University of Chicago Divinity School

The University of Chicago Divinity School
Type Private
Established 1891
Academic staff
 36 full-time, 14 associated, 5 visiting, 19 teaching pastors
Address 1025 E 58th Street, Chicago, Illinois 60637, Chicago, Illinois, USA
Campus Urban
Affiliations University of Chicago, Hyde Park Cluster of Theological Schools
Website divinity.uchicago.edu/

The University of Chicago Divinity School is a graduate institution at the University of Chicago dedicated to the training of academics and clergy across religious boundaries. Formed under Baptist auspices, the school today lacks any sectarian affiliations.

It is ranked number one in the field of the study of religion according to the National Research Council's measure of faculty quality in its survey of all doctoral granting programs in religious studies.[1] Along with the departments of religious studies/religion at Harvard, Yale and Columbia University, it is responsible for training the majority of those appointed to tenure track positions in religious studies at American universities. The school offers courses leading to the Ph.D. in history of religions, anthropology and sociology of religion, religion and literature, history of Christianity, history of Judaism, Islamic studies, biblical studies, philosophy of religion, theology, religious ethics, and religion in America.

Degrees

The University of Chicago Divinity School grants the following degrees:

The Divinity School also offers several dual degree programs:

M.Div./A.M. with the Irving B. Harris School of Public Policy Studies A.M.R.S./J.D., A.M./J.D., M.Div./J.D., or Ph.D./J.D. with the University of Chicago Law School M.Div./A.M. with the School of Social Service Administration

In addition to candidates for the above, many Chicago graduate students pursuing PhDs in the humanities and social sciences work closely with Divinity School faculty, though they may be enrolled in the Departments of South Asian Languages and Civilizations, New Testament and Early Christian Literature, East Asian Languages and Civilizations, History, Anthropology, Philosophy, Comparative Literature, Classics, Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, or the Committee on Social Thought.

Curriculum

Candidates for the Ph.D. choose among 11 areas of academic focus:

The Faculty are organized into three Committees of Study:

The Committee on Religion and the Human Sciences

The Committee on Historical Studies in Religion

The Committee on Constructive Studies in Religion

Research and special programs

The Martin Marty Center for the Advanced Study of Religion

The vision of establishing an institute for the advanced study of religion at the University of Chicago came from Joseph M. Kitagawa, the Dean of the Divinity School from 1970 to 1980. Martin E. Marty, a historian of modern Christianity, worked closely with Dean Kitagawa to formulate the purposes and operation of the institute within the context of the Divinity School's general mission of teaching and graduate research. The Institute for the Advanced Study of Religion officially opened in October 1979, with Professor Marty as its director. Subsequent directors have been Bernard McGinn (1983–1992), a historian of medieval Christianity; Frank Reynolds (1992–2000), a historian of religions who specializes in Buddhist studies; W. Clark Gilpin (2001–2004), a historian of American Christianity and theology; Wendy Doniger (2004–2007), a historian of religion who specializes in Hinduism and mythology; and William Schweiker, who works in the field of theological ethics. In 1998, the Institute for the Advanced Study of Religion was renamed the Martin Marty Center, to honor its founding director for his singular distinction as historian, author, and commentator on religion and public life.[2]

Buddhist Studies Program

A number of faculty in the Divinity School and the humanities departments of South Asian Languages and Civilizations (SALC), East Asian Languages and Civilizations (EALC), History, and Art History participate in an interdisciplinary program in the study of the Buddhist Traditions. Degrees are offered through matriculation in one or the other of these programs. The program sponsors workshops and seminars throughout the academic year. Affiliated faculty include Daniel A. Arnold, Steven Collins, Paul Copp, Matthew Kapstein, James Ketelaar, Gary A. Tubb, and Christian K. Wedemeyer.

Swift Hall

Swift Hall

Completed in 1926, Swift Hall was designed by Coolidge and Hodgdon in the collegiate Gothic style of architecture. It contains lecture halls, seminar rooms, faculty offices, a student-run coffee shop, a commons, and administrative offices. The lecture hall was formerly the home of the Divinity Library, before its holdings were consolidated into the central research library, the Joseph Regenstein Library.

Bond Chapel

Bond Chapel

Southwest of Swift Hall and connected to it by a beautiful stone cloister is the Joseph Bond Chapel. Both Swift Hall and Bond Chapel were designed by the architects Coolidge and Hodgdon at the end of the Gothic revival period in America. The Chapel was given by Mrs. Joseph Bond in memory of her husband, a former Trustee of the Baptist Theological Union, the predecessor institution of the Divinity School. Mr. and Mrs. Bond's daughter, Elfleda, married Edgar J. Goodspeed, a member of the university faculty noted for his translation of the New Testament. After her death in 1949, Mr. Goodspeed donated the stained-glass windows in her memory.

The cornerstone of the chapel was laid by Mrs. Bond on April 30, 1925, and the chapel was opened in October, 1926. In 2012-13, the Chapel was renovated and its organ was replaced by the Reneker Organ. Inspired by instruments built in northern Germany in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the Reneker Organ was built by Canadian master organ builder Karl Wilhelm in 1983 for Graham Taylor Hall at the former home of the Chicago Theological Seminary. It was dedicated in 1984 in honor of the late Robert W. Reneker and Betty C. Reneker, and was moved to Bond Chapel in the autumn of 2012. The cloister connecting Bond Chapel to Swift Hall was reconstructed in 2014. A cloister garden is due to be installed between Swift and Bond in 2015.

As a Divinity School chapel in a major university, its main function is to provide a sanctuary for reflection, worship, and community gatherings. It is used extensively for weddings, funerals, mid-week Divinity School worship services, other religious services, theater presentations, and musical events performed by the University's smaller musical groups, such as Collegium Musicum. It seats about 300 persons.

Notable professors

Publications

History of Religions

For half a century, History of Religions has set the standard for the study of religious phenomena from prehistory to modern times. History of Religions strives to publish scholarship that reflects engagement with particular traditions, places, and times and yet also speaks to broader methodological and/or theoretical issues in the study of religion. Toward encouraging critical conversations in the field, HR also publishes review articles and comprehensive book reviews by distinguished authors.

The Journal of Religion

Founded in 1882, The Journal of Religion is one of the publications by which the Divinity School of The University of Chicago seeks to promote critical, hermeneutical, historical, and constructive inquiry into religion. While expecting articles to advance scholarship in their respective fields in a lucid, cogent, and fresh way, the Journal is especially interested in areas of research with a broad range of implications for scholars of religion, or cross-disciplinary relevance. The Editors welcome submissions in theology, religious ethics, and philosophy of religion, as well as articles that approach the role of religion in culture and society from a historical, sociological, psychological, linguistic, or artistic standpoint.

Ethics

Founded in 1890, Ethics publishes scholarly work in moral, political, and legal philosophy from a variety of intellectual perspectives, including social and political theory, law, and economics. In addition to major articles, Ethics also publishes review essays, discussion articles, and book reviews.

Criterion

Criterion was founded in 1961 by then-dean Jerald Brauer. This journal is published twice a year to reflect the ongoing life of the Divinity School community.

Circa

Circa was founded in 1992 as the dean's newsletter. It is published in the fall and spring quarters to update Divinity School alumni and friends on the latest community developments.

References

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