Harvard University and HDS are celebrating Interfaith Awareness Week (February 4-9) with events aimed at promoting interfaith dialogue and understanding. The events coincide with and are inspired by World Interfaith Harmony Week declared by the United Nations.
Events taking place on campus during Interfaith Awareness Week are located in the right-hand column of this page. Below you will find links to news and videos related to the interfaith work and community at Harvard and at HDS.
INTERFAITH NEWS
Reflections of an Interfaith Movement in Jordan | MTS candidate Melissa Nozell writes about her interfaith work in Jordan in the summer of 2012.
Church of One | Harvard professor Robert D. Putnam's research has shown that the United States is a remarkably devout, religiously diverse, and surprisingly tolerant place.
Interfaith Moments | Transformative interfaith dialogue is more likely to occur when people of faith encounter one another as fellow travelers.
New Beginnings | During Morning Prayers, a Harvard tradition since the seventeenth century, President Drew Faust reflected on how a secular university such as Harvard, 'dedicated to the power of reason,' might learn from the realm of the spiritual.
The Dalai Lama Speaks at Harvard, Delivers Message of Compassion | The comparative study of religions is critical to fostering broader understanding among people of different faiths and to help them comprehend that principles like love, compassion, and tolerance are at the heart of every religion, said the Dalai Lama.
Faith in Good Works | Ashok (A. J.) Kumar doesn't care what God you believe in, or whether you believe in a deity at all. He just wants to work toward a campus community that includes people from all faiths, as well as those not aligned with a religion.
Bringing Faiths Together | Through its diverse programming, faculty appointments, visiting scholars, and research initiatives, the CSWR has broadened and shaped Harvard's work in religious and spiritual traditions.
Guided by Faith | 'At Harvard, I've been shaped by the narratives and traditions of students whose faith and background are different from my own, without compromising who I am and what I believe in.'
INTERFAITH VIDEO
Religion in the Age of Pluralism | What everyone needs to know in a new era of faith and globalization.
The Fog of Religious Conflict | At HDS's 2012 Convocation, Dean David Hempton reflected on religious and ethnic conflict, and suggested ways to move beyond it.
New Rooms in the House of Religious Pluralism: Evangelicals and the Interfaith Movement | Eboo Patel, founder and president of Interfaith Youth Core in Chicago, delivered this year's Dana McLean Greeley Lecture for Peace and Social Justice. Patel's core belief is that 'religion is a bridge of cooperation rather than a barrier of division.'
Muslims, Christians, and Interfaith Dialogue | Upon her retirement in 2012, this special event was convened to recognize Jane I. Smith, associate dean for faculty and academic affairs, for her years of service to HDS.
Contours of Common Ground | As part of Harvard University's Interfaith Awareness Week in 2012, the Pluralism Project and the Center for the Study of World Religions at HDS hosted a panel discussion on February 7 about what it means to build 'common ground' in interfaith work.