Around the Schools: Harvard Divinity School

In his Harvard Divinity School (HDS) convocation address in 2008, Donald K. Swearer, Distinguished Visiting Professor of Buddhist Studies and director of the Center for the Study of World Religions (CSWR), emphasized a worldview that considers ecology not in specific biological terms but instead in its broadest sense, noting that  “an ecology of human flourishing … is an understanding of the world as organically interrelated and interdependent.”

This year, the CSWR, in conjunction with Harvard’s Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, Harvard’s Center for the Environment, and the Initiative on Religion in International Affairs at Harvard Kennedy School, will expand on that notion with a series of lectures designed to explore “the ecology of human flourishing’s” religious, ethical, environmental, historical, and literary dimensions.

The first lecture in the series, “A World in Crisis: The Relevance of Spiritual-Moral Principles,” will take place on Thursday, Oct. 1, from noon to 2:30 p.m. in the CSWR Common Room, located at 42 Francis Ave. Chandra Muzaffar, president of the International Movement for a Just World, will deliver the address. The respondent will be Ronald Thiemann, HDS Bussey Professor of Theology.

For a full list of lectures, visit www.hds.harvard.edu/cswr/events/theme.html.