Hospital Chaplaincy: A Praxis Podcast featuring David Holden, MDiv '24
David Holden, MDiv '24, came to HDS after a career in politics in search of ways to help others heal as a hospital chaplain. Transcript forthcoming.
Jun 17, 2025•16 min
Harvard Divinity School
Expand your understanding of the ways religion shapes the world with lectures, interviews, and reflections from Harvard Divinity School.
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Episodes
Hope Podcast: Featuring Becca Leviss and Rucha Modi, MTS Candidates
On this episode of the Hope Podcast, we hear from second year MTS students Becca Leviss and Rucha Modi sharing the story of their early HDS friendship as a source for inspiration. Transcript: https://www.hds.harvard.edu/news/2025/04/30hope-podcast-featuring-becca-leviss-and-rucha-modi-mts-candidates
Apr 30, 2025•37 min
Hope Podcast: Featuring Matta Zheng, MDiv candidate
On this episode of the Hope Podcast, we hear from third year MDiv candidate Matta Zheng who teaches us about the interconnections between justice, the mundane, and hope. Transcript: https://www.hds.harvard.edu/news/2025/04/29/hope-podcast-featuring-matta-zheng-mdiv-candidate
Apr 30, 2025•22 min
Photographing the Invisible – A Talk with Shannon Taggart
For Episode 13 of Pop Apocalypse, we welcome Shannon Taggart, an American photographer, writer, researcher, and curator known for exploring how photography can navigate boundaries between the seen and unseen. Her book, Séance (Fulger Press, 2019), offers hundreds of photographs documenting contemporary Spiritualism across the U.S. and Britain. We discuss what sparked Shannon’s interests in Spiritualism, the intersecting histories of photography and Spiritualism, ectoplasm, what inspires people t...
Apr 25, 2025•1 hr 9 min
Hope Podcast: Featuring Paula Ortiz, MDiv Candidate
In this episode of the Hope Podcast, we hear from 2nd year MDiv candidate Paula Ortiz. Together we discuss the Andes mountains, being awestruck, and seeing hope in the present. Transcript: https://www.hds.harvard.edu/news/2025/03/26/hope-podcast-featuring-paula-ortiz-mdiv-candidate
Mar 25, 2025•29 min
End of Life Care and Horror Scholarship: A Praxis Podcast featuring Kristen Maples, MDiv '24
You’re listening to Harvard Divinity School's Praxis Podcast, where I, Maddison Tenney, interview HDS students about what brought them here, what they study, and where they hope to go next. This week's guest, Kristen Maples, MDiv '24, explores end of life care and the sacred practice of watching horror films. Full transcript: https://www.hds.harvard.edu/news/2025/03/25/end-life-care-and-horror-scholarship-praxis-podcast-featuring-kristen-maples-mdiv-24
Mar 23, 2025•17 min
Empire and Epistemicide: Historical Perspectives on the Rhetoric of Peace and its Erasures
When is peace not peace? When does pluralism only seem like pluralism from the perspective of the people in power? Christianity famously took form during the Pax Romana—an era of celebrated stability in the Roman empire—even as its message about the dawn of the messianic age and the coming of the kingdom of God resonated among those who saw the same age, instead, as a time of political oppression, cosmic upheaval, and eschatological unraveling. Likewise, to the degree that the Roman empire can b...
Mar 11, 2025•58 min
Christian Nationalism in Global Perspective
"Christian Nationalism in Global Perspective," a conversation with David Hempton and one of the 2024-25 Yang Visiting Scholars, Nilay Saiya. This event took place on February 27, 2025. Full transcript: https://www.hds.harvard.edu/news/2025/03/05/video-yang-scholars-2025-christian-nationalism-global-perspective
Mar 11, 2025•1 hr 6 min
Exploring Sectarian Identity in Islam
Although the sectarian labels of Sunni and Shi’a are widely used today to cover a range of identities and beliefs held by Muslims across the Islamic World, there are many foundational questions remaining over the origins of sectarian identity in Islam as well as its implications across time. The field has largely understudied theories of sectarianism and the precise applications of Sunni and Shi’a labels, including the content of their beliefs and the boundaries between them, largely remain an o...
Mar 06, 2025•55 min
Hope Podcast: Featuring Marty Matinage, MDiv Candidate
In this episode of the Hope Podcast, first-year Marty Martinage explains how storytelling, representation, and even silly stickers can help guide us to hope. Transcript: https://www.hds.harvard.edu/news/2025/03/03/hope-podcast-featuring-marty-matinage-mdiv-candidate
Mar 02, 2025•30 min
Black Metal and Orthodox Christianity – A Talk with Haela Ravenna Hunt-Hendrix of Liturgy
For the 12th episode of Pop Apocalypse, Matt Dillon welcomes the philosopher, artist, and musician Haela Ravenna Hunt-Hendrix. Haela is best known as the songwriter and singer for the black metal band, Liturgy, which has released six full albums and one EP. We discuss Haela’s early relationships to Christianity and metal music, her philosophical training, and her recent conversion to Orthodox Christianity. Along the way, we explore her philosophical system of Transcendental Qabalah and how it in...
