Feature

  • Vanderbilt University

    A Blank Paige

    Paige Wetzel, re-located New Englander, lover of elephants by Paige Wetzel, 2nd year MTS candidate Blank. I wouldn’t say I came to VDS open-minded, just blank. When I began my studies last year, I had few expectations and even fewer ideas about what my time here… Read More

    Sep. 3, 2014

  • Icons and Imagination

    Icons and Imagination

    In this assignment, VDS students reflect on their encounter with various Christian traditions. Our goal is not just passive knowledge but for students to add their own voices to the many interpretations of Christianity. Given the diversity of the VDS community, our voices speak from a variety of perspectives. Nevertheless, we… Read More

    Aug. 27, 2014

  • Vanderbilt University

    Stop. Breathe. Relax.

    VDS students Summer 2014 This week, we share words of advice prepared by second year MDiv, James W. Dennis III, for our first year students. Stop. Breathe. Relax. The hardest part of your transition to Vanderbilt Divinity School is over!  You are finally here!!  Congratulations!!   However, don’t celebrate too… Read More

    Aug. 20, 2014

  • Vanderbilt University

    VDS Maymester – South Africa trip

    L to R: Dr. Graham Reside and Dr. Victor Anderson During Maymester, Professor Victor Anderson and I traveled with thirteen students to South Africa as part of a course studying collective violence.  We were a mixed group: black, white, Asian; gay, straight; old and young.  We came from different… Read More

    Aug. 13, 2014

  • The Patron Saint of Lost Causes; Maymester course part 4

    The Patron Saint of Lost Causes; Maymester course part 4

    The Patron Saint of Lost Causes by Kate A. Fields, MDiv2 Sunset in the Sonoran The painted desert, the Sonoran, home of lumbering Pipe Cacti, coyote, sidewinders, rattlesnakes, mice, owls, eagles, desert primrose, hawks, roadrunners, sunsets that wrap the day up with a bang and towering mountains of… Read More

    Jul. 23, 2014

  • “Borders are invisible until they’re not.”  VDS Maymester course Part 3

    “Borders are invisible until they’re not.” VDS Maymester course Part 3

    “Something there is that doesn’t love a wall.” Robert Frost Looking at the wall in the Sonoran Desert from inside a Border Patrol vehicle Borders are invisible until they’re not. The wall the US built, closing off Mexicans along with other Southern and Central… Read More

    Jul. 16, 2014

  • Vanderbilt University

    VDS Maymester course, Traversing Our National Wound Part 2

    This past May, twenty Vanderbilt Divinity students and I travelled to Tucson, Arizona, as a delegation under the care of the organization BorderLinks. Vanderbilt Divinity School has partnered with BorderLinks for its last seven delegations, bringing groups of students every other year to Arizona for a week of engagement. Read More

    Jul. 9, 2014

  • Toward a Celebration of the Fourth of July

    Toward a Celebration of the Fourth of July

    By Amy E. Steele, MDiv (2000) PhD (2012) “The eye of the reformer is met with angry flashes, portending disastrous times; but his heart may well beat lighter at the thought that America is young, and that she is still in the impressible stage of her existence.  May… Read More

    Jul. 2, 2014

  • International Interfaith Delegation to El Salvador Part 4

    International Interfaith Delegation to El Salvador Part 4

    This March four students took part in the first ever International Interfaith Delegation to El Salvador in support of LGBTQI activist and people of faith, and attended the inaugural Festival de Fe in San Salvador (this trip/event coincided with the annual recognition of the martyrdom of Monsignor Oscar Romero.  The… Read More

    Jun. 25, 2014

  • International Interfaith Delegation to El Salvador Part 3

    International Interfaith Delegation to El Salvador Part 3

    This March four students took part in the first ever International Interfaith Delegation to El Salvador in support of LGBTQI activist and people of faith, and attended the inaugural Festival de Fe in San Salvador (this trip/event coincided with the annual recognition of the martyrdom of Monsignor Oscar Romero.  The… Read More

    Jun. 18, 2014