Yale Divinity School (YDS) is one of the twelve graduate and professional schools of

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

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. Congregationalist theological education was the motivation at the founding of Yale, and the professional school has its roots in a Theological Department established in 1822. The school had maintained its own campus, faculty, and degree program since 1869, and it has become more ecumenical beginning in the mid-19th century. Since the 1970s, it has been affiliated with the Episcopal Berkeley Divinity School and has housed the Institute of Sacred Music, which offers separate degree programs. In July 2017, a two-year process of formal affiliation was completed, with the addition of Andover Newton Seminary joining the school. Over 40 different denominations are represented at YDS.

History

Theological education was the earliest academic purpose of Yale University. When

Yale College Yale College is the undergraduate college of Yale University. Founded in 1701, it is the original school of the university. Although other Yale schools were founded as early as 1810, all of Yale was officially known as Yale College until 1887, ...

was founded in 1701, it was as a college of religious training for Congregationalist ministers in

Connecticut Colony The Connecticut Colony, originally known as the Connecticut River Colony, was an English colony in New England which later became the state of Connecticut. It was organized on March 3, 1636, as a settlement for a Puritans, Puritan congregation o ...

, designated in its charter as a school "wherein Youth may be instructed in the Arts & Sciences who through the blessing of Almighty God may be fitted for Publick employment both in Church & Civil State." A professorship of divinity was established in 1746. In 1817, the occupant of the divinity chair, Eleazar Thompson Fitch, supported a student request to endow a theological curriculum, and five years later a separate was founded by the Yale Corporation. In the same motion, Second Great Awakening theologian Nathaniel William Taylor was appointed to become the first Dwight Professor of Didactic Theology. Taylor was considered the "central figure" in the school's founding, and he was joined in 1826 by Josiah Willard Gibbs, Sr., a scholar of sacred languages and lexicographer Chauncey A. Goodrich in 1839. A dedicated student dormitory, Divinity College, was completed on the college's Old Campus in 1836, but the department had no permanent classrooms or offices until several years after the end of the

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. After a significant period of enrollment decline, the school began fundraising from alumni for new faculty and facilities. Divinity Hall was constructed on the present-day site of Grace Hopper College between 1869 and 1871, featuring two classroom wings and a chapel. Around the time of the new campus' construction came the arrival of new faculty, including James M. Hoppin, George Edward Day, George Park Fisher, and Leonard Bacon. The first Bachelor of Divinity (B.D.) was conferred in 1867, and the department became a separate School of Divinity in 1869. The school remained across from Old Campus until 1929, when a new campus was constructed on the northern edge of the university campus, at the top of Prospect Hill. Sterling Divinity Quadrangle

Berkeley Divinity School affiliated with Yale Divinity School in 1971, and in the same year the university replaced the B.D. with a Master of Divinity (M.Div.) program. While Berkeley retains its Episcopal Church connection, its students are admitted by and fully enrolled as members of Yale Divinity School. The Jonathan Edwards Center at Yale University, a division of the Divinity School, maintains a large collection of primary source materials about Jonathan Edwards, a 1720 Yale alumnus. The Yale Institute of Sacred Music (ISM) is jointly-affiliated with the Divinity School and School of Music. It offers programs in choral conducting, organ performance, voice, and church music studies, and in liturgical studies and religion and the arts. In May 2016, Andover Newton Theological School president Martin Copenhaver announced that Andover Newton would begin a process of formal affiliation with the Divinity School over the next two years. In the 2016–17 academic year, a cohort of faculty relocated to New Haven teaching students and launching pilot initiatives focused on congregational ministry education, while Andover Newton continued to operate in Massachusetts over the next two years. In July 2017, a formal affiliation was signed, resulting in smaller Andover Newton functioning as a unit within Yale Divinity School, similar to its arrangement with Berkeley. In October 2020, YDS received a $1 million grant from the Lilly Endowment as part of the foundation's Thriving Congregations Initiative to fund a program entitled, "Reimagining Church: New Models for the 21st Century." Reimagining Church will involve 40 congregations in Connecticut as well as YDS students, faculty, and staff over a five-year period. In November 2020, the Yale Divinity School Women's Center revived the publication of ''The Voice Journal of Literary and Theological Ideas'', a feminist journal that initially ran from 1996 to 2002.