Feb 27, 2025•1 hr 31 min
Hope Podcast: Featuring Ivy Wang, MDiv Candidate
In this episode of the Hope Podcast, we sit down with second year MDiv candidate Ivy Wang. Together we talk about her journey through different Harvard schools and what it may feel like to find a new home in beauty and mystery. Transcript: https://www.hds.harvard.edu/news/2025/02/20/hope-podcast-featuring-ivy-wang-mdiv-candidate
Feb 19, 2025•22 min
Hope Podcast: Featuring Joyce Cheng, MTS Candidate
In this episode of the Hope Podcast, we hear from Joyce Cheng, a first year MTS student. This in episode we discuss Joyce's idea of hope, her faith, and what brings her to HDS. Transcript: https://www.hds.harvard.edu/news/2025/02/20/hope-podcast-featuring-joyce-cheng-mts-candidate
Feb 19, 2025•22 min
Ceramics and Surrender: A Praxis Podcast featuring Jack Tripp, MTS ’25
Creative practice and religious experience overlap in this week’s Praxis podcast with Jack Tripp, MTS’ 25. In sharing about his artistic practice, Jack offers his perspective on the surrender required for his ceramics and his spiritual life. Full transcript: https://www.hds.harvard.edu/news/2025/03/03/ceramics-and-surrender-praxis-podcast-featuring-jack-tripp-mts-25
Feb 18, 2025•13 min
Bulletin Long Read: On Assignment, Virgil Rescues Dante from the Wilderness
In this long read from Harvard Divinity Bulletin, a 'Divine Comedy' reading group with two artist friends deepens the author’s understanding of Dante’s transcendent friendship with Virgil. This is a special audio version of "On Assignment, Virgil Rescues Dante from the Wilderness," a feature written and read by Diane Mehta and appearing in the Autumn/Winter 2024 issue of Harvard Divinity Bulletin. Read or follow along on the Harvard Divinity Bulletin website: https://bulletin.hds.harvard.edu/on-...
Feb 08, 2025•37 min
Second Act Careers & Chaplaincy: A Praxis Podcast Episode featuring Rebecca Oreskes
This week’s Praxis episode features Rebecca Oreskes, who recently graduated HDS with her Master of Theological Studies degree. After a 25 year career in the forest service, she decided to return to school to become a chaplain, focusing on end of life care. Full transcript: https://www.hds.harvard.edu/news/2024/10/24/intersection-of-healing-veteran-service-and-motherhood-a-praxis-podcast-with-Amy-Sexauer.
Feb 02, 2025•22 min
Women, Art, and the Spirit World – A Talk With Jennifer Higgie, Author of The Other Side
For Episode 11 of Pop Apocalypse, we welcome Jennifer Higgie. Jennifer is the author of several books, including Bedlam, a novel about the artist Richard Dadd; The Mirror and the Palette, a history of women’s self-portraits; and The Other Side: A Story of Women in Art and the Spirit World, a beautiful and personal study of the relationship between spiritual experience and art in the lives of modern women. In this career-spanning chat, Jennifer and I discuss her early career in painting, what ins...
Jan 14, 2025•1 hr 15 min
Ethical Scholarship: Gender, Religion, and Difference
Each year the HDS Women's Studies in Religion Program brings scholars in gender from around the country to enrich the experience of HDS students. 2024 Orientation offered students the opportunity to hear from the 2024–25 WSRP visiting faculty, who shared their thoughts on the ethical responsibility of scholars to be engaged in the study of gender. Speakers: S. Zahra Moballegh, Visiting Assistant Professor of Women’s Studies and Islam Wendy Mallette, Visiting Assistant Professor of Women’s Studie...
Dec 10, 2024•49 min
The Importance of HBCUs in the Making of American Democracy
Part of the "Symposium on Religion and American Democracy," held September 27, 2024. The Importance of HBCUs in the Making of American Democracy Speakers: -Jelani M. Favors, Henry E. Frye Distinguished Professor of History, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University -Tony Frazier, Assistant Professor of History, The Pennsylvania State University -Crystal R. Sanders, Associate Professor of African American Studies, Emory University -John Silvanus Wilson, Jr., MTS ’81, EdM ’82, EdD...
Dec 10, 2024•1 hr 5 min
Religion and Democratic Ideals: Media, Religion, and the Nation
“Media, Religion, and the Nation,” featured Zeba Khan, San Fransisco Chronicle, Jesse Holland, George Washington University, and Syreeta McFadden, Borough of Manhattan Community College. Assistant Dean for Religion and Public Life, Hussein Rashid, served as moderator. For decades, news media in the U.S. has been critiqued as reproducing structures of power and exclusion, including those in religions. While entertainment media has worked towards more inclusive storytelling recently, historically ...
Dec 10, 2024•1 hr 31 min
Hindu and Catholic, Priest and Scholar: A Love Story
On October 1, 2024, HDS hosted a celebration of "Hindu and Catholic, Priest and Scholar: A Love Story," the new memoir from HDS Professor Francis X. Clooney, S.J. Joining Prof. Clooney on a panel of respondents were: Rajeev Persaud, MTS ’24, Andrea Bischoff, MTS ’24, and Jonathan Makransky, multireligious ministry initiatives coordinator at HDS. The event was introduced by Kerry Maloney, Chaplain and Director of Religious and Spiritual Life. Sponsored by the Office of the Chaplain and Religious ...
