Reading Group: Transcendentalism—Mystics, Misfits, Rogues, and Dissidents
This group meets on Tuesdays, 12–2pm (9/16, 9/30, 10/14, 10/28, 11/11, 12/2)
American Transcendentalism emerged in the mid-1800s from New England Unitarianism and European Romanticism. It distinguished itself by rejecting convention, challenging traditional religious doctrines of authority and election, opposing dominant philosophies, discarding genteel literary styles, and defying political complacency regarding slavery, gender inequality, and disenfranchisement. At Harvard, Transcendentalists were seen as mystics, misfits, rogues, and dissidents. Their refusals, however, sparked a social movement based on friendship and collaboration, united by a radical spirituality promising personal renewal and social transformation. This reading group invites participants to explore both sides of that legacy. We'll focus on Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and Margaret Fuller in the fall, and on figures including Bronson Alcott, Theodore Parker, Orestes Brownson, Elizabeth Palmer Peabody, and Caroline Dall in…
Programming Series: Transcendence and Transformation. Contact: Laurie D. Sedgwick, CSWR Events Coordinator
ldsedgwick@hds.harvard.edu.
Tuesday, September 16, 2025, 12:00 PM – 2:00 PM.
Conference Room, CSWR, 42 Francis Ave. Cambridge, MA 02138.
Scripture, Secularism, and Statecraft: From Separation of Church and State to Christian Preferentialism
Scripture, Secularism, and Statecraft: From Separation of Church and State to Christian Preferentialism - How the United States Supreme Court Thinks -- Or Doesn't -- about "Secularism"
References to “secularism” in the deliberations of the United States Supreme Court are surprisingly infrequent, amounting to just 16 instances in 12 cases argued between the years 1963-2004. This paucity is rather puzzling, if only because the types of things we talk about when we talk about "secularism" have been routinely adjudicated by the court for seventy-five years. And yet, the Court has rarely reflected on "secularism" - and when it did, confusion ensued. Sparse and elliptical as this body of jurisprudence may be, it tracks very well with the recent history of American secularism and its ongoing engagement with the Religious Right. This talk will present cases that will demonstrate a clear shift in the Court’s thinking from the mid-twentieth century to the present. Moreover, it will illustrate what is meant by “secula…
Contact: rpl@hds.harvard.edu.
Tuesday, September 16, 2025, 5:15 PM – 6:15 PM.
Zoom Webinar
https://harvard.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_YhWNNr2ETpWp7CMeZAQIXA#/registration.
For more info visit harvard.zoom.us. Walking Tour of Harvard’s Psychedelic History
Registration is required.
While research on psychedelics is ever present in our contemporary moment, there is a long tradition of interest in psychoactive drugs at Harvard University—from the ethnobotanical studies of the 1940s, to “mind-control” experiments of the 1950s, to the “heyday” of psychedelic research and activism of the 1960s. This walking tour traipses through the history of psychedelics at Harvard—stitching together figures as far back as Ralph Waldo Emerson, to little-known heroes of ‘60s drug culture, to contemporary felons, fugitives, and academics. This tour will be guided by CSWR Psychedelics and Spiritualty Program Leads, JEFFREY BREAU and PAUL GILLIS-SMITH. The tour is also accessible via Spotify, linked here.
The tour will cover about 2 miles. Comfortable walking shoes are recommended. The tour will convene in front of the CSWR, at 42 Francis Avenue, Cambridge, MA, at 5:00pm, and conclude in Harvard Square at the Kennedy School, at 79 John F Kennedy Street, Cambridge, MA.…
Programming Series: Psychedelics and the Future of Religion. Transcendence and Transformation. Psychedelics and Ethics. Spirituality and Psychedelics. Contact: Laurie D. Sedgwick, CSWR Events Coordinator
(617)495-4476.
Wednesday, September 17, 2025, 5:00 PM – 7:00 PM.
Center for the Study of World Religions
42 Francis Ave.
Cambridge, MA.
