Harvard Divinity School
"I have tried to interpret a tradition that has something to offer to the world, believing as I do that religious belief and moral analysis have a central role to play in a democratic society. In return, I have profoundly benefited by what I have learned from the secular disciplines at Harvard. The Safra Center for Ethics, with its multidisciplinary constellation of scholars, provides a unique setting for this kind of mutually beneficial education."
J. Bryan Hehir, from the Ethics Center's 20th Anniversary Report
The study of ethics at Harvard Divinity School (HDS) focuses on the importance of religious ideas and institutions in a world shaped by political and cultural events and conflicts. Through its curriculum, public lectures, faculty seminars, and programs, the School promotes an understanding of ethical values and moral norms - as well as the processes of moral decision-making and action - to help students meet the challenges they will encounter as religious leaders.
For many years, the Divinity School's curriculum has reflected the interests of a core group of senior faculty in issues of theological ethics that arise in international relations, economics, medicine and research, education, and interpersonal relations. J. Bryan Hehir, who led the School from 1999-2001 and is a longtime Faculty Associate at the Ethics Center, has taught courses in topics such as the political and moral criteria for the use of force, Catholic social teaching and world politics, the ethics of statecraft, and social ethics and bioethics in Catholic theology. Preston Williams has developed and taught courses on Christian ethics and the black American experience, especially as reflected in the religious teachings of Martin Luther King, Jr. Arthur Dyck's research and teaching focus on ethical theory, with special application to questions of moral knowledge, human rights, and bioethics. He developed courses that incorporate issues of morality in neuroscience and the field of neuroethics. Ralph Potter, author of War and Moral Discourse, has taught courses on moralists, the ethics of relationships, and Christian social ethics. Professors Williams, Dyck, and Potter teach part-time at the School, along with David Little, whose interests include comparative ethics, human rights, religious liberty, and ethics in international affairs. In the late 1990s, Little served as director of the former Center for the Study of Values in Public Life, an initiative founded in 1992 to facilitate educational, research, and teaching projects on key moral issues. The Center's activities have been redistributed to other areas at the School, but its involvement in executive and public education led to the development of a variety of lectures and conferences, as well as a Summer Leadership Institute that continues to attract clergy and lay leaders who are involved in local church-based community and economic development.
In addition, the Center established a Fellows Program that has supported scholars and practitioners in the areas of civil society and democratic renewal, and a Research Associates program that has hosted thoughtful leaders such as author and columnist James Carroll and feminist liberation theologian Nakashima Brock. Another program that addresses ethical issues is the Center for the Study of World Religions (CSWR), which was founded in the late 1950s. Under director and Buddhism scholar Donald Swearer, the initiative supports the study, research, and teaching of world religions within the Harvard community, while at the same time working to sustain international connections and collaborations. The CSWR-sponsored International Research Associate/Visiting Faculty Program fosters collaboration between international scholars and Harvard faculty on research and teaching projects, while a competitive grants program offers financial support for faculty research. CSWR-sponsored forums have included "Ethics, Values, and the Environment" and "Islam, Pluralism, and Non-Violence," as well as a special panel on "Islam, the Press, and the West," convened to discuss the ethical and religious issues raised by the worldwide controversy over cartoons depicting the prophet Mohammed. Dean William Graham moderated the event, which attracted an overflow audience of faculty and students from around the University and other area schools.
A number of faculty with diverse interests are strengthening ethics-related research and teaching at the Divinity School. In 2003, Thomas A. Lewis, who specializes in Western religious thought and ethics, came to the School from the University of Iowa, with a joint appointment at the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Lewis teaches courses in nineteenth- and twentieth-century German thought, Latin American liberation theologies, Catholic social ethics, and religion and politics. University of Wisconsin scholar Jonathan Schofer, who joined the Faculty in Comparative Ethics, offers expertise in Jewish Rabbinical thought and ethics. Other faculty whose teaching and research involve substantial work in ethics include Baber Johnson, who focuses particularly on Islamic legal issues, and Michael Jackson, a Distinguished Visiting Professor in World Religions. The establishment of two endowed HDS chairs holds great promise as the School continues to enrich its offerings in ethics. The Richard Reinhold Niebuhr Professorship of Divinity is intended to address issues of Christian morality, ethics, and values in the contemporary interaction of religion and society. The Ralph Waldo Emerson Unitarian Universalist Association Professorship of Divinity will advance studies in liberal religion, with particular attention to Unitarian Universalism.