Harvard Divinity School

How did pious medieval Muslims experience health and disease? Rooted in the prophet’s experiences with medicine and healing, Muslim pietistic literature developed cosmologies in which physical suffering and medical interventions interacted with religious obligations and spiritual health. Ahmed Ragab discusses his recent publication, Piety and Patienthood in Medieval Islam. Ragab is Richard T. Watson Associate Professor of Science and Religion at Harvard Divinity School. Respondents: Mark Jordan, Richard Reinhold Niebuhr Professor of Divinity, Harvard Divinity School Nancy Khalek, William A. Dyer Jr. Assistant Professor of the Humanities, Brown University Learn more about Harvard Divinity School and its mission to illuminate, engage, and serve at http://hds.harvard.edu/.

Religion was fundamental to the development of both slavery and race in the Protestant Atlantic world. For slaveholders, Christianity was a sign of freedom, and most believed that slaves should not be eligible for conversion. Meanwhile, Protestant missionaries arrived in the plantation colonies in the 1670s and were appalled that most slave owners rejected the prospect of slave conversion. Over time, missionaries increasingly used the language of race to support their arguments for slave conversion. Enslaved Christians, meanwhile, developed an alternate vision of Protestantism that linked religious conversion to literacy and freedom. This lecture discusses the differing motivations of slave owners, missionaries, and enslaved populations since the 17th century in the Protestant Atlantic. Speaker: Katharine Gerbner is a McKnight Land-Grant Professor and Assistant Professor of History at the University of Minnesota. Her research explores the religious dimensions of race, authority, and freedom in early Americ

This event features three unique voices from several different traditions and life experiences: Mary Ashu, a forest ranger from Cameroon; Prathima Muniyappa, a researcher at the MIT Media Lab exploring the use of space technology to advance issues of social justice; and Stacy Bare, a war veteran, National Geographic Adventurer, and co-founder of the Great Outdoors Lab. More event info here: https://goo.gl/6Pkk4Z Learn more about Harvard Divinity School and its mission to illuminate, engage, and serve at http://hds.harvard.edu/.

It is commonplace today to group the three monotheistic religions—Judaism, Christianity, and Islam—under the category of the “Abrahamic.” Scholars have investigated the roots, ancient and modern, for this category, and continue to debate its contemporary merits. Meanwhile, practitioners are doing significant work in the wider world under the aegis of the “Abrahamic.” This panel will explore the public practice of the Abrahamic Religions. Panelists will reflect on their work in light of this category, including its strengths and limitations. Chair: Charles Stang, Professor of Early Christian Thought, Harvard Divinity School; Director of the Center for the Study of World Religions Panelists: Huda Abuarquob, Regional Director of the Alliance for Middle East Peace Joseph Montville, Director of the Program on Healing Historical Memory, and chair of the Center for World Religions, Diplomacy, and Conflict Resolution in the School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution, George Mason University Stephanie Saldaña, Th

Anglican church leaders in sub-Saharan Africa have a vision of a malaria-free world. Join us for a panel discussion on the role of faith and learn how religious leaders and communities are working to end malaria for good. Panelists: The Right Rev. Andre Soares, bishop of the Diocese of Angola and vice-president of the Council of Christian Churches in Angola The Right Rev. David Njovu, bishop of the Diocese of Lusaka (Zambia) The Right Rev. Cleophas Lunga, bishop of the Diocese of Matebeleland (Zimbabwe) Moderators: Jacob Olupona, Professor of African Religious Traditions, Harvard Divinity School Dyann Wirth, Richard Pearson Strong Professor of Infectious Diseases, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health Learn more about Harvard Divinity School and its mission to illuminate, engage, and serve at http://hds.harvard.edu/.

Cornelia Holden, MDiv ’03 discusses her experiences as a spiritual innovator and founder of Mindful Warrior and the Core Leadership California at Ministry Colloquium. Cornelia works with large companies, universities, secondary schools and athletic teams to develop mental stability, resilience, presence and authenticity to empower them to make values-driven decisions regularly and under pressure. Her work is grounded in spiritual principles, experiential education in body-centered approaches to the mind and a deep commitment to equity and inclusion. Learn more about Harvard Divinity School and its mission to illuminate, engage, and serve at http://hds.harvard.edu/.

