The PUBLIC UNDERSTANDING of RELIGION
The Marty Center for the Public Understanding of Religion builds on a longstanding conviction of the Divinity School that the best and most innovative scholarship in religion arises from sustained dialogue with the world beyond the academy. It contributes to this dialogue by offering scholarly perspectives on the religious questions facing the wider public, while encouraging faculty and students to situate their scholarly questions within a broader cultural frame of reference.
MARTY CENTER CONFERENCES & EVENTS
Religion in the Frame
In conjunction with Facets Multimedia, an exploration of religious ideas, themes, and conflicts as depicted in film.
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Religions in the Americas
A lecture seresThe Marty Center's Religions in the Americas lecture series will bring leading scholars in the field to focus on critical topics and key debates, using a variety of methodological approaches
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Pantheism, Creation, Emanation
Contemporary Reflections on NatureA conference canvassing the fraught position of nature in the Western tradition in an attempt to analyze it not as an enemy to be feared but as a welcome critical voice and a potential ally of both the divine and the human.
LEARN MORESightings
Sightings reports and comments on the role of religion in current events; contributors are from our faculty, the academy – and the world.
The Vulnerability and Resilience of Democracy
Is a more vibrant, emancipatory, and equitable democracy possible?
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Still Searching for a Usable Future
Contemplating religion's role today in predicting and projecting possible futures
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Meet the Marty Center Fellows
Our Marty Center Fellows situate their research within a broader cultural frame of reference, bringing their perspectives to religious questions facing the wider public.
Mark Lambert
In my dissertation, I ask: What is the hermeneutical relationship between illness and theological symbols? Or more importantly: What is the unique, explanatory purchase of theological symbols vis-à-vis the experience of illness and what—if any—ethical demands does that experience of illness prese...
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Paride Stortini
Junior Fellow
2019
I am honored and thrilled at becoming a Martin Marty Fellow in the academic year 2019-2020. I am looking forward to sharing my research there, learn from my peers, and being challenged to present those aspects of my research that make it valuable for a broad...
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Regina Schwartz
A moving documentary, "Shakespeare in Prison," explores the dynamics of performances of Shakespeare's plays by inmates. Among the interviews it presents was one, with a prisoner in solitary confinement, that has haunted Regina Schwartz for years: he said that in Shak...
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Yiftach Ofek
My dissertation project, “The ‘New Jew’ of Zionist Historiography”, explores the views of three of the most influential historians of the Jewish people in the twentieth century – Yitzhak Baer, Yehezkel Kaufmann, and Gershom Scholem – on human nature, and the desired character ideal for the ‘New J...
READ MORESEMINARS & FELLOWSHIPS
Seminar and fellowship programs are oriented towards the intersection of religion and public life, and encourage faculty and students to put their scholarly questions into a broader cultural frame.
Our annual yearlong Marty Center seminar puts together junior and senior scholars for a unique interdisciplinary experience.
The Brauer Seminar encourages interdisciplinary research and teaching, with a new topic (and instructors) annually.