Our Lifelong Learning programs are developed and taught by professors and field experts at Vanderbilt Divinity School and are offered online, on campus, and on site. Courses are open to Vanderbilt students, alumni, and community members, and small groups. If you are part of an organization or faith community who would like to participate in a course as group, please contact Nathan.a.cost@vanderbilt.edu for more information.
Learn more about our current Lifelong Learning course opportunities available below.
Current Courses
T.H.E.O.: Texts, History, Ethics, and Opportunities
Theologies of Salvation: Biblical, Traditional, Contemporary
Recover After Harm: Justice, Accountability, and Forgiveness
Learning from the Desert Mothers
The Social Role of Religion: Leadership and Moral Imagination for our Times
Jesus Vs. Caesar: For People Tired of Serving the Wrong God
The Wisdom of John Prine
The Faith of Frederick Douglass
Healing our Divides: Christianity, Gender, and Sexuality
Previous Courses
Life After Death: The Art of Living on Death Row. Revisited
Instructor: Graham Reside
Recently VDS hosted an art exhibit featuring the works of three men serving in federal prison sentenced to death row titled, “The Art of Living on Death Row.” The exhibit raised important questions on issues of restorative justice, moral injury, systemic racism, and punishment and redemption. This series extended beyond those discussions and artwork to engage in dialogue with neighbors, ministers, activists, family members, and those interested in learning more about the experience of living under a sentence of death in the United States today.
Moral Leadership: What is It, and How Are You a Moral Leader?
Instructor: Laine Walters Young
Learners will leave the course with concrete practices for building and restoring trust, how to make their integrity known to those around them, and what courage and imagination looks like and can be applied in the everyday work of ministerial, social service, business, and nonprofit fields.
The Religion of Carcerality and the Religion of Abolition
Instructor: Andrew Krinks
Why do we have police and prisons? What role does religion play in building police and prisons, and what role might religion play in building a world without them? This course explores the religious roots and function of carceral institutions in the United States.
Cinematic Divina: Religious Questions in the Films of Terrence Malick
Instructor: Victor Judge, Assistant Dean for Academic Affairs, Lecturer in Divinity, Lecturer in Literature and Religion
This 4-week course explores four films by the contemporary American filmmaker Terrence Malick (1943- ). Viewing Malick’s films may be compared to a spiritual exercise in which one is invited to experience cinematic art as a medium for contemplating the Divine Mystery. Each class session will include a matinee viewing of one of the four films covered in this course, followed by discussion.
