Vanderbilt Divinity School provides theological education and training for individuals pursuing careers in ministry, chaplaincy, and other religious vocations. It offers various academic programs and resources for spiritual development.

Vanderbilt Divinity School

Vanderbilt Divinity School | 762 followers on LinkedIn. A progressive school of theology in Nashville, TN  | Vanderbilt Divinity School is a social justice-oriented school of theology embedded in a R1 university. VDS offers 4 professional degree programs: 

Master of Divinity (M.Div)

Master of Theological Studies (M.T.S) 

Doctor of Ministry in Integrative Chaplaincy- with a focus on Mental Health (D.Min) 

Master of Theology (Th.M)

 VDS also offers 5 duel degrees with Medicine, Law, Business, Nursing and Education. 

VDS Masters students can have concentrations in these areas: Spirituality and Social Activism, Religion, Gender and Sexuality, Black Religion and Culture Studies, Mediterranean and Near Eastern Studies, Prison and Carceral Studies, Chaplaincy, Religion in the Arts and Contemporary Culture, Religion and Economic Justice, Global Christianities and Interreligious Encounter, and Pastoral and Prophetic Congregational Leadership.

Associate Director of Online Learning and the Wendland-Cook Program in Religion and Justice at Vanderbilt University Divinity School

Aaron Stauffer

Assistant Director of the Carpenter Program in Religion, Gender, and Sexuality

Rachel A. Heath, Ph.D.

Program Operations Coordinator at SACReD Dignity

Lyndsey Godwin

M.Div. / M.Ed. Dual Degree Student at Vanderbilt University | John Robert Lewis Program Alumnus

Baxter Yarbrough

“We hope to create more welcoming spaces, awareness and knowledge about gender and sexual identities, and to highlight those in order to bring greater inclusion and belonging to our world” - Rachel A. Heath Assistant Director of the Carpenter Program in Religion, Gender and Sexuality Check out our most recent article in VDS Voices - "Vanderbilt cross-disciplinary collaboration creates Intersex Awareness event" https://lnkd.in/etnZKzbz

"The Divinity School’s David Michelson, associate professor of the history of Christianity, mentored seven undergraduate students as they cataloged medieval manuscripts from the Middle East and jointly authored an online database of Syriac manuscripts. With support from a Provost’s Faculty Grant for Immersion Vanderbilt, Michelson took his cohort to the British Library in London to consult the original manuscripts, culminating in a co-presentation of their research at Durham University that same week." https://lnkd.in/eYXK-AQh

Vanderbilt University Divinity School announces the 2024 Harrod Lecture to be delivered by Kathleen Sands Professor of American Studies, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa The Trouble with Religious Freedom Monday, November 11, 2024 7:00 p.m. CT Vanderbilt Divinity School, The Space Register here: bit.ly/harrodlecture2024 Lecture Description: Beginning with the cases of Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado and Trump v. Hawaʻii, this talk shows how patriarchalism and white nationalism have managed to commandeer church-state law in the United States. What are the ethical stakes of this situation, and how can we constructively engage them? Kathleen Sands is a Professor of American Studies at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. Her teaching, research, and writing are guided by one question: what are we fighting about when we fight about “religion”? By identifying the people, needs, and values at work in these conflicts, she hopes to translate them into productive social ethics. Sands’ most recent book is America’s Religious Wars: The Embattled Heart of Our Public Life. She also authored Escape From Paradise: Evil and Tragedy in Feminist Theology and edited God Forbid: Religion and Sex in American Public Life. Her articles have appeared in New Literary History, the Journal of the American Academy of Religion, the Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion, Culture and Religion, The Native American Law Review, Social Text and Isis: A Journal of the History of Science. She has received fellowships from the Radcliffe Institute and the National Endowment for the Humanities and served on the editorial boards of the Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion, the Journal of Law and Religion, and The American Quarterly. Presently, she serves on the Executive Committee of the American Academy of Religion.

