Vanderbilt Divinity School Global Education Program

The goal of our global education program is twofold. First, it seeks to prepare students for ministry and global citizenship through a rigorous engagement with global Christianity, other religious traditions within their indigenous contexts, and theories of globalization and mission appropriate for the contemporary world.  Second, it aims to help faculty incorporate international faith traditions into their curricula by involving them in conversations about the global dynamics and realities of religion. Ultimately, both goals are critical to preparing the next generations of ministers, scholars and justice advocates to be effective leaders in the global arena and closer to home. 

The Divinity School’s Global Education Program is guided by the School’s deeper set of commitments, which focus on issues of poverty and economic injustice, racism and ethnocentrism, sexism, and sexual and gender identities. These themes play out both at home and on the global stage.

Going forward, we want to especially focus on three dimensions of global religious life that are central concerns of the Divinity School:  poverty, sexuality and gender, and health and healing.  In each of these areas, we analyze the dynamics of religion in the production of the current state of communities, evaluate the ethics of various forms of engagement by religious persons and institutions, and prepare religious leaders who can act with integrity to “heal the world” (tikkun olam).  These topics require us to understand the history of colonialism, neo-liberal politics and economy, and the broader dynamics of globalization, as well as the particular roles of various religious traditions in each of these. By focusing on these topics, we are able to draw on our faculty and students, community and religious partners, and existing Divinity programs such as the Carpenter Program in Religion, Gender, and Sexuality; the Kelly Miller Smith Institute on Black Church Studies; and the Cal Turner Program for Moral Leadership. Situated in a university context, we also are able to draw on university resources and the expertise of our professional schools in these three areas.