VDS Voices

Amy E. Steele, Assistant Dean for Student Life Each month, we ask a member of the Vanderbilt Divinity School faculty or administration to recommend a book they are currently reading. Our February recommendation is offered by Amy E. Steele, Assistant Dean for Student Life. Dean Steele recommends Ecowomanism:… Read More

A Nashville historical marker for LGBT activist Penny Campbell has been placed in front of her former East Nashville home, 1615 McEwen Ave. (Kristi Iving/Vanderbilt) Remarks delivered by Ellen Armour, E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Chair in Feminist Theology and Director of the Carpenter Program in Religion, Gender, and… Read More

Jaco Hamman “The Confession of Belhar,” First Presbyterian Church of Franklin, Sept. 6, Franklin, Tennessee “The organ of tactility: The eye, the internet, sexual pleasure and personal well-being,” Tennessee Pastoral Psychotherapy Association, Sept. 16, Franklin, Tennessee “Divinity Friendship House at Vanderbilt,” Governor’s Housing Conference, Sept. 20, Nashville “Toward a… Read More

The question of the "other" is a recurring one. Many scholarly volumes wrestle with this inquiry: who is the other? Toni Morrison enters the discourse with a decidedly reflective view of her own work alongside a plethora of writers who have produced both fictional and scholarly, literary and scientific contributions. Morrison’s particular reference to “origin” is a play on the folksy notion of creation as she weaves her literary prowess into the fabric of despair for those "othered," while concomitantly leveling seismic critique upon those whose literal and figurative expressions serve to “other” human beings, historically and presently. Read More

JANUARY 16, 2013- Martin Luther King Commemorative Program, Elon University (photo by Dan Anderson) RATTLING BONES Eulogy for Dale P. Andrews Emilie M. Townes 27 September 2017 Vanderbilt Divinity School Ezekiel 37:1-14 pastoral prayer if we die while being faithful, then death is not the end of life this redaction from an interview dale gave in 2011 was repeated many times on facebook and other social media in the days shortly after he died it was taken from a longer interview he did with faith and leadership—a resource from leadership education at duke divinity school in that interview, he talked about balancing the pastoral and the prophetic as an ongoing challenge for the church and the specific question he was responding to was: What about those leaders in the church who may say, “Well, social justice is a goal, but we are trying to keep our organization together, trying to keep it healthy, trying to keep it alive”? How do those two issues intersect? Read More

Fernando F. Segovia Each month, we ask a member of the Vanderbilt Divinity School faculty to recommend a book they are currently reading. Our September recommendation is offered by Fernando F. Segovia, Oberlin Graduate Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity. Professor Segovia recommends Requiem for the American Dream by… Read More

Each month, we ask a member of the Vanderbilt Divinity School faculty to recommend a book or other artistic or literary work they are currently engaging in their scholarship. Our March recommendation is offered by Dave Perkins, Associate Director of the Religion in the Arts and Contemporary Culture program. Dr. Read More

We invited Christopher Benda, a theological librarian at Vanderbilt Divinity Library, to reflect on seven years of his audio interview series “Authorial Intentions.” Chris first joined the Vanderbilt Library system in 1997 and joined the Divinity Library staff in 2007. He and his colleagues are invaluable resources supporting student and… Read More

Vanderbilt Divinity Alumni serve in churches, organizations, and institutions across the country and around the world. Some, however, choose after they graduate to make a transformative impact right here on campus. This series features VDS alumni who work at Vanderbilt, showing the range of work a theological education can prepare… Read More

Over the Inauguration Weekend, many Vanderbilt Divinity students and alumni participated in Women’s Marches across the country. We invited participants to reflect theologically on their experience and how it connected to their experience at VDS. If you have photos or reflections from the Women’s March that you’d like to share,… Read More