Click the links below to read an article by David Michelson and a review of his book. REVIEW: ‘To Catch Those Voices from a Distant Age’ https://lnkd.in/gYHcYf2r REVIEW of Michelson’s The Library of Paradise: A History of Contemplative Reading in the Monasteries of the Church of the East: Reading as Divine Encounter https://lnkd.in/grmcRu37 David A. Michelson is Associate Professor of the History of Christianity and Associate Professor of Classical and Mediterranean Studies

"Across six decades, Rev. James Lawson helped Vanderbilt navigate a vision of human dignity in an uncertain global era. He changed a city, a nation and a university." - Ray Waddle, MA’81 Check out this photo essay on Rev. James Lawson, “Lawson’s Legacy,” in the Summer/Fall print issue of Vanderbilt Magazine. https://lnkd.in/ePrWfUUw

We are thrilled to share a unique project we had the opportunity to partner on, led by the Wond'ry . Vanderbilt University alum Rich Hull ’92—a co-founder of #VandyinHollywood and a strong supporter of career services—has directed a powerful documentary, Fighting Spirit: A Combat Chaplain's Journey. Produced in partnership with #ChrisPratt , the film is set for theatrical release on Nov 8th, just in time for Veterans Day. The film has already been previewed for the Pope at The #Vatican ! As part of a pre-release screening tour, Rich has generously offered to bring the film to #Vanderbilt . 📅 October 19th 📍 Location: Sarratt Cinema ⏰ Doors open at 4 PM 🎟 Suggested Donation: $25 This event is made possible with the support of key partners like the Vanderbilt University Institute of National Security and the Vanderbilt Divinity School . All proceeds from this special screening will benefit The Wond’ry and Vandy in Hollywood programs. Tickets are limited, so get yours before they're gone! https://lnkd.in/ewFCaY3Q

Vanderbilt Career Center

Vanderbilt University Divinity School announces the 2024 Cole Lecture to be presented by David Nirenberg Director and Leon Levy Professor at the Institute for Advanced Study Thursday, October 17, 2024 7:00 p.m. The Space, Vanderbilt Divinity School Register here: https://lnkd.in/eAFJjr4H What History Offers Theology in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam This talk explores the intimate relationship between history and theology in the interconnected religious traditions of Islam, Christianity, and Judaism. It shows how this relationship deeply shaped the capacity of Jews, Muslims, and Christians to think about the past and conceive the future. And it suggests that drawing on the past can help us imagine new futures today. David Nirenberg is the 10th Director and Leon Levy Professor at the Institute for Advanced Study. A historian and author, Nirenberg is recognized for wide-ranging scholarship on the interaction of Christians, Jews, and Muslims. His books include Communities of Violence: the Persecution of Minorities in the Middle Ages, and Anti-Judaism: the Western Tradition. His most recent book, co-authored with his father (Ricardo Nirenberg), is Uncountable: A Philosophical History of Number and Humanity from Antiquity to the Present (University of Chicago Press, 2021), which seeks to understand the powers and limits of the sciences and the humanities. He is currently at work on a history of racial thought in Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

"This essay explores how social gospelers in the U.S. South organized for relational power by building institutions for economic and political democracy in the 1930s and 1940s. In their organizing, Howard Kester and Claude Williams built relational power and institutions that fed the institutional ecology of the Civil Rights movement in the 1950s. While it might be surprising to find a worthwhile analysis of power by social gospelers like Kester and Williams, they keenly understood the role of power in theology, the work of the church, and movement building, especially as they organized for the Southern Tenant Farmers Union (STFU). Kester and Williams built relational power by building institutions through which grassroots people organized to build political and economic power to confront the ravages of racial capitalism." https://lnkd.in/efnXZaKt -Rev. Aaron K. Stauffer, PhD. Associate Director of Wendland-Cook Program in Religion and Justice

We are excited to invite you to the Vanderbilt Divinity School and Disciples Divinity House 2024 Reunion, from November 7th–9th. This special occasion is free and open to all alumni, faculty, staff, local congregations, and community members, and we would love for you to be part of it. See the Divinity School schedule of events and discounted accommodation rates here: https://lnkd.in/dMy-TVFk Image description included in the alt text.

“What I think the beauty of intersectional theology can be is that in our tradition, we would say there’s plenty good room—room for everyone to bring their full selves without diminishing any aspect of themselves, and yet be in full community and solidarity and humanity with each other. That’s intersectionality. We bring these differences, we bring these social locations, we bring these aspects of our identity. We don’t have to leave them at the door, but we also come to the table with our shared common humanity. And in those differences, we find God. We find joy. We find value. ” - Dean Pierce Episode 43: Yolanda Pierce – Nobody’s Doing Theology from the Moon Hear Dean Pierce's full episode on the Faith for Normal People Podcast using this link: https://lnkd.in/eUwPA_FN

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Vanderbilt Divinity School