Duke Divinity School

Duke Divinity School
	Duke Divinity School Gray Building
Type	Private
Established	1926; 98 years ago
Parent institution	Duke University
Religious affiliation	United Methodist Church
Dean	Edgardo Colón-Emeric
Location	Durham, North Carolina
Website	divinity.duke.edu

The Divinity School at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, is one of ten graduate or professional schools within Duke University. It is also one of thirteen seminaries founded and supported by the United Methodist Church. It has 39 regular rank faculty and 15 joint, secondary or adjunct faculty, and, as of 2017, an enrollment of 543 full-time equivalent students. The current dean of the Divinity School is the Rev. Dr. Edgardo Colón-Emeric, who assumed the deanship on August 31, 2021. Former deans include the prominent New Testament scholar Richard B. Hays, who stepped down in 2015.

History

The Divinity School was founded in 1926 as the first graduate school at Duke,^[1] following a large endowment by James B. Duke, a tobacco magnate, in 1924. The Divinity School carries on from the original founding of Trinity College in 1859, which provided free training for Methodist preachers in exchange for support from the church. Though the school is affiliated with the United Methodist Church, it is also ecumenical in outlook and has both faculty and students from a variety of denominations.

The Divinity School consists of three buildings: the original Gray Building, the Langford Building, and the Westbrook Building. The most recent building is the Hugh A. Westbrook Building, which opened in 2005 and is 53,000 square feet (4,900 m²). It also contains the 315-seat Bishop W. Kenneth Goodson Chapel with 55-foot (17 m)-high ceilings, office space, a bookstore, cafe, outdoor patio, and a 177-seat lecture hall.

Stanley Hauerwas, considered one of the leading exponents of postliberal and narrative approaches to theology, was a longtime professor at Duke Divinity School, serving as the Gilbert T. Rowe Professor of Theological Ethics. Time magazine named Hauerwas "America's Best Theologian" in 2001.^[2] Hauerwas retired in 2013, but continues to write and speak at Duke as a senior research fellow.^[3]

Duke Divinity also benefits from the resources of The Duke Endowment, providing an outlet for this fund's support of higher education and the rural church in North Carolina. Resources from the Charlotte, North Carolina–based endowment go to underwrite Divinity School programs for field education, continuing education, the Thriving Rural Communities Initiative, and Hispanic Ministries. The Divinity School also receives support from the Ministerial Education Fund of the United Methodist Church for student financial aid, faculty support, and other core mission programs of the school.

Deans

1926–1928: Edmund Davison Soper
1928–1941: Elbert Russell
1941–1944: Paul Neff Garber
1944–1946: Harvie Branscomb
1946–1947: Gilbert T. Rowe (acting)
1947: Paul E. Root (died before assuming office)
1947–1950: Harold A. Bosley
1950–1951: James Cannon III (acting)
1951–1958: James Cannon III
1958–1971: Robert Earl Cushman
1971–1981: Thomas A. Langford
1981–1982: Jameson Jones
1982–1997: Dennis M. Campbell
1997–2010: L. Gregory Jones
2010–2015: Richard B. Hays
2015–2016: Ellen F. Davis
2016–2018: Elaine Heath^[4]^[5]
2018–2021: L. Gregory Jones^[6]
2021–present: Edgardo Colón-Emeric

Notable faculty

The exterior of Goodson Chapel, the worship space at Duke Divinity School.

David Aers, James B. Duke Professor of English and Historical Theology
Jeremy Begbie, Thomas A. Langford Distinguished Professor of Theology and director of the Duke Initiatives in Theology and the Arts
Kate Bowler, Associate Professor of American Religious History
Luke Bretherton, Robert E. Cushman Distinguished Professor of Moral and Political Theology
Ellen F. Davis, Amos Ragan Kearns Distinguished Professor of Bible and Practical Theology
Stanley Hauerwas, Gilbert T. Rowe Gilbert T. Rowe Professor Emeritus of Divinity and Law
Richard B. Hays, Former dean and George Washington Ivey Professor Emeritus of New Testament
Frederick Herzog, systematic theologian and champion of civil rights, on the faculty from 1960 to 1995
Willie James Jennings, Former Associate Professor of Theology and Black Church Studies
L. Gregory Jones, Dean of the Divinity School as well as Ruth W. and A. Morris Williams Jr. Distinguished Professor of Theology and Christian Ministry (also a Duke University alumnus)
Richard Alan Lischer, James T. and Alice Mead Cleland Professor Emeritus of Preaching
C. Kavin Rowe, George Washington Ivey Distinguished Professor of New Testament
Timothy Tyson, Former Visiting Professor of American Christianity and Southern Culture
Geoffrey Wainwright, Robert Earl Cushman Professor Emeritus of Christian Theology
Samuel Wells, research professor of Christian ethics at Duke Divinity School from 2005 to 2012
Lauren Winner, Associate Professor of Christian Spirituality
William Willimon, Professor of Practice of Christian Ministry as well as former United Methodist Church bishop
Norman Wirzba, Gilbert T. Rowe Distinguished Professor of Christian Theology as well as Senior Fellow at the Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke University

Notable alumni

William Barber II (M.Div. 1989) - a civil rights activist and professor at Yale Divinity School
Edwin Charles Boulton (M.Div. 1953) – a bishop of the United Methodist Church
Kenneth H. Carter Jr. (M.Div.) – a bishop of the United Methodist Church and Bishop-in-Residence at Duke Divinity School^[7]
Finis Alonzo Crutchfield Jr. (1940) – bishop of the United Methodist Church (1972–1974)
Ernest A. Fitzgerald (B.D. degree, 1951) – retired bishop of the United Methodist Church
Amile Jefferson (MA in Christian Studies 2017) – NBA player with the Orlando Magic, first Duke basketball player to be a 4 time All-ACC Academic All-Star.
Vergel L. Lattimore (M.Div. 1977) – Air National Guard brigadier general
Deidre Palmer, president of the Uniting Church in Australia from 8 July 2018
Gregory V. Palmer (M.Div. 1979) – former president of the United Methodist Council of Bishops (2008–2010)
Andrew Purves (Th. M. degree) – holds the Hugh Thomson Kerr Chair in Pastoral Theology at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary
Mack B. Stokes (B.D. degree, 1935) – retired bishop of the United Methodist Church
Randall Wallace (Did not graduate, but did attend) – Hollywood screenwriter, producer and director, involved with Braveheart, The Man in the Iron Mask, Pearl Harbor, and We Were Soldiers
Roy Kinneer Patteson Jr., Th.M, 1964; Ph.D graduate studies in religion 1967. Noted ancient language scholar, authority on the origin of the alphabet and former president of Southern Virginia University and King College
Sandra Steiner Ball (M.Div. 1987) – a bishop of the United Methodist Church
Jacob C. Martinson Jr. (1957) – former president of Andrew College, Brevard College, and High Point University
Beverly Roberts Gaventa (Ph.D. degree) – distinguished professor of New Testament interpretation at Baylor University and Helen H.P. Manson Professor of New Testament Literature and Exegesis Emerita at Princeton Theological Seminary
Hugh A. Westbrook (M.Div., 1970) – hospice pioneer and co-founder of Hospice Care, Inc (later VITAS Healthcare)

Awards and prizes

Among its student awards, the Divinity School awards a prize for Excellence in Writing in honor of the American theologian and writer, Frederick Buechner. Winners of the prize are selected by faculty in recognition of their significant achievements in these areas.

Other annual student awards include the Award for Excellence in Bible, the Hoyt Hickman Award for Excellence in Liturgics, and the Jameson Jones Preaching Award.^[8]