The Duke 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.
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History
The Divinity School was founded in 1926 as the first graduate school at Duke, 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. Hauerwas retired in 2013, but continues to write and speak at Duke as a senior research fellow.
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
2018–2021: L. Gregory Jones
2021–present: Edgardo Colón-Emeric
Notable faculty
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
Reinhard Hütter, Visiting Professor Catholic Theology
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
Notable alumni
Jamal Harrison Bryant (M.Div.) – senior pastor of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church
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
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
Adam Shoemaker, Episcopal clergyman
Mack B. Stokes (B.D. degree, 1935) – retired bishop of the United Methodist Church
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.