News
The Idea of the University of Chicago Divinity School
I am grateful for Dean Robinson’s invitation to reflect on the University of Chicago Divinity School at this historic marker. It has prompted me to return to some of my own earlier attempts in my years as dean of students and then as dean to exegete ...
March 25, 2026
Tough-Minded, Tender-Hearted
My first visit to the University of Chicago campus came in 1993 for my interview and job talk. At the time, I was teaching in Silicon Valley, and this was my first encounter with the Divinity School and Swift Hall. I already knew something about the ...
March 11, 2026
If Not Here, Where?
Almost thirty years ago, in the fall of 1996, I arrived in Hyde Park. I was a Classics student from Spain, eager to start my doctoral studies at the University of Chicago. I was admitted to the Committee on the Ancient Mediterranean World, which, for...
February 25, 2026
Swift Hall and the Good Life
Swift Hall has been at the forefront of the study of religious ethics since it began welcoming students for classes in 1926. Scholars as influential and innovative as Richard B. Miller, Jean Bethke Elshtain, James Gustafson, and William Schweiker hav...
February 6, 2026
Performance is What Makes Religion Matter
The discourse on the imbrication of religion and theatre/performance was built around the studies of ritual and drama. From the Passion Plays to Indian Sanskrit, Balinese Legong, Egyptian ritual drama, Greek tragedies, medieval morality plays, Japane...
January 28, 2026
"The Space Always Wins"
“Perhaps the most unique tradition of the Divinity School is its eagerness to experiment, to rest rather lightly on its immediate past traditions…” J. Brauer, Criterion (Winter 1967) “The space always wins” is a familiar refrain in the practice labs ...
January 14, 2026
“Our Better Angels”: Reflections on My Years in Swift Hall
Reading the New York Times one evening in late September, I was pleased to see a conversation reported between Peter Wehner and Marilynne Robinson, the great novelist whose protagonist, John Ames of Gilead, has made an indelible impression on readers...
December 17, 2025
The Divinity School and the Hebrew Bible: Past, Present, and Future
The study of the Hebrew Bible has a long and storied history at the University of Chicago. The University’s founding president, William Rainey Harper, was a scholar of the Hebrew Bible and an enthusiastic teacher of its text, ideas, and language, sit...
December 1, 2025
Swift Hall at 100
It is a joy, and truly a privilege, to see so many gathered to celebrate one hundred years of Swift Hall, the beloved and enduring home of the University of Chicago Divinity School.Before I begin, I want to offer a word of gratitude to President Paul...
November 10, 2025
100 years of Swift Hall in 10 objects
How does one celebrate a 100th birthday? For a human or Galapagos tortoise, a centennial celebration would likely include a birthday cake heavy with candles or becoming a first-time mother. This year, Swift Hall, home of the University of Chicago Div...
October 13, 2025