School Notes: Yale Divinity School
July/August 2015

Professors awarded honorary degrees

The University of Zurich has awarded honorary doctor of theology degrees to a pair of Divinity School faculty members—Adela Yarbro Collins, Buckingham Professor of New Testament Criticism and Interpretation, and John J. Collins, Holmes Professor of Old Testament Criticism and Interpretation. The theology faculty at Zurich recognized Adela Collins for her “methodologically innovative works on early Christian apocalypticism and the Apocalypse of John, as well as her path-breaking works on the Gospel of Mark and early Christology.” Her spouse John Collins was honored for his “pathbreaking research on Jewish apocalypticism and his lifelong striving to make the insights from the Dead Sea Scrolls fruitful for the whole field of biblical studies.”

Former dean elected to Academy

Sterling Professor Harold W. Attridge has been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, one of the nation’s most prestigious honorary societies. Attridge, who served as dean of YDS from 2002 to 2012, is a renowned scholar of international standing. His work focuses on the New Testament, Hellenistic Judaism, and the history of early Christianity. Attridge’s publications include Hebrews: A Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews (Fortress, 1989) and Nag Hammadi Codex I: The Jung Codex (Brill, 1985), as well as numerous book chapters. 

Yale panel: Papal encyclical sure to change climate issue

This summer’s environmental encyclical from Pope Francis promises to have a transformative effect on climate change dynamics, extending well beyond the worldwide Catholic Church, according to several panelists speaking at Yale on April 8 at an event titled “Pope Francis and the Environment: Why His New Climate Encyclical Matters.” “The science is here,” said Mary Evelyn Tucker, codirector of the Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology. Now, with Pope Francis adding his enormously influential voice, “the moral moment is also here,” she declared. Tucker’s comment echoed opening remarks by Teresa Berger, professor of Catholic theology at YDS. The Pope’s encyclical, she predicted, will include “a gesture of hope, which I think we all need, given the depth of the ecological crisis.” The event was a joint undertaking of Divinity School and the School of Forestry & Environmental Studies.