The many different religious traditions in our world are marked by significant differences as well as surprising similarities. Vanderbilt Divinity School believes that theological education requires us to examine critically these religious traditions and our own cultural heritages. As we do so, we use the best evaluative tools and finest academic resources available to the University. We listen to people whose voices have been ignored because of race, gender, sexual orientation, economic status, political choice, differing abilities, age, or religious affiliation. We refine vocational goals and individual gifts through supervised field work in a variety of professional settings, including local congregations, community service agencies, hospitals, schools, prisons, treatment centers, and denominational offices.
This process is often slow and at times difficult. We may uncover challenges to our ideas that we had not noticed before or had never thought to question. We may discern that we have made hasty judgements about people unfamiliar to us as we are invited into conversation with them. We may want to halt this process if it begins to threaten comfortable, secure ways of understanding our places in communities of faith. But others who have gone before us in this journey have discovered a faithful voice, a voice that speaks of hope and liberation and resonates with inspiring voices.
At Vanderbilt Divinity School we try to create an environment so that a range of voices may be heard. Each person comes with a particular story born of unique experiences and perspectives, and here we meet others with different stories. As we spend time with faculty members in classrooms, with colleagues over coffee, and with graduates in the community, we are awakened to hear the old stories in a fresh way and are encouraged to compose new stories. Vanderbilt is committed to this kind of education --- preparing women and men to be forceful representatives of faithful communities, to provide leadership in the church and the world, and to work for a more just and humane society.
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Photography by Donna Jones Bailey, Gerald Holly, and
Robin Hood.
Created: June 04, 2000 Last Updated: May 25, 2001
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