On spirituality at Harvard
In 2012, the year she came to look upon as “the year of religion,” Harvard President Drew Faust faced some challenges. She was seeking a new Pusey Minister in Memorial Church and a new dean for the Harvard Divinity School (HDS), and she was seeking a way to integrate religious studies throughout Harvard and address the “growing appetite for a discussion of values, a discussion of ethics … those vexing questions of how to live a life.” So, following an intensive HDS search process, she named Jonathan L. Walton, the Plummer Professor of Christian Morals and professor of religion and society, to be the Pusey Minister, and David N. Hempton, the Alonzo L. McDonald Family Professor of Evangelical Theological Studies, as well as the John Lord O’Brian Professor of Divinity, to lead the Divinity faculty. And on Friday, as part of HDS’s Leadership Day, an annual meeting of leadership-level supporters and volunteers...