Graduate Program in ReligionBy Henry Fountain, New York Times CLEWISTON, Fla. — Vicious hurricanes all in a row, one having swamped Houston and another about to buzz through Florida after ripping up the Caribbean. Wildfires bursting out all over the West after a season of scorching hot temperatures and years of dryness. And late Thursday night, off the coast of Mexico, a monster of an earthquake. You could be forgiven for thinking apocalyptic thoughts, like the science fiction writer John Scalzi who, surveying the charred and flooded and shaken… read more about Apocalyptic Thoughts Amid Nature’s Chaos? You Could Be Forgiven »
Sunday night, August 27, the Graduate Program in Religion welcomed new and returning PhD students by hosting a dinner for students, faculty and their families. It was held at The Boiler Room at American Tobacco Campus, and 86 people were in attendance. Greetings were brought by Director of Graduate Studies Professor Stephen B. Chapman, Chair of Religious Studies David Morgan and Duke Divinity's Associate Dean for Faculty Development Randy Maddox. Professor Joel Marcus played guitar and sang his… read more about Welcoming New Students »
From: Dean Paula D. McClain <gradschool-dean@duke.edu>Sent: Thursday, August 17, 2017 10:31 PMSubject: Sixth-year tuition scholarships for Ph.D. students Dear students, I hope you had an enjoyable and productive summer. As the new academic year rapidly approaches, I am writing to let you know about a new source of financial support that we recently finalized for Ph.D. students. Effective immediately, Duke will provide tuition… read more about Sixth-year Tuition Scholarships Announced by Dean McClain »
The Graduate Program in Religion welcomes eight new students this fall. The incoming students represent six different tracks, or fields of study. Adam Hudnut-Beumler joins American Religion, Sunjin Im - Asian Religions, Nathan Hershberger - Christian Theological Studies, Cody David - Hebrew Bible/Old Testament, Tyler Dunstan and David Leonhardt - New Testament. In addition, Jesse Sun and Erin Zoutendam join us in the inaugural year for the World Christianity track. The students are set to start… read more about GPR Welcomes 8 Students This Fall »
Duke’s doctoral programs in religion and theology have received a two-year $30,000 grant from the Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning to promote pedagogical formation. The Ph.D. program, known as the Graduate Program in Religion (jointly administered by the Department of Religious Studies and the Divinity School), and Th.D. program (offered by the Divinity School) will share this funding and combine efforts to enhance their teacher training initiatives. In the most recent survey by the National Research Council, the… read more about Duke Doctoral Programs in Religion and Theology Awarded Wabash Grant »
Erin Walsh, candidate for the PhD in the Graduate Program in Religion, has been recognized for having course evaluations in the top 5% across Trinity College. Dr. Mark Goodacre (Religious Studies, GPR) and Dr. David Need (Religious Studies) were also in the category of the top 5% of students evaluations. Congratulations to all three for their achievement! read more about PhD Candidate Erin Walsh's Course in Top 5% »
Two of our PhD students, Brad Boswell and Nick Wagner, attended intensive language study in Greece during the months of June and July. The program attended was the Gennadius Library Medieval Greek Summer Session. The session included studying Byzantine texts, paleography, and much more. You can read more about the program here. read more about GPR Students Study in Greece »
Jeffrey Nicolaisen is a Ph.D. student in the Graduate Program in Religion. Nicolaisen earned his B.A. at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and his M.Eng. in civil engineering from Nagoya University in Nagoya, Japan. Subsequently, he worked as an environmental consultant for several years before deciding to pursue a Ph.D. in religion. To transition into the field of religion, he first earned an M.A. in Asian Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, then joined the Asian… read more about Jeff Nicolaisen Continues Fulbright-Hays Research in Taiwan »
Dear colleagues, I am writing to let you know that Liz Hutton will be leaving her position as The Graduate School’s associate dean for admissions, effective August 8. Liz will transition to the Duke SISS Office, where over the next year she will focus on supporting Duke Kunshan with the implementation of PeopleSoft in preparation for the launch of Duke Kunshan’s undergraduate degree program in fall 2018. While we are excited for Liz as she embarks on her new professional pursuits, we are also sad to lose her and will miss… read more about Assoc. Dean for Admissions Liz Hutton Transitions to Duke SISS »
Kalman P. Bland, Professor Emeritus of the Department of Religious Studies, Duke University, died on July 15, 2017, in Chesterfield Royal Hospital in Derbyshire, UK. He became seriously ill while traveling with his partner, Annabel Wharton, in Italy and England; doctors identified a tumor on the pancreas as the cause of the complications that led to his death. Kalman was a perfect scholar and intellectual. He received his BA in philosophy from Columbia University, his PhD in medieval… read more about GPR and Religious Studies Mourn Loss »
