Duke Divinity School

Duke Divinity School Gray Building.

The Divinity School at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina is one of ten graduate or professional schools within Duke University. It is also one of thirteen seminaries founded and supported by the United Methodist Church. It has 39 full-time and 18 part-time faculty and over 500 full-time students. The current interim dean of The Divinity School is Old Testament scholar Ellen Davis.[1] Former deans include the prominent New Testament scholar Richard B. Hays who stepped down in 2015, and L. Gregory Jones. As of July 1, 2016, Elaine A. Heath will assume the deanship.

History

The Divinity School was founded in 1926 as the first graduate school at Duke,[2] following a large endowment by James B. Duke, a tobacco magnate, in 1924. The Divinity School carries on from the original founding of Trinity College at the site in 1859, which provided free training for Methodist preachers in exchange for support from the church. Though the school is affiliated with the United Methodist Church, it is also ecumenical in outlook and has both faculty and students from a variety of denominations.

The Divinity School building was recently renovated and also expanded. The Hugh A. Westbrook Building, which opened in 2005, is 53,000 square feet (4,900 m2). It also contains the 315-seat Bishop W. Kenneth Goodson Chapel with 55-foot (17 m)-high ceilings, office space, a bookstore, cafe, outdoor patio, and a 177-seat lecture hall.

The school is perhaps most noted in American theological circles for serving as a fountainhead of postliberalism or narrative theology, a movement originating in the 1960s and 1970s at Yale Divinity School. This is thanks in part to the presence of Stanley Hauerwas, often considered one of the leading exponents of postliberal and narrative approaches to theology. Time Magazine named Hauerwas "America's Best Theologian" in 2001.[3]

Duke Divinity also benefits from the resources of the Duke Endowment, providing an outlet for this fund's support of higher education and the rural church in North Carolina. Resources from this endowment go towards student internships in rural North Carolina Methodist churches, further clergy development, and other programs.

Academics and Programs

The programs run through the school include:[4]

A Ph.D. and M.A. in Religion are available through the Graduate School, drawing on the resources of faculties of both the Divinity School and the Department of Religion.

The Divinity School has established partnerships for dual-degree programs, including:

Additionally, Duke Divinity students have paired their studies with additional degrees such as Doctor of Medicine (MD) or Master of Science in Global Health (M.Sc.G.H.).

Various houses of study, programs, centers, and initiatives focus scholarship in particular areas:

Notable faculty

The exterior of Goodson Chapel, the worship space at Duke Divinity School.

Notable alumni

The interior of Goodson Chapel

References

  1. ↑ "About Duke Divinity School | Duke Divinity School". divinity.duke.edu. Retrieved 2016-02-09.
  2. ↑ "The Founding of Duke Divinity School | David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library". library.duke.edu. Retrieved 2016-02-09.
  3. ↑ Elshtain, Jean Bethke. CNN/Time - America's Best. Time. Retrieved on May 30, 2007. Archived May 23, 2007, at the Wayback Machine.
  4. ↑ http://www.divinity.duke.edu/programs/

External links

Coordinates: 36°00′07″N 78°56′23″W / 36.0020°N 78.9398°W / 36.0020; -78.9398

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