Climate Week: The Smell of Money—a film screening and discussion
Join Harvard Divinity School for a screening of The Smell of Money, an award-winning documentary about a rural North Carolina community’s battle against the corporate pork industry. The film follows Elsie Herring as she fights to survive air, water, and soil pollution and protect the land her grandfather purchased after claiming his freedom from slavery. Join us for a conversation on the intersection between climate and environmental justice, racial-environmental extraction, and the religious and moral demand that a history of environmental inequity makes on us.
Panel discussion to follow facilitated by Nikki Hoskins, Assistant Professor of Religion and Ecology at Harvard Divinity School.
Panelists:
Jamie Berger is a documentary filmmaker and activist working to end factory farming
Rev. Dr. Michelle Lewis is the founder and executive director of the Peace Garden Project and the executive director of The Outer Banks Environmental Film Festival
Dr. Valerie Ann Johnson is a scholar/activist and co-director…
Contact: Kate Royce (kroyce@hds.harvard.edu.
Friday, September 19, 2025, 11:30 AM – 3:00 PM.
James Room.
For more info visit static1.squarespace.com. Reading Group: Esotericism and Alternative Spirituality
Registration is required.
This group meets on Tuesdays, Sept. 9 & 23, Oct. 14 & 21, Nov. 4 & 18, 1–3pm
Esotericism has long been associated with the ideas of mystery, secrecy, and conspiracy. This is connected to the very etymology of the word, which hints at the possibility of acquiring special, inner knowledge that is different from what ordinary people usually have access to. The elitism that goes with this assumption can take on a political dimension. Insofar as esotericism is identified with the practice of secrecy, fears of clandestine manipulation of society and history arise almost naturally, and questions about its compatibility with the principles of modern democracy are raised. However, strategies of secrecy have also been used to promote the values of progress and democracy, as has been the case during the Enlightenment with the emergence of modern Freemasonry. Despite the relevance of these aspects for the study of esotericism, scholars have been reluctant to include them in their theorizations…
Programming Series: Transcendence and Transformation. Contact: Laurie D. Sedgwick, CSWR Event Coordinator
ldsedgwick@hds.harvard.edu.
Tuesday, September 23, 2025, 1:00 PM – 3:00 PM.
Conference Room, CSWR, 42 Francis Ave. Cambridge, MA 02138.
Reading Group: Psychedelics Beyond Psychedelics
Registration is required.
This group meets, Wednesdays 3-5, 9/10, 9/24, 10/8, 10/22, 11/5, and 11/19
The Psychedelics Beyond Psychedelics Reading Group invites participants to explore expansive understandings of transcendence, healing, consciousness, and connection that extend beyond the use of psychedelic substances. Through rigorous interdisciplinary inquiry engaging themes such as shamanism, ecological kinship, sound, and childbirth, we will interrogate and reimagine what constitutes the “psychedelic.” Rooted in queer, feminist, ecological, and decolonial efforts, this group offers a collaborative space for exploration and critical questioning. We aim to affirm multiple ways of knowing, deepen our ethical and relational practices, and collectively contribute to defining the evolving field of the Psychedelic Humanities.
Facilitators include:
LILA GLENN RIMALOVSKI is an MDiv candidate at Harvard Divinity School studying the relationship between eco-spiritual practice and movements for land justice. Her r…
Programming Series: Psychedelics and the Future of Religion. Transcendence and Transformation. Spirituality and Psychedelics. Psychedelics and Ethics. Contact: Laurie D. Sedgwick, CSWR Events Coordinator
ldsedgwick@hds.harvard.edu.
Wednesday, September 24, 2025, 3:00 PM – 5:00 PM.
Conference Room, CSWR, 42 Francis Ave. Cambridge, MA 02138.
Poetry Reading: For the Octave: New Translations of the Penitential Psalms
Registration is requested.
Please register to attend in person.
Join us for an evening of poetry in the historic Divinity Chapel (colloquially known as “Emerson Chapel”). From the very beginning, the chapel has served as a central space for prayer and learning, and it remains one of the most beloved corners of campus today. This event will feature new translations of the seven penitential psalms by Sam Bailey (Harvard University), Emma de Lisle (Harvard University), and Talin Tahajian (Yale University).
