School Notes: Yale Divinity School
July/August 2012

YDS deemed “sexually healthy”

Three years ago, Yale Divinity School was not to be found on a list of ten theological institutions deemed “sexually healthy and responsible” by the Religious Institute, a Westport, Connecticut–based organization “dedicated to advocating for sexual health, education, and justice in faith communities and society.” But YDS has now made its way onto the institute’s updated list of 20 sexually healthy and responsible institutions, released publicly in a report earlier this year. “As the report reveals, we are doing well with integrating course work on human sexuality and healthy professional boundaries, courses in sexual ethics, women in religious traditions and faith traditions, and sexual abuse,” observed Associate Dean of Academic Affairs Emilie Townes.

Dean on CBS’s Sunday Morning

Dean Harold Attridge appeared Easter morning on CBS’sSunday Morning show for a segment on the new Shroud of Turin book entitled The Sign, by Thomas de Wesselow. Attridge said, “It could well be the burial cloth of Jesus—I wouldn’t discount that possibility. That’s part of the case that he makes; the other part is trying to see how the discovery of this cloth might have functioned in generating belief about the resurrection, and that’s much more, in my mind, conjectural.”

Take two: YDS joint degree programs

Luke the Evangelist started out a physician. John Calvin trained in the law. Gregor Mendel had his pea plants. The idea of combining theological pursuits with other disciplines is not a new one. Yet YDS students engaged in joint degree programs are bringing a contemporary flair and sense of mission to cross-disciplinary study. YDS offers joint degree programs with a half dozen other schools at Yale. Historically, the most popular have been with Forestry, Law, and Management. Dean of Admissions Anna Ramirez commends “the richness that joint degree students add to the mix of this place,” as well as the broad skill sets with which they leave Yale. Melissa Kurtz ’11MAR, a neonatal intensive care nurse, credits the joint degree program with making it possible to focus on both the “relationships among children’s health-care issues, policy advocacy, and the ethical delivery of quality health care” and “the way in which various individuals apply concepts of spirituality or religion to their understanding of notions like human dignity, human rights, and ethical decision-making in the health-care context.”