learn more: https://cswr.hds.harvard.edu/) Race and religion are among the best predictors of how Americans choose a president. Race and religion are also bases for political compromises that call into question our moral credibility on issues ranging from votin...

"Business" is a taboo topic in divinity school--but anyone who wants to change the world needs to understand how to think like an entrepreneur. Leading experts on social and wellness entrepreneurship, innovative leadership, and the intersection of money and spirituality share their stories and wisdom in a panel discussion. Full transcript here: https://hds.harvard.edu/news/2019/03/05/video-busines...

Poor mestizos in northern Peru offer a new way to theorize humanism and sentient landscapes that interact with humans in terms of environmental justice, collective ethics, and health. By defining “community” and “well-being” as humans-in-relationship-to-places-as-persons, poor mestizos resignify “nature” itself as an anchor for social justice. Ana Mariella Bacigalupo, Professor of Anthropology at...

Much has been written about the Northern Ireland peace process, particularly on securing the peace. However, as Senator George Mitchell commented in relation to the Good Friday agreement, “If you think getting this agreement was difficult, implementing it will be even more difficult.” Twenty-one years after the signing of the Good Friday agreement, those have proven to be prophetic words. Dr. Maso...

Wylin D. Wilson, 2018-19 WSRP Visiting Associate Professor, delivers the lecture "'Bioethics on the Margins: Vulnerable Populations and Health Outcomes." Full transcript here: https://wsrp.hds.harvard.edu/news/2019/02/20/video-bioethics-on-the-margins Learn more about Harvard Divinity School and its mission to illuminate, engage, and serve at http://hds.harvard.edu/.

On February 19, U.S. presidential candidate, spiritual lecturer, and number one New York Times bestselling author Marianne Williamson spoke at HDS on the topic "Reparations for Slavery: The Role of Repentance in Politics." The event featured an opening talk by HDS student Kassi Underwood, MDiv '19. Full transcript here: https://hds.harvard.edu/news/2019/02/19/video-marianne-williamson-role-repenta...

This panel explores the intersection of racism, oppression, urban trauma, disaster, and other social realities faced by those desperately in need of peace. More than the absence of violence and war, we need the aggressive and proactive generation of peace, healing, and bliss under a continuing barrage of compromises to health and well-being. What is peace? How do we create it when there is little?...

S. Zahra Moballegh, 2018-19 WSRP Visiting Associate Professor, delivers the lecture "Veiled Women Unveiling God: Understanding the Qur’an Through Its Women Characters." Learn more about Harvard Divinity School and its mission to illuminate, engage, and serve at hds.harvard.edu/.

Evolution is an organizing principle of the living world. While competition is integral to evolution, cooperation can be seen as the master architect of biological complexity, language, and culture. Human beings have emerged from this evolutionary process as “SuperCooperators.” In this Religions and the Practice of Peace (RPP) Colloquium, Martin Nowak discusses the scientific interpretation of evo...

Sound Education was a 3-day event at Harvard University for educational and academic podcasters and radio hosts, and their listeners. It was hosted by Ministry of Ideas, a podcast based at Harvard Divinity School. The conference featured many panel discussions, including this one with strategies for growing a podcast's audience. Learn more about Harvard Divinity School and its mission to illuminat...

Phakchok Rinpoche and Erric Solomon are authors of the recently released book Radically Happy: A User’s Guide to the Mind. These two meditation experts—a seasoned Silicon Valley entrepreneur and a traditionally trained Tibetan Rinpoche— discussed their efforts to make meditation, mindfulness, and Buddhist thought accessible to a secular and modern audience.

Sound Education was a 3-day event at Harvard University for educational and academic podcasters and radio hosts, and their listeners. It was hosted by Ministry of Ideas, a podcast based at Harvard Divinity School (HDS). Zachary Davis, host of Ministry of Ideas, welcomed participants. Diane Moore, Director of the Religious Literacy Project, delivered the first keynote address. Moore is HDS Lecturer...

Peter Hayes (Ph. D., Yale, 1982) specializes in the histories of Nazi Germany and the Holocaust and, in particular, in the conduct of the nation’s largest corporations during the Third Reich. Dr. Hayes gave this year's Dudleian Lecture on "Kristallnacht 1938: Crescendo and Overture." Learn more about Harvard Divinity School and its mission to illuminate, engage, and serve at www.hds.harvard.edu.

On November 7, 2018, 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. Learn more about Harvard Divinity School and its mission to illuminate, engage, and serve at www.hds.harvard.edu.

On November 7, 2018, Harvard Divinity School hosted its annual Theological Education Day. The day featured many panel discussions, including this one on admissions and financial aid. Learn more about Harvard Divinity School and its mission to illuminate, engage, and serve at www.hds.harvard.edu.