SAM BAILEY is a Ph.D. student in religion at Harvard, where he studies Christianity in the work of Denis Johnson. His poems have appeared or are forthcoming in The Yale Review, Missouri Review, Colorado Review, The Boiler, Image, and elsewhere. He is Managing Editor at Peripheries and Co-Editor-in-Chief of Mark.
EMMA DE LISLE studies theological aesthetics in the work of Adélia Prado at Harvard. Her recent poems have appeared in 32 Poems, The Adroit Journal, Image, Lana Turner, The Massachusetts Review, The…
Programming Series: Poetry. Contact: Laurie D. Sedgwick, CSWR Events Coordinator
ldsedgwick@hds.harvard.edu.
Wednesday, September 24, 2025, 5:30 PM – 7:00 PM.
Divinity Chapel, Divinity Hall, 14 Divinity Ave. Cambridge, MA 02138.
For more info visit cswr.hds.harvard.edu. Scripture, Secularism, and Statecraft: Political Theologies of the Nation: Religion, Citizenship, and the Making of Modern Statecraft
What role does religion really play in modern politics? Using a comparative approach, Prof. Jocelyne Cesari will show how the integration of religion into the nation-building process has produced distinct models of citizenship, legal authority, and collective identity—models that continue to influence both domestic politics and international norms. The lecture will discuss how national identity, law, and citizenship have been built with or against deep religious foundations, even in supposedly secular societies.
Please register for the event here.
Contact: rpl@hds.harvard.edu.
Thursday, September 25, 2025, 5:15 PM – 6:15 PM.
Zoom Webinar
https://harvard.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_mPqVj-FjQMSpqRD-wUaHdQ#/registration.
For more info visit harvard.zoom.us. Book Talk: The Unseen and Unheard: Thoreau’s Religious Quest
Registration is required.
Please register to attend on Zoom.
Please register to attend in person.
HDS alum Richard Higgins, the author of Thoreau’s God, will explore Henry David Thoreau as an original voice in American religion. Although a harsh critic of the Christianity of his day, Thoreau was religious to the bone and had a profound sense of the holy. His critique of churches was matched only by his rapturous encounters with the divine in nature. Richard will present Thoreau as a religious thinker who, in a period of upheaval, sought to divorce the religious sentiment from its nineteenth-century institutional context. In essence, he was a mystic who, while firmly moored to the earth, was on a quest to commune with a divine mystery that was both immanent in the natural world and transcendent. He called this illimitable presence many names, but he often called it God. Thoreau’s iconoclastic theological vision and experiential spirituality are resonating with spiritual seekers in America today.
RICHARD…
Programming Series: Transcendence and Transformation. Contact: Laurie D. Sedgwick, Events Coordinator, CSWR
ldsedgwick@hds.harvard.edu.
Thursday, September 25, 2025, 5:30 PM – 7:00 PM.
Common Room, Center for the Study of World Religions, 42 Francis Ave. Cambridge, MA 02138.
For more info visit cswr.hds.harvard.edu. Reading Group: Transcendentalism—Mystics, Misfits, Rogues, and Dissidents
This group meets on Tuesdays, 12–2pm (9/16, 9/30, 10/14, 10/28, 11/11, 12/2)
American Transcendentalism emerged in the mid-1800s from New England Unitarianism and European Romanticism. It distinguished itself by rejecting convention, challenging traditional religious doctrines of authority and election, opposing dominant philosophies, discarding genteel literary styles, and defying political complacency regarding slavery, gender inequality, and disenfranchisement. At Harvard, Transcendentalists were seen as mystics, misfits, rogues, and dissidents. Their refusals, however, sparked a social movement based on friendship and collaboration, united by a radical spirituality promising personal renewal and social transformation. This reading group invites participants to explore both sides of that legacy. We'll focus on Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and Margaret Fuller in the fall, and on figures including Bronson Alcott, Theodore Parker, Orestes Brownson, Elizabeth Palmer Peabody, and Caroline Dall in…
Programming Series: Transcendence and Transformation. Contact: Laurie D. Sedgwick, CSWR Events Coordinator
ldsedgwick@hds.harvard.edu.
