RPL in the News: "Harvard Divinity School Faculty Discuss Teaching the Legacy of Slavery"

Harvard Crimson writers Julian J. Giordano and Sami E. Turner cover the sixth and final event in the HDS series of public online conversations titled “Religion and Legacies of Slavery,” which aims to build on Harvard’s landmark Legacy of Slavery report released in April 2022. The event, “Reflecting on Religion and the Legacies of Slavery,” featured the series' contributing faculty, who reflected on the core questions of the webinar series, and on the school’s ties to slavery and its responsibility to educate the next generation of religious scholars and leaders. The event was hosted by Diane L. Moore, faculty director of Religion and Public Life; and Melissa Wood Bartholomew, associate dean of diversity, inclusion, and belonging.

“What does the academic study of religion teach us about the complex histories and legacies of slavery?” Bartholomew asked. “And how can a deeper understanding of the roles of religion enhance our commitment to a period of action in our contemporary times?”

Karen L. King, whose lecture in February focused on the role of slavery in the formation of Christianity, noted that the Bible has been cited both to justify and condemn slavery.

“The Bible does not have a single coherent or consistent message about enslavement,” King said. “The Bible has been used also to nurture a theology of a god who shares in pain and suffering requires justice and kindness, and who opposes enslavement and its legacies.”

David F. Holland, an HDS professor who studies New England church history, said it is important for Divinity School students to study and deconstruct white supremacy as a “belief system” with rituals and symbols.

Moore, the HDS faculty director of Religion and Public Life, asked panelists how classrooms should go beyond deconstructing “complicated histories” in teaching about the legacy of slavery and how professors can help chart a path forward.

“It is wrong for us to only deconstruct, to take apart, to challenge,” Moore said. “What does it mean to rebuild or reimagine or engage with complexity in different ways?”

Read the full piece on the Harvard Crimson.