Recent alumna of our program Julie Kelto Lillis's first published article (from spring 2016, Journal of Early Christian Studies) received the American Society of Church History's Jane Dempsey Douglass Prize for the year's best published essay on the role of women in the history of Christianity. To read the article, click here. read more about Julie Kelto Lillis Wins Award for Article »
Our PhD candidate Erin Galgay Walsh won the Best Paper Prize at the North American Patristics Society meeting in May, 2017. You can read more about the prizes offered here. The name of the paper Erin presented is "Verse Exegesis: The Performance of Theological Reflection." Congratulations, Erin! read more about Erin Galgay Walsh Wins Best Paper Prize »
Matthew Mitchell has been awarded a Stanley Weinstein Dissertation Prize, given for the best doctoral dissertation on East Asian Buddhism for academic years 2014-2016. The Selection Committee chose his dissertation, “Beyond the Convent Walls: The Local and Japan-wide Activities of Daihongan’s Nuns in the Early Modern Period (c. 1550–1868)," (nominated by Richard Jaffe, Duke University) from a field of fine contributions. During the next academic year he will be invited to… read more about Matthew Mitchell Wins Dissertation Prize »
Dr. Stephen B. Chapman has won an award from the Academy of Parish Clergy for his book 1 Samuel as Christian Scripture: A Theological Commentary. A recording of the interview with Eerdman's can be found here and you can read more information about his award here read more about Stephen Chapman's book awarded "2016 reference book of the year" »
By Antonia Blumberg, Huffington Post President Donald Trump is expected to sign an executive order on Thursday on “religious liberty.” According to White House officials, the order could either offer protections to individuals and organizations who discriminate against members of the LGBTQ community or make it easier for tax-exempt churches and faith groups to endorse political candidates ― or both. If the order reflects a draft leaked in February, as several officials told Politico on Tuesday, opponents say it could give… read more about More Than 1,000 Faith Leaders Say No Thanks To Trump’s Planned ‘Religious Liberty’ Order »
By The World Staff, PRI The communists who took the reins in China in 1949 viewed religion as backward and superstitious. Authorities did their best to wipe out religious life. And by the end of the 1970s, they'd been very successful. "There were basically no functioning places of worship in the entire country. This is a place that had over 1 million temples and scores of churches and thousands of mosques," says Ian Johnson, the author of the new book "The Souls of China: The Return of Religion After Mao." "They were all… read more about Religion is alive and thriving in officially atheist China »
By Tom Gjelten, NPR Here is a proposition that may seem self-evident to many people: As societies become more modern, religion loses its grip. People separate their religion from their institutions and from parts of their lives. Sociologists have a name for this idea. They call it the "secularization thesis." Now, research suggests the story is more complicated. In 1822, Thomas Jefferson suggested an early version of it, predicting that Unitarianism "will, ere long, be the religion of the majority from north to south." Some… read more about Why Religion Is More Durable Than Commonly Thought In Modern Society »
Laurel Wamsley, NPR The annual TED conference is known for featuring impressive speakers. Attendees at this year's event in Vancouver have seen Serena Williams and Jorge Ramos, futurists and artificial intelligence experts, health activists and the ACLU's executive director. But on Tuesday evening, one unannounced speaker took the audience by surprise: Pope Francis. The pope was on a big screen rather than onstage, and his address had been recorded and edited earlier in April, but still: even for non-Catholics, the bishop… read more about In Surprise TED Talk, Pope Francis Asks The Powerful For 'Revolution Of Tenderness' »
By Lauren Markoe, Religion News Service (RNS) The State Department should add Russia to its list of the worst violators of religious freedom, a U.S. commission declared in its annual report. The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, founded to advise the federal government on the issue, comes out with its own list of shame each year, citing the most abusive countries in a lineup consistently longer than the State Department’s. This year, the USCIRF report included a dissenting report from its vice chair… read more about US commission: Russia a major violator of religious freedom »
Minnesota Public Radio News The late Elie Wiesel was a Holocaust survivor and Nobel Peace Prize winner who remained firm in his belief that we simply cannot be indifferent to the suffering of others. Wiesel was born in 1928 in a village in Transylvania. He was 15 years old when he and his family were deported by the Nazis to Auschwitz. His mother and younger sister died in that camp, his two older sisters survived. Wiesel and his father were later transported to Buchenwald, where his father died just months before the camp… read more about Holocaust Remembrance Day: Elie Wiesel on what makes us moral »
By Kimberly Watson, Religion News Service (RNS) When Prince died a year ago, he was called a game changer, an iconoclast, an innovator and a sex god by critics, fellow musicians, friends and fans. But one word lost in the grief and shock was “Christian.” Prince Rogers Nelson, whose 40 albums and 100 singles sold over 100 million records worldwide, was found dead from an overdose of painkillers in Paisley Park, his Minnesota mansion, on April 21, 2016. The 57-year-old singer, songwriter and musician created music that was as… read more about No other artist mixed religion and sex like Prince »