By bringing together scholars from across Harvard, this panel discussed the importance of a critical, nuanced, and interdisciplinary understanding of refugee, asylum, and immigrant issues, while highlighting activist efforts. The discussion took place October 11, 2018. It was moderated by HDS's Francis Clooney, S.J., and organized by MTS '19 candidate Shannon Boley. More event info here: https://goo.gl/gpL6ys Learn more about Harvard Divinity School and its mission to illuminate, engage, and serve at http://hds.harvard.edu/.

Anna Sun, 2018–19 WSRP Visiting Associate Professor, delivers the lecture "Turning Ghosts into Ancestors: Ritual, Gender, and the Afterlife in Contemporary Urban China." Learn more about Harvard Divinity School and its mission to illuminate, engage, and serve at http://hds.harvard.edu/.

On October 3, 2018, André Aciman, author of "Call Me by Your Name," and writer Benjamin Balint will discuss themes of exile and homecoming, of time, place, identity, and art across Aciman’s works of fiction and nonfiction. André Aciman is the author of Enigma Variations, Call Me by Your Name, Out of Egypt, and False Papers, and is the editor of The Proust Project (all published by FSG). He teaches comparative literature at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. He lives with his wife and family in Manhattan. Benjamin Balint is a library fellow at the Van Leer Institute in Jerusalem. He has written for the Wall Street Journal, the Weekly Standard, and Die Zeit, and his translations from the Hebrew have appeared in the New Yorker. He is the author of Kafka’s Last Trial: The Case of a Literary Legacy and, with Merav Mack, Jerusalem: City of the Book (forthcoming). This event was hosted by the Center for Study of World Religions at Harvard Divinity School. Learn more about Harvard Divinity Sc

Panel 2 of the Thinking Islam Within Religious Studies: Methods, Histories and Futures conference Panelists include Ahmed Ragab, Charles Stang, and Guy Stroumsa. Learn more about Harvard Divinity School and its mission to illuminate, engage, and serve at http://hds.harvard.edu/.

Panel 3 of the Thinking Islam Within Religious Studies: Methods, Histories and Futures conference Panelists include Diana Eck, Ali Asani, and Roy Mottahedeh. Learn more about Harvard Divinity School and its mission to illuminate, engage, and serve at http://hds.harvard.edu/.

How is the comparative scholarship on Judaism, Christianity, and Islam possible? What are its presuppositions, and what does it entail? How can the history of religions help interfaith understanding? These are some of the questions this lecture addresses. Lecture by Guy Stroumsa, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Oxford University; response by Jon Levenson, Harvard Divinity School; opening remarks by Charles Stang, Harvard Divinity School, and Adam Afterman, Tel-Aviv University Held Wednesday, September 26, 2018, at HDS. Sponsored by the Center for the Study of World Religions at HDS, John Paul II Center for Interreligious Dialogue, Alwaleed Islamic Studies Program, and Center for Middle Eastern Studies. Learn more about Harvard Divinity School and its mission to illuminate, engage, and serve at http://hds.harvard.edu/.

Panel 1 of the Thinking Islam Within Religious Studies: Methods, Histories and Futures conference Panelists include Mohsen Goudarzi, Jane McAuliffe, Shady Nasser, and Walid Saleh. Learn more about Harvard Divinity School and its mission to illuminate, engage, and serve at http://hds.harvard.edu/.

Panel 4 of the Symposium on Religious Literacy and Business: Media & Entertainment moderated by Lauren R. Kerby and featuring panelists Mario Cader-Frech, Bruno del Granado, Kerida McDonald, and Ross Murray. This symposium brings together media professionals and scholars of media, religion, and business to assess the state of religious literacy in the field and the role of entertainment media in shaping the public understanding of religion. Our aim is to foster critical reflection and collaborative relationships between scholars and media professionals in order to improve the religious literacy of the American public and reduce conflict and antagonism by encouraging more complicated, nuanced, and creative representations of religion on screen. Learn more about Harvard Divinity School and its mission to illuminate, engage, and serve at http://hds.harvard.edu/.

