Creating New Knowledge

EDITOR’S NOTE: In July 2025, Terrence L. Johnson, MDiv ’00, will become the director of Religion and Public Life at HDS. His leadership will follow the retirement of Diane L. Moore, MDiv ’80, who has led the program since its establishment in 2020.

Terrence L. Johnson, MDiv ’00, on His Journey from Reporting to Religion and Public Life Scholarship

Like many students who find their way to divinity school, Terrence Johnson, MDiv ’00, Charles G. Adams Professor of African American Religious Studies, was moved by his faith, his community, and his curiosity. After earning his undergraduate degree in English from Morehouse College, Johnson began a career as a reporter. He was covering the business beat by day and reading books like Ari Goldman’s The Search for God at Harvard at night. 

Johnson recalls the moment when he realized he was ready for a change. “I finished Goldman’s book and thought, I need to go on a spiritual retreat! Mind you, I wasn’t quite sure what that meant or how to find one, but I had an instinct that I might want to shift my focus as a reporter from business to religion.”

Thankfully, he knew just who to ask. “My Godmother, Aunt Juanita, is a Catholic nun. When I asked her about how to find a retreat, she took me to a Benedictine monastery down the street, where Brother Ignatius greeted me.” After a weekend at the monastery, Johnson decided to apply to HDS and was accepted into the MDiv program.

A Life-Changing Recommendation

Johnson describes his idea of what he thought divinity school would be like as an “extended retreat.” He originally planned to take classes across the University, graduate, and go back to his life as a reporter. Referring to his time as an HDS student as one of the best experiences of his life, he vividly remembers the “sense of creativity and wonder” experienced while choosing courses and engaging with the intellectual community. Ultimately, his love for the academy ran so deep, he decided to forgo returning to his previous career.

Now on the other side of the classroom as a professor, Johnson hopes his students feel that same sense of creativity guided by curiosity. He encourages those who take his classes to engage as conversation partners, as taught in the Quaker tradition. And his goal is to help students expand their perception of what is possible through education.

That perspective was instilled in him by Karen King, Hollis Research Professor of Divinity, who, when advising Johnson as he prepared to apply to PhD programs, said she knew Johnson could become a good teacher—but that she was writing his recommendation letter because of her faith that he could create new knowledge. “Her words have stayed with me my entire career—the idea of creating new knowledge,” Johnson explains. “I’m so grateful for that moment with Professor King, because she helped shape who I am as a professor and how I teach the next generation of scholars.”

Pluralism in Theory and in Practice

Johnson’s research interests include African American political thought, ethics, American religions, and the role of religion in public life. With an interdisciplinary approach grounded in history and political thought, he explores the intersections of religion, democracy, ethics, liberalism, justice, and freedom.

Read the full article about HDS Professor Terrence Johnson at hds.harvard.edu.