Divided Divinity

Divinity School professors say Graham has his work cut out for him, facing the challenge of bringing definition to the school’s sometimes-conflicting missions, and resolution to an often-divided faculty.

“We’re not in possession of a clear mission in several areas,” said Plummer Professor of Christian Morals Peter J. Gomes.

A key issue, Gomes said, is whether the Divinity School considers itself a professional school with an aim to produce a learned ministry, or instead, a school dedicated to preparing students for a life in academia.

The school has tried to be both, Gomes said, but must reassess whether that continues to be possible.

Equally thorny is the issue of how the school’s Christian heritage should be represented in a modern divinity school.

On the one hand, the divinity school represents over 55 Christian and non-Christian denominations and serves the purpose of preparing students for religious leadership in a broad spectrum of settings.

On the other hand, the school retains its roots as a Christian institution, faculty say, and studies other religions mainly for the purpose of serving as a contrast to Christianity.

According to David Hall, a professor of American religious history and a member of a committee that advised Summers on the search, a major question remains unanswered—”What is the place of non-Christian religions within an ostensively Christian divinity school?”

The school has clearly broadened beyond its roots, Hall said, but the exact role for Christian theology remains to be seen.

No consensus arose within the 13- member advisory committee, Hall said, and the faculty remain deeply split on this and other questions.

Gomes said he feels strongly that the Christian bedrock of the school, must be, if anything, strengthened.

“The worst thing we could do would be to become a Kennedy School of Religion, studying everything without a single focus,” Gomes said. “If we cease to be a school whose primary professional constituency is Western Christian religion, then our heart will be eviscerated.”

But Gomes acknowledges that there are many who disagree. “There are serious divisions,” Gomes said. “We’re not fractious, but there are serious divisions.”

Graham, who has spent his career studying world religions, said that in a pluralistic society, a divinity school must have a broader base. Of the Christian focus, Graham said, “I don’t think that’s going to go away.”