Dec 10, 2024•1 hr 19 min
Harvard Divinity School 2024 Convocation
At Harvard Divinity School's 209th Convocation ceremony, HDS Dean Marla F. Frederick delivered the address "And, Yet...We Hope" to the HDS and Harvard community, friends, alumni, and distinguished guests. This event took place on September 26, 2024. Full transcript: https://www.hds.harvard.edu/news/2024/09/30/harvard-divinity-school-2024-convocation.
Dec 10, 2024•1 hr 4 min
Eve’s Innocence: Women’s Biblical Exegesis in Renaissance Venice
The Women's Studies in Religion Program (WSRP) at Harvard Divinity School was delighted to host Erminia Ardissino as she presented on biblical exegesis in Renaissance Venice aimed at rehabilitating the image of Eve. Ann D. Braude, Director of WSRP and Senior Lecturer on American Religious History at Harvard Divinity School, introduced Ardissino. Erminia Ardissino is Professor Emerita of Italian Literature at the Università di Torino. She received her MA in romance languages at the University of ...
Dec 10, 2024•47 min
Religion and Democratic Ideals: Political Futures
“Political Futures,” featured RPL Organizing Fellow, Josh Wolfsun, and RPL Arts and Popular Culture Fellow, Angélique Roché. Assistant Dean for Religion and Public Life, Hussein Rashid, served as moderator. Moving from the exigencies of the moment, this conversation focused on creating new communities, generating solidarity, imagining different economies, and asked how we can make the politics of the possible a reality. This was the first of four sessions in the Religion and Democratic Ideals se...
Dec 10, 2024•1 hr 30 min
Religion and Democratic Ideals: Reproductive Healthcare Access and White Nationalism
“Reproductive Healthcare Access and White Nationalism,” featured founder of Funky Brown Chick, Twanna Hines, and Melissa Deckman, CEO of Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI). Assistant Dean for Religion and Public Life, Hussein Rashid, served as moderator. Access to reproductive healthcare engages with explicitly religious language. This session positioned that language in the broader framework of white nationalism, which is often undergirded by Christian nationalism. The session tied toget...
Dec 10, 2024•1 hr 20 min
Book Event: Zionism: An Emotional State by Derek Penslar
In Zionism: An Emotional State, author Derek J. Penslar demonstrated how the energy propelling the Zionist project originates from bundles of feeling whose elements have varied in volume, intensity, and durability across space and time. Penslar examined the emotions that have shaped Zionist sensibilities and practices throughout the movement’s history. Featuring Derek J. Penslar, William Lee Frost Professor of Jewish History at Harvard University Moderated by Shaul Magid, HDS Visiting Professor ...
Dec 10, 2024•48 min
Safety Through Solidarity: A Radical Guide to Fighting Antisemitism
In their book, “Safety Through Solidarity: A Radical Guide to Fighting Antisemitism,” Shane Burley and Ben Lorber, two activist journalists, present a progressive, intersectional approach to the vital question: What can we do about antisemitism? Using personal stories, historical deep-dives, front-line reporting, and interviews with leading change-makers, Burley and Lorber help us break the current impasse to understand how antisemitism works, what’s missing in contemporary debates, and how to b...
Dec 09, 2024•1 hr 12 min
Celebrating Dhamma Chakra Day: Buddhism as Emancipation
This special HDS Buddhist Ministry Initiative event commemorated Dhamma Chakra Day, the anniversary of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar’s conversion to Buddhism along with 500,000 of his followers. Dr. Ambedkar’s peaceful, egalitarian, and grassroots movement of social liberation left an indelible mark on Indian society, embracing Buddhism as a powerful method for marginalized people to denounce the caste system and to gain true equality and dignity. Moderated by Buddhist Ministry Initiative Post-Doctoral Fell...
Dec 04, 2024•1 hr 19 min
Religion and Democratic Ideals: Rematriation, Land, and Healing
"Rematriation, Land, and Healing," featured co-founder of Women of Bears Ears, Cynthia Wilson, and board member of Women of Bears Ears, Doreen Bird. Assistant Dean for Religion and Public Life, Hussein Rashid, served as moderator. How we steward our land—and the lands of others—brings up essential questions of belonging, indigeneity, and spiritual and political governance. How do different types of stewardship impact how we enact democracy in and with the land we occupy? This session examined ho...
Dec 03, 2024•1 hr 19 min
What it Takes to Manifest Compassion: A Talk with the Sabal Foundation
There was a presentation and brief film screening with Eileen Moncoeur, Executive Director of HRDC Sabal Foundation in Nepal, which harnesses global support so that the poorest children with disabilities in Nepal can access surgery, rehabilitation, and loving care. Eileen guided us through an exploration of the ways in which global principles of compassion can be put into action on the ground in community settings, using the Sabal Foundation’s work as a case study. HDS Buddhist Ministry Initiati...
Dec 03, 2024•42 min
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