News
If This, Then What: Russell Johnson Wins Swogger Award for Classroom Teaching
Mohamed Abdelhafez, Rashauna Johnson, Russell Johnson and Mark Osadjan all have been honored with the Glenn and Claire Swogger Award for Exemplary Classroom Teaching, which recognizes outstanding teachers with College appointments who introduce stude...
May 18, 2026
Exacting and Invested: Jeffrey Stackert Honored for PhD Teaching and Mentoring
Jeffrey Stackert, Caroline E. Haskell Professor of Hebrew Bible in the Divinity School and in the Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures and in the College, approaches teaching with a principle that might seem counterintuitive: rigor is a form o...
May 18, 2026
Creating Conditions for Discovery: Ryan Coyne Wins Quantrell Award
For Ryan Coyne, Associate Professor of the Philosophy of Religions and Theology and in the College, teaching begins not with delivering knowledge, but with creating the conditions for discovery. “Above all, I want the course material to come alive fo...
May 18, 2026
When a Golden Statue Makes Biblical News
When a 22-foot golden statue of President Donald Trump was unveiled at Trump National Doral Miami last month, the internet quickly reached for a biblical comparison: the golden calf of Exodus. Marshall Cunningham, Assistant Instructional Professor of...
May 13, 2026
Kirsten Macfarlane Awarded Selma V. Forkosch Prize
Kirsten Macfarlane, Associate Professor of Early Modern Religious and Intellectual History, has been awarded the Selma V. Forkosch Prize for the best article published in the Journal of the History of Ideas over the past year.The annual prize recogni...
May 6, 2026
Joy, Rest, and the Work of Ethics
Professor Sarah E. Fredericks examines climate change, moral emotion, and the expanding horizons of religious ethics at Swift Hall. Looking back to the 1967 volume of Criterion celebrating the centennial of the Divinity School, I recognize that the f...
May 1, 2026
Exploring the Worlds of the Religions
"The creation of the universe operates on the principle that Intellect (Reason) prevails over Necessity not by force, but by persuasion."—Plato, Timaeus My first encounter with Chicago as an adult came late at night, driving over the Skyway, up from ...
April 22, 2026
Preparing Scholars to Teach: Inside the Colman Pedagogical Fellowship
Assistant Dean of Students Nathan Hardy, when planning for the next workshop of the Colman Program, said his philosophy centered around a quote he once heard Professor Margaret Mitchell, Shailer Mathews Distinguished Service Professor of New Testamen...
April 22, 2026
Talking to God, Talking About Religion
A Conversation with Winnifred Fallers Sullivan, Alum of the Year 2026 “It’s a big project for us to figure out how to listen to each other, isn’t it?” For Winnifred Fallers Sullivan, JD’76, PhD’93, this observation names a central problem at the hear...
April 21, 2026
Prof. Doostdar Examines Media, Power, and the War on Iran
In a recent segment for Al Jazeera’s The Listening Post, Alireza Doostdar, Associate Professor of Islamic Studies and the Anthropology of Religion, contextualizes escalating tensions around the war on Iran within a broader geopolitical frame.Doostdar...
April 19, 2026