A minister, a monk, and a lesbian go into a bar...
Written: Jan 07 '01 (Updated Jan 07 '01)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Diverse student body, rich resources and course offerings
Cons: not the best fit for extremists on either end
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| sleah's Full Review: Harvard University |
Upon beginning Harvard Divinity School after college 5 years ago, I was a bit apprehensive about attending a school full of "religious" people. Would I encounter a bunch of religious nuts? Pontificating preachers hell-bent (no pun intended) on converting me to their respective faiths? Overly serious students who didn't know how to have fun?
Fortunately, most of my fears turned out to be unfounded. But before I get into that, some background info is in order...
Why HDS?
I was most attracted to HDS because of its emphasis on world religions--which makes it rather unique among Divinity schools. Although I consider myself a Christian, bad experiences with a fundamentalist Pentecostal church as a young girl had left me very wary of organized religion, Christianity in particular.
My undergraduate studies at Wellesley had focused on issues of suffering and conflict from the perspective of race, class, and gender, so I decided to study these issues through the lens of religion at HDS. I was fascinated by the classes described in the HDS coursebook, and eager to learn more about other religions. I also wasn’t quite ready to leave academia yet, as I still didn’t have a clue what I wanted to do in “the real world.”
Degree Programs and Requirements
There are two principal degree programs - the Master's in Divinity (M.Div) and the Master's in Theology (M.T.S., which was my degree program). There are a greater number of students in the MTS program, which is a 2-year program considered more of an academic degree (i.e. non-vocational), since most recipients are going on to further study or non-ministerial work. The M.Div is a 3-year program (if taken full-time), and is the degree required by all Christian and Unitarian denominations for ordination.
M.Div. candidates are required to do two units of Field Study (equal to 350 – 400 hours), which is basically an intensive degree-related internship of their choice carried out full-time during the summer or part-time across the year. M.T.S candidates also have the option to participate in Field Education, but it’s not required. Pre-arranged internships were offered at a broad range of places, including churches, hospitals, nonprofits, schools, and religious publications.
There are two specific courses required for M.Div students, and none for M.T.S students – but all students are required to take a certain number of classes in EACH of the 3 main areas, which are “Scripture and Interpretation,” “Christianity and Culture,” and “Religions of the World.”
There are other degrees offered, including Master of Theology and Doctor of Theology, but there are usually only a handful of students in these programs each year.
Classes and Professors
Overall, I was happy with the quality of the courses and professors at HDS. Being part of Harvard, HDS obviously has a number of well-known professors, including Harvey Cox, Cornel West, and Elisabeth Schussler Fiorenza, to name a few. Classes by some of the more popular professors – such as “The Problem of Good and Evil” with Cornel West - can be standing room only, and are difficult to get into. But it is also quite normal to have Seminars with less than 20 people, especially as you get into a greater degree of specialization. The professors are also accessible to varying degrees, but overall, most were easy-going when you spoke with them on a one-on-one basis – and all were unquestionably experts in their fields.
I took classes all over the spectrum, including courses in philosophy, anthropology, Christian theology, political science, counseling, nonprofit management, and world religions. My course list included the following classes:
The Politics and Ethics of Statecraft
World Religions: Diversity and Dialogue
Women, Death and Sacrifice in Hinduism
Introduction to the New Testament
The Bible and Politics
Religion and the City
The Anthropology of Suffering
Cross-Cultural Counseling
Managing a Nonprofit Organization
I would say that most of my classmates were a little more focused in their course selection, as I used this time more for exploration than to prepare for a specific vocation. Almost all the students, however, lamented that there were just too many interesting courses and not enough time.
The quality of professors varied from wildly engaging to boring, as at any institution of higher learning. The best thing to do is to poll other students about a professor’s teaching style before signing up for the course; I know I saved myself from many a boring class by doing that.
One of the best parts of HDS is the wide latitude students are given to take classes at other Harvard schools (I took one class at the Kennedy School of Government, for example, and another at the Harvard Ed school), as well as at other theological institutions within Boston (I took Intro to the New Testament at the nearby Episcopal Divinity School).
The Students
It is no accident that one of the Divinity's school most famous professors wrote a book titled "Many Mansions: A Christian's Encounter with Other Faiths."
By the end of my first year my close friends included a cigar-smoking Buddhist preparing for entry into a monastery in Thailand, a sweet Southern girl on the path for ordination as a Unitarian minister, and a gay African-American Christian preparing for a job in the non-profit sector. The endeavors embarked upon by other classmates include forming a charter school for inner-city boys in Boston, entering a Ph.D. program in Anthropology, managing administration in a synagogue, and teaching English at a Catholic high school.
Don't get me wrong - the majority of students at HDS come from a Christian or Unitarian background, but the inclusion of a strong number of students from other religions combined with a discourse ever-mindful of the multi-faith perspective makes it almost impossible to attend HDS and not come away with more respect and a better understanding of the richness, commonality, and diversity of the religions of the world. This doesn't mean that you are taught not to believe in any one religion, for most students are firmly rooted in their chosen faith; but it does mean that intolerance of other beliefs or evangelical fanaticism is strongly discouraged and seriously unpopular.
Of course, there were your oddball characters, like Crucifix Joe the resident pothead who wore a large crucifix around his neck at all times; a Baptist African-American woman who managed to get into a fundamentalist argument with someone in every class, or the ex-Mormon-turned-Wiccan woman with a rat tail who wore t-shirts that said things like “Thank You for Not Breeding.” But as the extremists were in the minority, they were more amusing (and occasionally thought-provoking) than bothersome, and only served to make the moderate leanings of the majority of students even more apparent.
As for my fears of the students being overly serious, I couldn’t have been more wrong. While my classmates did generally take their work very seriously, outside the classroom they could throw down just as easily as the next person. In this case, “throwing down” meant everything from having lively discussions in Harvard Square pubs to dancing at house parties to organizing flag football games. One time a group of us went to a strip club where someone’s friend worked, prompting many jokes of a "the minister, the monk, and the lesbian went into a bar" variety, as well as an interesting theological discussion on the role of exotic dancing as empowering or disempowering to women (yes, we'd had a few drinks at that point).
Summary
Overall, I would have to say that the best part of going to Harvard Divinity School was the people I met; it is incredibly inspirational to be around that many smart people all motivated to do something good in the world. And I did end up learning a great deal about other religions, as much from the other students as from the coursework. The array of classes and quality of professors was generally excellent, and the resources available to you as a grad student at Harvard definitely remarkable.
Although I ended up going into the Internet after graduation, I don't consider my time at HDS wasted at all. Indeed, I plan to get back into nonprofit work at soon as I have learned all I can from my current field. And if I were to do it all over again, I would definitely choose HDS.
Postscript
2 years after I graduated from HDS, I attended the ordination of my southern Unitarian friend in California, at which time she and my friend the Buddhist monk announced their engagement; although he did join the monastery in Thailand after graduation, it just couldn't compete with her, in the end.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
sleah
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Reviews written: 41
Trusted by: 34 members
About Me:
When I'm not building the New Economy, I'm reading, watching DVD's, or shooting hoops.
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