Tuesday, September 30, 2025, 12:00 PM – 2:00 PM.
Conference Room, CSWR, 42 Francis Ave. Cambridge, MA 02138.
From the Heart to the Page and Back Again: HDS Alumnx Authors on the Spiritual Life
Lynn Cooper, MDiv ’07, Catholic Chaplain, Tufts University, Embracing Our Time: The Sacrament of Interfaith Friendship (2025).
Contact: rsl@hds.harvard.edu.
Tuesday, September 30, 2025, 5:00 PM – 6:15 PM.
Multifunction Space, Divinity Hall 114.
Ephemeral Field Journal: Book launch and introducing Skywater
Registration is required.
Please register to attend in person.
Ephemeral Field Journal: Book launch and Introducing Skywater
Please join us for an evening to celebrate the publication of the book, Ephemeral Field Journal: Climate + Love in Claude Monet’s Garden (Kehrer Verlag, September 2025) by Artist-in-Residence Sarah Schorr with an essay by CSWR Director Charles Stang.
When Claude Monet settled in Giverny in 1883, he designed a flower garden full of impressive color compositions for observing light and time. American artist Sarah Schorr understands Monet’s garden as a creative, living laboratory. From the tiny teardrops of rain to the steady stream feeding the water lily pond, the images in this book were inspired by the movement of water in Monet’s garden. In his essay, Stang meditates on water worlds, drawing on the ancient philosopher Thales and the contemporary Italian philosopher Emanuele Coccia to better appreciate Schorr’s images.
Stang and Schorr will also introduce their new project Skywater,…
Programming Series: Transcendence and Transformation. Contact: Laurie D. Sedgwick, CSWR Event Coordinator
ldsedgwick@hds.harvard.edu.
Tuesday, September 30, 2025, 5:30 PM – 7:00 PM.
Common Room, CSWR, 42 Francis Ave. Cambridge, MA 02138.
For more info visit cswr.hds.harvard.edu. Book Talk: Underworld Work: Black Atlantic Religion Making in Jim Crow New Orleans
When Zora Neale Hurston traveled to New Orleans, she encountered a religious underworld, a beautiful anarchy of spiritual life. In Underworld Work, Ahmad Greene-Hayes follows Hurston on a journey through the rich tapestry of Black religious expression from emancipation through Jim Crow. He looks within and beyond the church to recover the diverse leadership of migrants, healers, dissidents, and queer people who transformed their marginalized homes, bars, and street corners into sacred space.
Greene-Hayes shows how, while enclosed within an antiblack world, these outcasts embraced Africana esotericisms—ancestral veneration, faith healing, spiritualized sex work, and more—to conjure a connection to freer worlds past and yet to come. In recovering these spiritual innovations, Underworld Work celebrates the resilience and creativity of Africana religions.”
Join HDS for a special evening dedicated to Professor Greene-Hayes' new book.
Contact: Kate Royce (kroyce@hds.harvard.edu.
Monday, October 6, 2025, 5:30 PM – 7:00 PM.
CSWR Common Room.
From the Heart to the Page and Back Again: HDS Alumnx Authors on the Spiritual Life
Liz Walker, MDiv ‘05, Director of the Can We Talk Network, Pastor Emerita of Roxbury Presbyterian Church, No One Left Alone: A Story of How Community Helps Us Heal (2025).
Contact: rsl@hds.harvard.edu.
Tuesday, October 7, 2025, 5:00 PM – 6:15 PM.
Multifunction Space, Divinity Hall 114.
Reading Group: Psychedelics Beyond Psychedelics
Registration is required.
This group meets, Wednesdays 3-5, 9/10, 9/24, 10/8, 10/22, 11/5, and 11/19
The Psychedelics Beyond Psychedelics Reading Group invites participants to explore expansive understandings of transcendence, healing, consciousness, and connection that extend beyond the use of psychedelic substances. Through rigorous interdisciplinary inquiry engaging themes such as shamanism, ecological kinship, sound, and childbirth, we will interrogate and reimagine what constitutes the “psychedelic.” Rooted in queer, feminist, ecological, and decolonial efforts, this group offers a collaborative space for exploration and critical questioning. We aim to affirm multiple ways of knowing, deepen our ethical and relational practices, and collectively contribute to defining the evolving field of the Psychedelic Humanities.
