The Divinity School at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina is one of thirteen seminaries founded and supported by the United Methodist Church. It has 39 full time and 18 part time faculty and over 500 full time students.

It was founded in 1926 as the first graduate school at Duke, following a large endowment by James B. Duke, a tobacco magnate, in 1924. The Divinity School carries on from the original founding of Trinity College at the site in 1859, which provide free training for Methodist preachers in exchange for support from the church.

The Divinity School building was recently renovated and also expanded. The Hugh A. Westbrook Building, which opened in 2005, is 53,000 square-feet. It also contains the 315-seat Bishop W. Kenneth Goodson Chapel with 55-foot-high ceilings, office space, a bookstore, cafe, outdoor patio, and a 177-seat lecture hall.

Academics and Programs

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The Divinity School offers Master of Divinity, Master of Theology, Master in Church Ministries, and Master of Theological Studies degrees. A Ph.D. in religion is available through the Graduate School. A Th.D program has been approved and is planned to begin in the fall of 2006. The programs run through the school include^*:

• Baptist House
• Black Church Studies
• Center for Theological Writing
• Center for Wesleyan Studies
• Duke Institute on Care at the End of Life
• Duke Youth Academy for Christian Formation
• Ormond Center
• Pulpit and Pew
• Sustaining Pastoral Excellence
• Theology and Medicine

Notable Faculty

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• Paul Neff Garber, Dean (1941-44), later Bishop of The Methodist Church
• Stanley Hauerwas, Gilbert T. Rowe Professor of Theological Ethics (1984- )
• Richard B. Hays, George Washington Ivey Professor of New Testament

Notable Alumni

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• Gregory V. Palmer (M.Div. 1979) - a Bishop of the United Methodist Church
• Randall Wallace (Did not graduate, but did attend) - Hollywood Screenwriter, producer and director, involved with Braveheart, The Man in the Iron Mask, Pearl Harbor, and We Were Soldiers
• Hugh Westbrook (M.Div. 1970) - Hospice Care pioneer
• Edwin Charles Boulton (M.Div. 1953) - a Bishop of the United Methodist Church

External links

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• Official Website
• The Founding of Duke Divinity School
• Duke University
• http://www.ats.edu/member_schools/dukeduke.asp accreditation information]

Duke University | United States seminaries | Seminaries and theological colleges | Methodism

Association of Theological Schools in the United States and Canada

United Methodist seminaries