Duke Divinity School

The Gray Building, the oldest building of the Divinity School

The Divinity School at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina is one of thirteen seminaries founded and supported by the United Methodist Church. It has 39 full time and 18 part time faculty and over 500 full time students.

It was founded in 1926 as the first graduate school at Duke, following a large endowment by James B. Duke, a tobacco magnate, in 1924. The Divinity School carries on from the original founding of Trinity College at the site in 1859, which provided free training for Methodist preachers in exchange for support from the church.

The Divinity School building was recently renovated and also expanded. The Hugh A. Westbrook Building, which opened in 2005, is 53,000 square-feet. It also contains the 315-seat Bishop W. Kenneth Goodson Chapel with 55-foot-high ceilings, office space, a bookstore, cafe, outdoor patio, and a 177-seat lecture hall.

Academics and Programs

The Divinity School offers Master of Divinity, Master of Theological Studies, Master of Theology, and Master in Church Ministries degrees. A Ph.D. in religion is available through the Graduate School. A Doctor of Theology, or Th.D, program began in the fall of 2006. It focuses on areas of study like worship, evangelism, preaching, and the arts which are neglected by the Ph.D. program with the Graduate School.

The recently completed Goodson Chapel, part of the Divinity School's latest addition.

The programs run through the school include[1]:

• Anglican House
• Baptist House
• Black Church Studies
• Center for Reconciliation
• Center for Theological Writing
• Center for Wesleyan Studies
• Duke Institute on Care at the End of Life
• Duke Youth Academy for Christian Formation
• Ormond Center
• Pulpit and Pew
• Sustaining Pastoral Excellence
• Theology and Medicine

Notable Faculty

The interior of Goodson Chapel

• Stanley Hauerwas, Gilbert T. Rowe Professor of Theological Ethics (1984- )
• Richard B. Hays, George Washington Ivey Professor of New Testament
• Reinhard Hutter, Associate Professor of Theology
• Geoffrey Wainwright, Robert Earl Cushman Professor of Christian Theology
• Richard Heitzenrater, William Kellon Quick Professor of Church History and Wesley Studies
• David C. Steinmetz, Amos Ragan Kearns Professor of the History of Christianity
• Randy Maddox, Associate Dean for Faculty Development; Professor of Theology & Wesleyan Studies
• Samuel Wells, Dean of Chapel and Research Professor of Ethics
• Warren Smith, Assistant Professor of Historical Theology
• Amy Laura Hall, Director of the Doctor of Theology Program; Professor of Theological Ethics
• Timothy Tyson, Visiting Professor of American Christianity and Southern Culture
• Grant Wacker, Professor of Church History
• Lauren Winner, Assistant Professor of Christian Spirituality
• Paul Neff Garber, Dean (1941-44), later Bishop of The Methodist Church

Notable Alumni

• Gregory V. Palmer (M.Div. 1979) - a Bishop of the United Methodist Church
• Doug Gestwick - (M.Div. 1989, ThM 1990) Senior Pastor, Saint Luke's UMC, Yorktown, VA
• Randall Wallace (Did not graduate, but did attend) - Hollywood Screenwriter, producer and director, involved with Braveheart, The Man in the Iron Mask, Pearl Harbor, and We Were Soldiers
• Hugh Westbrook (M.Div. 1970) - Hospice Care pioneer
• Edwin Charles Boulton (M.Div. 1953) - a Bishop of the United Methodist Church

External links

• Official Website
• The Founding of Duke Divinity School
• Duke University
• http://www.ats.edu/member_schools/dukeduke.asp accreditation information]