In Review | Harvard Divinity Bulletin

The Deliciousness of Truth

Black and Buddhist: In the face of white supremacy, Buddhism reteaches us how to relate to truth and to one another. By Pamela Ayo Yetunde

A Full-Bodied Dharma

Black and Buddhist: Contributors to this volume take refuge in embodied practice and in vibrant community. By Judith Simmer-Brown

Freedom Doesn’t Happen in a Day

Four voices celebrate the publication of Black and Buddhist: What Buddhism Can Teach Us about Race, Resilience, Transformation, and Freedom. Buddhism offers practical tools to work through intergenerational trauma. By Cheryl A. Giles

Black Women, Black Church, and Self-Narratives

A selected reading list of classic and contemporary memoir and autobiography from Nyasha Junior’s course.

‘Literature is Common Ground’: On Reading Virginia Woolf

A Q&A with Stephanie Paulsell on her latest book, Religion Around Virginia Woolf. By Sarah Fleming

Housekeeping’s Contemplative Approach to Longing

Marilynne Robinson’s Housekeeping explores the human response to the transient. By C. E. Morgan

Sacred, Ancestral Cries for Freedom

Black and Buddhist: The Eightfold Path finds resonance in the Black church. By Melissa Wood Bartholomew

A Story of Sarahs: Atwood’s Critique of Second-Wave Feminism

Margaret Atwood’s The Testaments resonates with the energy of dread saturating life under COVID-19 in the Trump administration. By Mara Willard

Bedeviling Spirit Possession in Ancient Christian Texts

A Q&A with Giovanni B. Bazzana on his newest book, Having the Spirit of Christ: Spirit Possession and Exorcism in the Early Christ Groups. By Joseph Kimmel

Waiting for Queer Theology

Queer Theology: Beyond Apologetics, by Linn Marie Tonstad, awaits a theology that moves beyond the narrow genres allotted to it. By Mark D. Jordan

Practical and Spiritual Resources for Chaplaincy and Pastoral Care

A selected reading list from HDS faculty and chaplains offers resources for chaplaincy and pastoral care.

Making Spirituality Safe for Evangelicals

D. Bruce Hindmarsh’s The Spirit of Early Evangelicalism: True Religion in a Modern World. By Brett Malcolm Grainger

Giorgio Agamben, the Church, and Me

Italian philosopher and political theorist Giorgio Agamben’s The Kingdom and the Glory, The Church and the Kingdom, and The Omnibus Homo Sacer, and Simon Critchley’s The Faith of the Faithless offer resources for exploring the connections between temporality, political community, and ordained ministry. By Charles M. Stang

Paula Vogel Brings Her Love of Yiddish Center Stage

In her play Indecent, award-winning playwright Paula Vogel shares her love of Yiddish with audiences. By Robert Israel

Sex, Gender, and Sexuality

A selected reading list from Amy Hollywood’s course.

A Physicist on ‘Absolutes’ and ‘Relatives’

A Q&A with MIT physicist Alan Lightman on his book Searching for Stars on an Island in Maine. By Robert Israel

The Rise of ‘Spiritual but Not Religious’ Is a Story of Hope

Since the 2016 election, teaching Andrew Delbanco’s The Real American Dream and Catherine L. Albanese’s A Republic of Mind and Spirit has become more relevant and constructive, as this religious studies professor has come to view the rise of the spiritual but not religious as a story of hope. By Darryl Caterine

Category: In Review