Degrees

Yale Divinity School is accredited by the Association of Theological Schools in the United States and Canada (ATS) and approved by ATS to grant the following degrees: * Master of Divinity (M.Div.) *

Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA or AM) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Those admitted to the degree have ...

Religion Religion is a range of social system, social-cultural systems, including designated religious behaviour, behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, religious text, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics in religion, ethics, or ...

(M.A.R.) * Master of Sacred Theology (S.T.M.) Students pursuing an M.A.R. can choose between
comprehensive
an
concentrated
program. The following concentrations are offered:
Hebrew Bible

Second Temple Judaism

New Testament

Theology

Philosophical Theology

Practical Theology

Ethics

History of Christianity

World Christianity/Missions

Liturgical Studies

Religion & the Arts

Asian Religions

Black Religion in the African Diaspora

Latinx & Latin American Christianity

Religion & Ecology

Women’s/Gender/Sexuality Studies
Students in any degree program at Yale Divinity School can also earn certificates in any of the following areas:
Lutheran Studies

Reformed Studies

Anglican Studies

Catholic Lay Ministerial Studies

United Methodist Studies

Black Church Studies

Andover Newton Seminary
(non-degree diploma)
Educational Leadership and Ministry

Leadership

Gregory Sterling, a New Testament scholar and Church of Christ pastor, has been the dean of the divinity school since 2012, succeeding New Testament scholar Harold W. Attridge, who returned to teaching as a

Sterling Professor Sterling Professor, the highest academic rank at Yale University, is awarded to a Academic tenure in North America, tenured faculty member considered the best in their field. It is akin to the rank of distinguished professor at other universities. ...

upon completing two five-year terms as dean. The leaders of the affiliated seminaries are Andrew McGowan, Dean and President of Berkeley Divinity School, and Sarah Drummond, Founding Dean of Andover Newton Seminary at Yale Divinity School. Organist Martin Jean is director of the Institute of Sacred Music.

Deans of Yale Divinity School

Campus

When the department was organized as a school in 1869, it was moved to a campus across from the northwest corner of the

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composed of East Divinity Hall (1869), Marquand Chapel (1871), West Divinity Hall (1871), and the Trowbridge Library (1881). The buildings, designed by Richard Morris Hunt, were demolished under the residential college plan and replaced by Calhoun College, now known as Grace Hopper College. In 1929, the trustees of the estate of lawyer John William Sterling agreed that a portion of his bequest to Yale would be used to build a new campus for the Divinity School. The Sterling Divinity Quadrangle, completed in 1932, is a Georgian-style complex built at the top of Prospect Hill. It was designed by Delano & Aldrich and modeled in part on the

University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a Public university#United States, public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States. It was founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson and contains his The Lawn, Academical Village, a World H ...

A $49-million renovation of Sterling Divinity Quadrangle was completed in 2003. Sterling Divinity Quadrangle contains academic buildings, Marquand Chapel, and graduate student housing for YDS students. Yale Divinity School is currently planning the construction of the Living Village, a zero-waste, sustainable living community that will house 155 YDS students.

Notable alumni

* Diogenes Allen (B.D. 1959) * Ian Barbour (B.D. 1956) * Kate Bowler (M.A.R. 2005) * Gregory A. Boyd (M.Div. 1982) * Will D. Campbell (B.D. 1952) * Orishatukeh Faduma (B.D. 1894, graduate study 1895) * William Ragsdale Cannon (B.D. 1940; Ph.D. 1942), Professor and Dean, Candler School of Theology;

Bishop A bishop is an ordained member of the clergy who is entrusted with a position of Episcopal polity, authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance and administration of di ...

of the

United Methodist Church The United Methodist Church (UMC) is a worldwide mainline Protestant Christian denomination, denomination based in the United States, and a major part of Methodism. In the 19th century, its main predecessor, the Methodist Episcopal Church, was ...