Panel 3 of the Symposium on Religious Literacy and Business: Media & Entertainment moderated by Stephen Prothero and featuring panelists CarolAnne Dolan, Geralyn Dreyfous, Amir Hussain, and Gordon Quinn. This symposium brings together media professionals and scholars of media, religion, and business to assess the state of religious literacy in the field and the role of entertainment media in shaping the public understanding of religion. Our aim is to foster critical reflection and collaborative relationships between scholars and media professionals in order to improve the religious literacy of the American public and reduce conflict and antagonism by encouraging more complicated, nuanced, and creative representations of religion on screen. Learn more about Harvard Divinity School and its mission to illuminate, engage, and serve at http://hds.harvard.edu/.

Panel 2 of the Symposium on Religious Literacy and Business: Media & Entertainment moderated by Diane L. Moore and featuring panelists Lorraine Ali, Sarah Hammerschlag, Rhon S. Manigault-Bryant, and Anthony Petro. This symposium brings together media professionals and scholars of media, religion, and business to assess the state of religious literacy in the field and the role of entertainment media in shaping the public understanding of religion. Our aim is to foster critical reflection and collaborative relationships between scholars and media professionals in order to improve the religious literacy of the American public and reduce conflict and antagonism by encouraging more complicated, nuanced, and creative representations of religion on screen. Learn more about Harvard Divinity School and its mission to illuminate, engage, and serve at http://hds.harvard.edu/.

Panel 1 of the Symposium on Religious Literacy and Business: Media & Entertainment, moderated by Sarabinh Levy-Brightman and featuring panelists John L. Jackson, Jr., Mik Moore, Joanna Piacenza, Sheila Murphy, and Christopher White. This symposium brings together media professionals and scholars of media, religion, and business to assess the state of religious literacy in the field and the role of entertainment media in shaping the public understanding of religion. Our aim is to foster critical reflection and collaborative relationships between scholars and media professionals in order to improve the religious literacy of the American public and reduce conflict and antagonism by encouraging more complicated, nuanced, and creative representations of religion on screen. Learn more about Harvard Divinity School and its mission to illuminate, engage, and serve at http://hds.harvard.edu/.

Abigail E. Disney delivers the keynote address of the Religious Literacy and Business: Media & Entertainment Symposium. This symposium brings together media professionals and scholars of media, religion, and business to assess the state of religious literacy in the field and the role of entertainment media in shaping the public understanding of religion. Our aim is to foster critical reflection and collaborative relationships between scholars and media professionals in order to improve the religious literacy of the American public and reduce conflict and antagonism by encouraging more complicated, nuanced, and creative representations of religion on screen. Learn more about Harvard Divinity School and its mission to illuminate, engage, and serve at http://hds.harvard.edu/.

Chakravarthi Ram-Prasad presented "Hindu View of Life: Speaking For and Against Oneself" on Monday, September 17, at the Center for the Study of World Religions at HDS. By reflecting on three key textual passages, Chakravarthi Ram-Prasad engaged with the intersectional nature of his Hindu identity. This examination of Hinduism and intersectionality offered a new perspective on how identity is creatively and constantly reconfigured by the textual lessons and the lived reality of religious traditions. Chakravarthi Ram-Prasad, MA, DPhil (Oxon), is Fellow of the British Academy, and Distinguished Professor of Comparative Religion and Philosophy at Lancaster University. He is the author of some fifty papers and six books. His "Divine Self, Human Self: The Philosophy of Being in Two Gita Commentaries" won the Best Book Award 2011–2015 of the Society for Hindu-Christian Studies. His "Human Being, Bodily Being: Phenomenology from Classical India" was recently published by Oxford University Press. Learn more abo

Religious traditions insist on the importance of cultivating our faculty of attention, whether it be attention to ourselves, others, our environment, or the presence of the divine in any of these three. This panel will explore whether and how the practice of writing, especially fiction writing, helps us cultivate this art of attention. What is it about writing, and the imagination and patience required, that helps us learn how better to attend? The panelists are Stephanie Paulsell, Susan Shallcross Swartz Professor of the Practice of Christian Studies, HDS; C.E. Morgan, author of the novels All the Living and The Sport of Kings, which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize; and Chris Adrian, novelist, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles. Learn more about Harvard Divinity School and its mission to illuminate, engage, and serve at http://hds.harvard.edu/.