Facilitators include:
LILA GLENN RIMALOVSKI is an MDiv candidate at Harvard Divinity School studying the relationship between eco-spiritual practice and movements for land justice. Her r…
Programming Series: Psychedelics and the Future of Religion. Transcendence and Transformation. Spirituality and Psychedelics. Psychedelics and Ethics. Contact: Laurie D. Sedgwick, CSWR Events Coordinator
ldsedgwick@hds.harvard.edu.
Wednesday, October 8, 2025, 3:00 PM – 5:00 PM.
Conference Room, CSWR, 42 Francis Ave. Cambridge, MA 02138.
Reading Group: Transcendentalism—Mystics, Misfits, Rogues, and Dissidents
This group meets on Tuesdays, 12–2pm (9/16, 9/30, 10/14, 10/28, 11/11, 12/2)
American Transcendentalism emerged in the mid-1800s from New England Unitarianism and European Romanticism. It distinguished itself by rejecting convention, challenging traditional religious doctrines of authority and election, opposing dominant philosophies, discarding genteel literary styles, and defying political complacency regarding slavery, gender inequality, and disenfranchisement. At Harvard, Transcendentalists were seen as mystics, misfits, rogues, and dissidents. Their refusals, however, sparked a social movement based on friendship and collaboration, united by a radical spirituality promising personal renewal and social transformation. This reading group invites participants to explore both sides of that legacy. We'll focus on Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and Margaret Fuller in the fall, and on figures including Bronson Alcott, Theodore Parker, Orestes Brownson, Elizabeth Palmer Peabody, and Caroline Dall in…
Programming Series: Transcendence and Transformation. Contact: Laurie D. Sedgwick, CSWR Events Coordinator
ldsedgwick@hds.harvard.edu.
Tuesday, October 14, 2025, 12:00 PM – 2:00 PM.
Conference Room, CSWR, 42 Francis Ave. Cambridge, MA 02138.
Reading Group: Esotericism and Alternative Spirituality
Registration is required.
This group meets on Tuesdays, Sept. 9 & 23, Oct. 14 & 21, Nov. 4 & 18, 1–3pm
Esotericism has long been associated with the ideas of mystery, secrecy, and conspiracy. This is connected to the very etymology of the word, which hints at the possibility of acquiring special, inner knowledge that is different from what ordinary people usually have access to. The elitism that goes with this assumption can take on a political dimension. Insofar as esotericism is identified with the practice of secrecy, fears of clandestine manipulation of society and history arise almost naturally, and questions about its compatibility with the principles of modern democracy are raised. However, strategies of secrecy have also been used to promote the values of progress and democracy, as has been the case during the Enlightenment with the emergence of modern Freemasonry. Despite the relevance of these aspects for the study of esotericism, scholars have been reluctant to include them in their theorizations…
Programming Series: Transcendence and Transformation. Contact: Laurie D. Sedgwick, CSWR Event Coordinator
ldsedgwick@hds.harvard.edu.
Tuesday, October 14, 2025, 1:00 PM – 3:00 PM.
*Common Room, CSWR, 42 Francis Ave. Cambridge, MA 02138.
Shamanism: The Timeless Religion with Manvir Singh
Registration required.
Please register to attend on Zoom.
What is shamanism, and what does it offer us today? Join anthropologist Manvir Singh, PhD, for a conversation about his acclaimed book, Shamanism: The Timeless Religion (Knopf, 2025), based on immersive research with shamans in Indonesia and the Colombian Amazon. Singh explores how shamans use trance, music, and plant medicine to heal, prophesy, and confront life’s uncertainties—and how these ancient practices reveal deep insights into belief, transformation, and the human mind.