By Julia Baird, New York Times SYDNEY, Australia — The fight among Christians over the status and role of women is usually buried out of view. Anger at continuing inequality is not deemed pious or pretty by the faithful. Disputes usually stay private. But this pattern was broken recently by a very public uproar when a prominent theological college announced its award of a prestigious prize to a high-profile preacher who does not believe that women or L.G.B.T. people should be ordained. On most grounds, Princeton Theological… read more about Is Your Pastor Sexist? »
REUTERS VATICAN CITY - Pope Francis denounced "oppressive regimes" in his Easter message Sunday but in an apparent call for restraint urged world leaders to prevent the spread of conflicts amid tensions in North Korea and Syria. Francis, marking the fifth Easter season of his pontificate, said Mass before tens of thousands of people under exceptional security measures in St. Peter's Square following recent vehicle attacks against pedestrians in London and Stockholm. More police vans and army vehicles than usual were… read more about Pope Francis’ Easter Message Urges Restraint, Denounces ‘Oppressive Regimes’ »
By Yonat Shimron, Religion News Service DURHAM, N.C.--The text of the story is familiar to most Jews gathering around the table Monday (April 10) to recount the biblical story of their liberation from slavery in Egypt. Indeed, many know parts of the Passover manual they will be reciting — called a “haggadah” — by heart. But the images used to illuminate this ancient text, embellished with hymns, songs and prayers, tell an additional story. It is the story of Passover told visually through the ages. Dozens of such books,… read more about Exhibit shows how Passover was artistically reinvented through the years »
By Philip Pullella, Reuters VATICAN CITY - U.S. President Donald Trump has not asked to meet Pope Francis during his visit to Italy next month for the Group of Seven summit, sources said on Tuesday, in what would be a highly unusual omission. Trump, who Francis suggested was "not Christian" if he wanted a wall on the Mexican border, is due in Sicily on May 26-27 for a meeting of the heads of the world's richest nations. Click here to read more. read more about In Unusual Omission, No Trump-Pope Meeting Planned During Italy G7 »
By NICHOLAS FANDOS and MARK LANDLER, New York Times WASHINGTON — The White House press secretary, Sean Spicer, set off an intense backlash on Tuesday when he suggested that President Bashar al-Assad of Syria was guilty of acts worse than Hitler and asserted that Hitler had not used chemical weapons, ignoring the use of gas chambers at concentration camps during the Holocaust. Mr. Spicer later apologized. During his daily briefing for reporters, Mr. Spicer was defending President Trump’s decision to order a missile strike on… read more about Sean Spicer Raises Outcry With Talk of Hitler, Assad and Poison Gas »
Lizzie Dearden, Independent. Pope Francis has called on countries supporting atrocities in Syria to examine their consciences as Russia vows to continue its backing for Bashar al-Assad. The Pope said he was horrified by the suspected chemical weapons attack in the rebel-held town on Khan Sheikhoun, calling it an “unacceptable massacre” of innocent civilians. “We look on horrified by the recent events in Syria,” he told tens of thousands of people in St Peter's Square during his weekly audience. Click here to read more. read more about Syria chemical attack: Pope Francis appeals to 'conscience' of culprits as Russia vows to support Assad »
Craig S. Smith, New York Times STONEHAM-ET-TEWKESBURY, Quebec — Patrick Beaudry, bejeweled, tattooed and bearded, lives on a remote wooded hillside in rural Quebec, worrying about living under Shariah law. A year and a half ago, he huddled with two friends in a Quebec maple sugar shack, discussing how to stop the spread of what they call “invasive political Islam” in Canada. They formed a group called La Meute, or Wolfpack, created a Facebook page and invited like-minded people to join. Within a month, they had 15,000… read more about In Canada, Where Muslims Are Few, Group Stirs Fear of Islamists »
By Lawrence Hurley, Reuters If confirmed as expected this week by the U.S. Senate, President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee would join his new fellow justices in time to act on divisive cases concerning religion, guns, and big business, underscoring Neil Gorsuch's importance as the fifth conservative on a nine-justice court. The Senate's Republican leaders have pledged to confirm the Colorado-based appeals court judge on Friday. His first official task after being sworn in would come at an April 13 private meeting… read more about Religious Liberty Battles Ahead Highlight Gorsuch’s Importance as Conservative Nominee for SCOTUS »
Adelle M. Banks (RNS) Close to half of Protestant senior pastors have recently preached on racial reconciliation and more have publicly prayed about it, but few find that their congregations are urging them to address the topic. A new LifeWay Research survey also finds that most pastors have not addressed economic inequities in their communities or joined a public lament about racial injustice. Click here to read more. read more about Some Protestant pastors preach on race but most leave it to others »