About

The Center for the Study of World Religions is an integral part of Harvard Divinity School. By its resources and programming the Center supports, focuses, and enhances the School’s mission, with respect to research, teaching, and community. The Center seeks

  • to promote the study of the world's religions in their classical and historical forms, drawing on traditional and contemporary disciplines of learning;
  • to promote understanding of the complex roles that religions play in today’s cultures, economies, and political structures;
  • to foster community of life and intellectual exchange among the faculty, students, and staff of the Divinity School, particularly through the unique resource that is the Center’s residential community;
  • to facilitate the interaction of the Divinity School’s faculty and students with colleagues around the university, as well as institutional collaboration with other schools and centers;
  • to convene conversations among scholars and practitioners across the global network that is the Center’s heritage and future.

The study of the world's major religious and spiritual traditions at Harvard, especially at the Divinity School, has been guided by the CSWR since it opened its doors in the fall of 1960, funded initially by a group of anonymous donors in 1957. Over 600 graduate students, CSWR fellows, and visiting professors representing the world's major religious traditions have been affiliated with the Center, many of them as residents.

The goals set forth in the first of several gifts—the appointment of a professor of world religions, the creation of graduate and undergraduate programs in the study of religion, the support of research and publications, fellowships for study and travel, and communication among peoples of different faiths—have been realized far beyond the expectations of the donors.

The CSWR has particular interest in the historical and contemporary interrelationships among religions, and the theological, philosophical, comparative, political, and ethical challenges facing religious communities and those who study them today. It primarily engages the academic community, beginning with the faculty, students, and staff of HDS, and then the wider scholarly community, but also welcomes religious practitioners, policymakers, and the wider public that is interested in religion.

The CSWR itself is not a curricular department. Faculty associated with the Center include HDS faculty and those teaching in other departments of the University. Recent appointments in world religions at the Divinity School have greatly enlarged the faculty who specialize in the religions of Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East, while traditional HDS strengths in Judaism and Christianity are now similarly relevant to the work of the CSWR. Over the years the Center has also created a wide network of affiliations through its links with the Divinity School, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Harvard's professional Schools, and institutes and universities in the United States and abroad. The Center occasionally brings an international visiting scholar to the Divinity School to co-teach and conduct research with a member of the faculty.

The CSWR sponsors a rich fare of educative programs, in the past often centered on a yearly programming theme. This year, however, the emphasis is rather on fostering ongoing conversations involving faculty, students, and staff of the Divinity School and Committee on the Study of Religion, and our wider set of colleagues around the University. Please email us for more information about these programs.

The CSWR seeks to support student initiatives in keeping with the Center's mission, in particular offering the Greeley International Internship, which sponsors one HDS student to intern with organizations outside the United States that are dedicated to the promotion of interreligious understanding, peace, and social justice.

The CSWR's resident community is comprised of students and visiting scholars. Though small, it is an important component of the Center's identity, and the energies of residents constitute a key resource in fulfilling the Center's mission. Each winter, applications are accepted for housing for the following academic year; short-term summer residence is often also possible.