. * Donald Eric Capps, ( B.D. 1963; S.T.M., 1965), scholar of Pastoral Theology * Roy Clyde Clark, (B.D. 1944),

of the

* William Sloane Coffin (B.D. 1956) *

Chris Coons Christopher Andrew Coons (born September 9, 1963) is an American lawyer and politician serving as the Seniority in the United States Senate, senior United States Senate, United States senator from Delaware, a seat he has held since 2010. A member ...

(Master's degree in ethics, 1992), United States Senator from Delaware * Harvey Cox (B.D. 1955), theologian and Hollis Professor of Divinity at

Harvard Divinity School Harvard Divinity School (HDS) is one of the constituent schools of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The school's mission is to educate its students either in the religious studies, academic study of religion or for leadership role ...

(1965–2009) * Zebulon Crocker * Raymond Culver, (B.D. 1920), president of

Shimer College Shimer Great Books School ( ) is a Classic_book#University_programs, Great Books college that is part of North Central College in Naperville, Illinois. Prior to 2017, Shimer was an independent, accredited college on the south side of Chicago, or ...

* Michael Curry (M.Div. 1978), Presiding Bishop of the

Episcopal Church (United States) The Episcopal Church (TEC), also known as the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America (PECUSA), is a member of the worldwide Anglican Communion, based in the United States. It is a mainline Protestant denomination and is ...

* John Danforth (M.Div. 1963), former United States Senator from Missouri * Walter Fauntroy, (B.D. 1958), Founding Member - Congressional Black Caucus * David F. Ford (S.T.M.), Regius Professor of Divinity Emeritus at the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

Milton Gaither Milton Gaither is an historian of education and a professor at Messiah College. Some of his most notable works include ''American Educational History Revisited'', on the historiography of American education, and ''Homeschool: An American Histor ...

(M.A.R. 1996), historian of American education * Paul Vernon Galloway, a Bishop of The Methodist Church * Tom Vaughn (Doctorate in theology), jazz musician and Episcopal priest * Leroy Gilbert (S.T.M. 1979) * Lisa Grabarek, Baptist preacher and teacher * Gary Hart (B.D. 1961) * Stanley Hauerwas (B.D. 1965) * Richard B. Hays (M.Div. 1977) * Serene Jones (M.Div. 1985) President of Union Theological Seminary (New_York_City) * Allen Kannapell (M.Div. 1997), bishop suffragan of the Anglican Diocese of the Great Lakes * Rena Karefa-Smart (B.D. 1945), first Black woman graduate of Yale Divinity * Sen Katayama * Ernest W. Lefever (1945), foreign affairs expert and founder of the Ethics and Public Policy Center. * Sallie McFague (B.D. 1959) * Candida Moss (M.A.R. 2002) * Otis Moss III (M.Div. 1995), Pastor of Trinity Church, Chicago * Reinhold Niebuhr (B.D. 1914, M.A. 1915), Protestant theologian and public intellectual * Richard T. Nolan (M.A. 1967) * Ashley Null (M.Div., S.T.M.), Anglican theologian * Douglas Oldenburg (S.T.M. 1961), President Emeritus at Columbia Theological Seminary, Presbyterian (USA) pastor. * William H. Poteat (B.D. 1944) * Clark V. Poling (1936) * Peter L. Pond, human rights activist and philanthropist. * Adam Clayton Powell, Sr. (attended 1895–1896) * George Rupp * Father V.C. Samuel (PhD. 1957) Indian Christian Theologian and Historian. * Ron Sider * John Silber * John Shelby Spong * Amos Alonzo Stagg * Rufus W. Stimson (B.D., 1897), Professor of English and President of the University of Connecticut * Barbara Brown Taylor (M.Div. 1976) * Roy M. Terry (B.D. 1942) * Krista Tippett (M.Div. 1994) * R. A. Torrey (B.D. 1878) * John W. Traphagan (M.A.R. 1986), professor of Religious Studies and Anthropology,

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public university, public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 stud ...

* Glenn M. Wagner (M.Div. 1978) * Chester Wickwire (B.D. 1946) * Parker T. Williamson (M.Phil.) * William Willimon (M.Div. 1971)