MANVIR SINGH is an assistant professor of anthropology at the University of California, Davis. He holds a bachelor's degree from Brown University and a PhD in Human Evolutionary Biology from Harvard University. A regular contributor to The New Yorker, his work has also appeared in Wired, Vice, Aeon, The Guardian, and academic journals including Science and Nature Human Behaviour. He has studied Indigenous psychedelic use in Colombia and, since 2014, has researched…
Programming Series: Psychedelics and the Future of Religion. Spirituality and Psychedelics. Transcendence and Transformation. Contact: Laurie D. Sedgwick, CSWR Events Coordinator
ldsedgwick@hds.harvard.edu.
Wednesday, October 15, 2025, 5:30 PM – 7:00 PM.
Zoom.
For more info visit cswr.hds.harvard.edu. Public Research Talk: The Psychedelic Jesus of the American Counterculture, with Erik Davis
Registration is required.
Please register to attend in person.
Please register to attend on Zoom.
Behind today’s growing conversation about psychedelic Christianity lies a largely overlooked figure: Jesus Christ as imagined within the psychedelic counterculture. From recurring appearances in acid visions and underground comics to reinterpretations within esoteric “freak" circles, Jesus was deeply entangled in the era’s spiritual experimentation. For some young people immersed in drug culture, however, Christ became more than a symbol of countercultural spirituality—he opened a path toward the emerging Jesus Movement, a form of Christianity that rejected much (though by no means all) of the psychedelic ethos of intense spiritual experience. Among them was Rick Griffin, one of the most influential illustrators of California psychedelia, whose conversion to Christianity produced a remarkable body of visual work that continues to shape the intersection of faith, art, and underground culture.
ERIK DAVIS is an…
Programming Series: Transcendence and Transformation. Contact: Laurie D. Sedgwick, CSWR Events Coordinator
ldsedgwick@hds.harvard.edu.
Monday, October 20, 2025, 11:30 AM – 1:00 PM.
Common Room, CSWR, 42 Francis Ave. Cambridge, MA 02138.
For more info visit cswr.hds.harvard.edu. Reading Group: Esotericism and Alternative Spirituality
Registration is required.
This group meets on Tuesdays, Sept. 9 & 23, Oct. 14 & 21, Nov. 4 & 18, 1–3pm
Esotericism has long been associated with the ideas of mystery, secrecy, and conspiracy. This is connected to the very etymology of the word, which hints at the possibility of acquiring special, inner knowledge that is different from what ordinary people usually have access to. The elitism that goes with this assumption can take on a political dimension. Insofar as esotericism is identified with the practice of secrecy, fears of clandestine manipulation of society and history arise almost naturally, and questions about its compatibility with the principles of modern democracy are raised. However, strategies of secrecy have also been used to promote the values of progress and democracy, as has been the case during the Enlightenment with the emergence of modern Freemasonry. Despite the relevance of these aspects for the study of esotericism, scholars have been reluctant to include them in their theorizations…
Programming Series: Transcendence and Transformation. Contact: Laurie D. Sedgwick, CSWR Event Coordinator
ldsedgwick@hds.harvard.edu.
Tuesday, October 21, 2025, 1:00 PM – 3:00 PM.
Conference Room, CSWR, 42 Francis Ave. Cambridge, MA 02138.
Reading Group: Psychedelics Beyond Psychedelics
Registration is required.
This group meets, Wednesdays 3-5, 9/10, 9/24, 10/8, 10/22, 11/5, and 11/19
The Psychedelics Beyond Psychedelics Reading Group invites participants to explore expansive understandings of transcendence, healing, consciousness, and connection that extend beyond the use of psychedelic substances. Through rigorous interdisciplinary inquiry engaging themes such as shamanism, ecological kinship, sound, and childbirth, we will interrogate and reimagine what constitutes the “psychedelic.” Rooted in queer, feminist, ecological, and decolonial efforts, this group offers a collaborative space for exploration and critical questioning. We aim to affirm multiple ways of knowing, deepen our ethical and relational practices, and collectively contribute to defining the evolving field of the Psychedelic Humanities.
