School Notes: Yale Divinity School
March/April 2008

Honors for YDS faculty

Professor emerita Margaret A. Farley has received one of the nation's most prestigious prizes in the field of religion, the Louisville Grawemeyer Award in Religion. Farley, the Gilbert L. Stark Professor Emerita of Christian Ethics at Yale Divinity School, received the award from the Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary and the University of Louisville for her book Just Love: A Framework for Christian Sexual Ethics (Continuum, 2006). Others honored late in 2007 include Emilie Townes, the Andrew W. Mellon Professor of African American Religion and Theology; Carolyn Sharp, associate professor of Hebrew Scriptures; and Harry Stout, the Jonathan Edwards Professor of American Christianity. Townes was named alumna of the year by the University of Chicago Divinity School, while Sharp was given the Fortress Press 2007 Teaching Award. Stout's book Upon the Altar of the Nation: A Moral History of the Civil War (Viking, 2006) was awarded the Philip Schaff Prize at the American Society of Church History meeting.

Fall Reflections launched at National Press Club gathering

In the run-up to another presidential election year, almost 100 people packed a room at the National Press Club in the nation's capital on December 6 to hear a panel of writers and representatives from the government, nonprofit, and academic sectors speak on the topic "Faith and Citizenship: The Conversation in 2008." The occasion was the formal launch of the fall 2007 issue of Yale Divinity School's magazine of theological and ethical inquiry, Reflections, which was entirely devoted to the subject of faith and citizenship. Several panelists, all contributors to the issue, called for a new tenor to the public discourse, such that people of different faith traditions would be mutually respectful of each other. "What we need so much now is a certain amount of religious humility," said Washington Post columnist E. J. Dionne. "But how do you combine passion and humility? We need to have passion to move beyond this period of culture war that is making so many problems impossible to solve."

Divinity professor now AAR president

Emilie M. Townes, the Andrew W. Mellon Professor of African American Religion and Theology, assumed the presidency of the American Academy of Religion during the 11,200-member organization's 2007 annual meeting, held November 17–20 in San Diego. Townes was elected vice president of the academy in 2005, putting her in line to serve as president-elect and, now, president. The first African American woman to head the AAR, Townes is director of undergraduate studies and professor in Yale's Department of African American Studies; professor in the women's, gender and sexuality studies program; and professor in the Department of Religious Studies. She is one of the faculty leaders of the Initiative on Religion and Politics at Yale, based at the Divinity School.

Conference addresses black religion in the African diaspora

Nearly 40 scholars from across the country will come to YDS April 3-5 for a conference on black religion in the African diaspora. The "Middle Passage Conversations" conference will feature eight moderated panels that will discuss how the scholars understand black religiosity in their work. Evening plenaries will feature drama and music. Among the scheduled attendees are Cornel West of Princeton; M. Shawn Copeland of Boston College; Dwight N. Hopkins of the University of Chicago Divinity School; and Renita Weems, celebrated by Ebony magazine as one of America's top preachers. Further information is available online at www.yale.edu/divinity/middlepassage/.