School Notes: Yale Divinity School
May/June 2015

A senator’s theological education

“Divinity school changed me,” wrote US senator Chris Coons ’92MAR, ’92JD, in a piece for Christian Century magazine reflecting on his divinity school education. “My path from law student to divinity student to US senator may not have been the most conventional, but divinity school changed me, and it changed how I see what I do in the US Senate.” Coons’s piece can be found online at http://www.christiancentury.org/article/2015-01/why-i-went-seminary.

A call for moderation in politics

In appearances at YDS and the Law School in February, former US senator John Danforth ’63BD, ’63LLB, urged a more moderate and unifying form of religious engagement in politics. In a conversation with students, faculty, and staff at the Divinity School, Danforth spoke with candor and conviction about the relationship between religion and politics—comments that included criticism of his own Republican Party for what Danforth termed an increasing refusal to compromise for the good of the country. The former senator also highlighted his hope that American churches can play a vital role in restoring the “center” in American politics. Later, in a public conversation at the Law School, Danforth appeared with his longtime friend, Supreme Court associate justice Clarence Thomas ’74JD, to explore the role of religion in public service. 

Jonathan Edwards’s collected works available for free download

The collected works of Jonathan Edwards, Class of 1720, are now available for free download, thanks to the efforts of the Jonathan Edwards Center at Yale Divinity School. The colonial preacher was instrumental in America’s eighteenth-century Great Awakening and is known for fiery sermons such as “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” The 26-volume collection comprises more than 10,000 sermons, articles, and letters indexed from 1953 to 2008. “Edwards is widely recognized as one of the most important American thinkers and religious figures and as a major figure in the history of Christian thought,” said Kenneth Minkema, the center’s executive director. As noted by prominent religion writer Jonathan Merritt in his Religion News Service column on the project, Edwards’s collected works become available during a time of renewed interest in Edwards and his Calvinist theology.