Politics and Religion

Kenneth Moales III, MDiv '24, back row third from right, attends the “Stand Up To Jewish Hate” campaign event with faith leaders. Photo

At HDS, New Certificate Leads to Community Contributions

September 7, 2023

When Religion and Public Life at Harvard Divinity School launched three years ago, it engendered a new Certificate in Religion and Public Life, providing students the opportunity to develop the knowledge, skills, and networks to leverage their master of theological studies and master of divinity degrees across a range of professional contexts, including in journalism, government, humanitarianism, and organizing.

In addition to coursework...

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US Official Calls Religious Intolerance in India 'Frightening'

July 18, 2023

"U.S. advocacy for religious freedom must be conflict-sensitive, so as not to render already vulnerable communities more vulnerable nor exacerbate religious dimensions of conflict," Susan Hayward, associate director of the Religious Literacy and the Professions Initiative, said while testifying before the U.S. House Subcommittee on Global Health, Global Human Rights, and International Organizations.

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Shurden Lecture Takes on the ‘Myth of American Chosenness’

June 2, 2023

“There is a significant difference between the eighteenth century and the present. The white Christian nationalists who supported the American Revolution were tainted by their racism and their refusal to extend political rights to women, but they defended the principle of democracy, even if it was only partially fulfilled as a positive good," said HDS Professor Catherine Brekus. "Today, however, white Christian nationalists are so convinced they have been called to uphold the nation’s special covenant with God that they have been willing to dismantle the legacy of the American Revolution, including the separation of church and state, to preserve their political dominance. Many are no longer committed to the core principles of democracy. White Christian nationalists believe they must protect the nation, which they see as sacred, from the government, which they argue has become corrupt.”

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What Does ‘Judeo-Christian’ Mean?

July 2, 2022
In the American context, the term “Judeo-Christian” was part of “a redefinition of democracy that began in the ’30s in response to totalitarianism around the globe,” said K. Healan Gaston, Lecturer in American Religious History and Ethics at HDS.
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Was Donald Trump America's First Atheist President?

March 8, 2022
"Throughout his presidency, he has had an uncanny ability to exploit the worst features of America's racist history for his own advancement, and on some level, he seems to have understood that the Bible has been used not only to defend the principles of love and redemption, but also, in the white Christian imagination, racial subordination," says Professor Catherine Brekus.

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