School Notes: Yale Divinity School
January/February 2009

Speaker argues for more diverse church

Renita Weems, a widely sought-after lecturer and Beliefnet columnist, delivered the three-part 2008 Beecher lectures during the October 13-16 convocation and reunions. Her topic was "Preaching Against the Grain: Recovering the Voices of Those from the Underside of History." Arguing forcefully for a model of church that follows the example set by Jesus in choosing disciples from a wide range of backgrounds, Weems said, "These two disciples, Matthew the tax collector and Simon the zealot, represented both ends of the political spectrum of the day. . . . Yes, eleven o'clock [Sunday morning] remains the most segregated hour in America. . . . But how different would the church look today if we realized that Jesus called the modern equivalent of the most right-wing Republican and the most left-wing Democrat to come together and be his disciples."

Tony Blair on a two-way street with students

Former British prime minister Tony Blair was the guest of honor at an October 23 luncheon of the Yale Divinity School Board of Advisors, hosted by President Levin. Blair, who is co-teaching the course Faith and Globalization this semester with YDS professor Miroslav Volf, opened with a compliment to his students. "On the basis of [the] teaching I've done so far," quipped Blair, "I am learning a lot more from those that I am teaching than they are learning from me." Describing globalization as a process that is "pushing people together" globally, Blair observed, "Religious faith can play one of two roles: Either it can help humanize that process . . . or, alternatively, it can become a reactionary force that pulls people apart." (For a Yale Alumni Magazine report, see "God and Tony Blair.")

The wider academy: "often hostile, condescending, and magnificently ignorant of the religious"

As outgoing president of the American Academy of Religion, Emilie M. Townes, the Andrew W. Mellon Professor of African American Religion and Theology, delivered the presidential address at the academy's annual meeting in Chicago on November 1. Said Townes, "I am passionate about this because we live in times where our country needs those of us trained in the religious disciplines to speak up and into and with the public realm. . . . We live in an increasingly polarized world in which religion matters as beliefs and practices and is a key element in identity formation and meaning-making and sometimes nation-building for people. We also must engage a larger academic community that can often be hostile, condescending, and magnificently ignorant of the religious."