Mission
Duke Divinity School’s mission is to engage in spiritually disciplined and academically rigorous education in service and witness to the Triune God in the midst of the church, the academy, and the world. We strive to cultivate a vibrant community through theological education on Scripture, engagement with the living Christian tradition, and attention to and reflection on contemporary contexts in order to form leaders for faithful Christian ministries.
“Transforming Ministry” was adopted by Duke Divinity School during the 75th anniversary in 2001-02 and continues to serve as a major theme.
Transformation includes an appreciation of the past as well as a focus on the future. We seek to embody a vital sense of tradition without lapsing into traditionalism. Church historian Jaroslav Pelikan summarizes the distinction succinctly:
‘Tradition is the living faith of the dead; traditionalism is the dead faith of the living.’
Transformation also describes what we need as a school: being open to the transformation of our curriculum, our programs, our efforts to learn from the best practices of ministry, and to deepen our understanding so that we may be of more faithful service to the church, to the academy, and to the world.”
Transformative Leadership:
A Strategic Plan for Duke Divinity School 2006-2011
June 2006
The Divinity School of Duke University is a professional school, formally related to the United Methodist Church, that educates and trains women and men for a variety of Christian ministries in the church, the world, and the academy. In so doing, the Divinity School aims to form moral and intellectual character and to create a community of reflective theological discourse.
The Divinity School has an outstanding reputation and is highly respected among theological schools in the world. With this reputation comes, we believe, a responsibility (a calling, even) to help shape the landscape of theological education and all that it touches—pastors, congregations, communities, seminaries, and universities with an interest in theology, the church, and other religious institutions. The deep need for faithful leadership in the church, the world, and the academy is now intersecting in significant ways with the school’s increasing capacity to shape such leadership by the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The Divinity School’s distinctive vocation is to equip students, clergy, and laity for faithful leadership and for critical reflection on the church, in service to the claims of Christ and in a dramatically changing global culture.
Read the complete Strategic Plan »
Introduction
Aspiration and Direction
Internal and External Assessments
University Themes for Planning
Five-Year Goals for The Divinity School
Strategies for Goal Achievement
Financial Resources and Requests for University Support
Conclusion
Read Making A Difference: The Strategic Plan for Duke University.