News & Events
The Divinity School hosts or cosponsors a wide variety of conferences, lectures, symposia, graduate workshops, and more throughout the academic year. Our website is the best place to find out about our events, or you can join our weekly list-serve, "At the Divinity School," by clicking here, or click the icon to view our events calendar.
Events |
Conferences |
Annual Events |
Weekly Events |
Special Events
Based upon the recommendation of the Divinity School faculty's Task Force on Teaching (Dean of Students Teresa Hord Owens, Professors Lucy Pick and Jeffrey Stackert), which is seeking to develop a full constellation of activities and programs in the Divinity School for pedagogical and professional preparation in teaching, Dean Mitchell has announced The Craft of Teaching series. Starting winter quarter, 2012, the School will invite to campus each quarter one of our alumni or other accomplished educators in the academic study of religion to offer a seminar centered on one of their course syllabi.
The Matter of Israelite Religion
This four-part lecture series will highlight recent material finds relevant to, and theoretical advances in, the study of ancient Israelite religion, with implications for biblical literature and ideas.
Conferences
Workshop: Religious Reform in Post-Revolutionary Iran: Achievements and Challenges
Friday, March 2
Divinity School Lecture Hall (3rd Floor)
The State of American Jewish Belief Revisited
At the Edge of a Crisis or at a New Threshold?
Sunday, March 4, 2012 - 12:00 pm - 6:00 pm
Cosponsored by the University of Chicago Center for Jewish Studies, the Martin Marty Center for the Advanced Study of Religion at the University of Chicago Divinity School, in collaboration with Spertus.
Recent studies point to declining synagogue membership and denominational identification as signs of crisis in American Judaism. This symposium focuses attention on theological dimensions of the perceived crisis. Six leading thinkers come together to share their unique vantage points on a series of questions: Is American Judaism theologically bankrupt or is it at the cusp of a radically new beginning? How should we diagnose this perceived crisis and what proposals might counter it? How can American Judaism build on traditional Jewish thought to address today's challenges?
The Trials of Desire and the Possibility of Faith
Yale University, 22-24 March 2012
Cosponsored by the Martin Marty Center at the University of Chicago Divinity School
This gathering will reflect upon contemporary belief and practice in light of a suggestion that emerges from the expansive oeuvre of Denys Turner: that the possibility of faith begins as a question of desire. Contributions will include perspectives from philosophy, theology, and the history of thought, but the focus will remain upon constructive treatment of the mutual implication of desire, faith, and the darkness of God.
On the Edge of Glory: Making Disciples in a "Secular" Age
The Eighth Annual Divinity School Ministry Conference
Friday, April 13th, 2012
This conference will bring contemporary theorists and practitioners to the Divinity School to engage in conversation around questions of secularism, institutions, and the promulgation of the Christian tradition.
Before Authority: Renegotiating Power and Religion
May 11-12, 2012
What animates this conference is the attempt to understand power within critical and normative approaches to religion that are sensitive to its multifaceted character and attuned to possibilities for its creative exercise. Thus, this conference invites theologians, ethicists, and social theorists to share their work on power in a way that seeks new approaches to the subject.
- Conference Archive
- Requesting Sponsorship from the Divinity School and Martin Marty Center: a Conference Organizer's Guide (pdf)
Annual Events
The John Nuveen Lecture was established in 1972 by the Trustees of the Baptist Theological Union, who oversee an endowment that helps to support the University of Chicago Divinity School. Each year, a prominent member of the University's faculty is invited by the BTU and the Divinity School to deliver the lecture.
Weekly Events
For decades, Wednesday has been a day of community gathering at the Divinity School. Ecumenical services are held at Bond Chapel at 11:30 a.m. that draw on the contributions of students, staff, faculty, and a variety of preachers from Chicago's religious communities, followed at 12:00 noon by a community luncheon in Swift Common Room. The lunches always feature a guest speaker, invited from the University, the local community, or beyond. Lunch topics have addressed everything from particle physics and the search for a fifth dimension to the history of Klezmer music. The programs provide a unique opportunity for students, staff, and faculty to engage one another in informal conversation.
Concurrent with the dates of Wednesday community lunch, a brief worship service is held in Bond Chapel from 11:30 am - 12 noon. The service is co-sponsored by the Divinity School and Rockefeller Memorial Chapel, and planned by a student-led worship committee. Students, faculty, and staff serve as preachers. These Wednesday services offer hospitable space and a welcoming community in which to pause, reflect, wonder, and pray. All are welcome.