Facilitators include:
LILA GLENN RIMALOVSKI is an MDiv candidate at Harvard Divinity School studying the relationship between eco-spiritual practice and movements for land justice. Her r…
Programming Series: Psychedelics and the Future of Religion. Transcendence and Transformation. Spirituality and Psychedelics. Psychedelics and Ethics. Contact: Laurie D. Sedgwick, CSWR Events Coordinator
ldsedgwick@hds.harvard.edu.
Wednesday, October 22, 2025, 3:00 PM – 5:00 PM.
Conference Room, CSWR, 42 Francis Ave. Cambridge, MA 02138.
Reading Group: Transcendentalism—Mystics, Misfits, Rogues, and Dissidents
This group meets on Tuesdays, 12–2pm (9/16, 9/30, 10/14, 10/28, 11/11, 12/2)
American Transcendentalism emerged in the mid-1800s from New England Unitarianism and European Romanticism. It distinguished itself by rejecting convention, challenging traditional religious doctrines of authority and election, opposing dominant philosophies, discarding genteel literary styles, and defying political complacency regarding slavery, gender inequality, and disenfranchisement. At Harvard, Transcendentalists were seen as mystics, misfits, rogues, and dissidents. Their refusals, however, sparked a social movement based on friendship and collaboration, united by a radical spirituality promising personal renewal and social transformation. This reading group invites participants to explore both sides of that legacy. We'll focus on Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and Margaret Fuller in the fall, and on figures including Bronson Alcott, Theodore Parker, Orestes Brownson, Elizabeth Palmer Peabody, and Caroline Dall in…
Programming Series: Transcendence and Transformation. Contact: Laurie D. Sedgwick, CSWR Events Coordinator
ldsedgwick@hds.harvard.edu.
Tuesday, October 28, 2025, 12:00 PM – 2:00 PM.
Conference Room, CSWR, 42 Francis Ave. Cambridge, MA 02138.
Who Made American Judaism? A History of Ordinary Leaders by Professor Hasia Diner
Contact: Kevin Chimo (kchimo@hds.harvard.edu).
Thursday, October 30, 2025, 4:00 PM – 6:00 PM.
Cader Room, Swartz Hall 117, Harvard Divinity School.
Reading Group: Esotericism and Alternative Spirituality
Registration is required.
This group meets on Tuesdays, Sept. 9 & 23, Oct. 14 & 21, Nov. 4 & 18, 1–3pm
Esotericism has long been associated with the ideas of mystery, secrecy, and conspiracy. This is connected to the very etymology of the word, which hints at the possibility of acquiring special, inner knowledge that is different from what ordinary people usually have access to. The elitism that goes with this assumption can take on a political dimension. Insofar as esotericism is identified with the practice of secrecy, fears of clandestine manipulation of society and history arise almost naturally, and questions about its compatibility with the principles of modern democracy are raised. However, strategies of secrecy have also been used to promote the values of progress and democracy, as has been the case during the Enlightenment with the emergence of modern Freemasonry. Despite the relevance of these aspects for the study of esotericism, scholars have been reluctant to include them in their theorizations…
Programming Series: Transcendence and Transformation. Contact: Laurie D. Sedgwick, CSWR Event Coordinator
ldsedgwick@hds.harvard.edu.
Tuesday, November 4, 2025, 1:00 PM – 3:00 PM.
Conference Room, CSWR, 42 Francis Ave. Cambridge, MA 02138.
From the Heart to the Page and Back Again: HDS Alumnx Authors on the Spiritual Life
Mark Longhurst, MDiv ‘07, Writer and Publications Manager of the Center for Action and Contemplation, The Holy Ordinary: A Way to God (2024).
Contact: rsl@hds.harvard.edu.
Tuesday, November 4, 2025, 5:00 PM – 6:15 PM.
Multifunction Space, Divinity Hall 114.
Reading Group: Psychedelics Beyond Psychedelics
Registration is required.
This group meets, Wednesdays 3-5, 9/10, 9/24, 10/8, 10/22, 11/5, and 11/19
The Psychedelics Beyond Psychedelics Reading Group invites participants to explore expansive understandings of transcendence, healing, consciousness, and connection that extend beyond the use of psychedelic substances. Through rigorous interdisciplinary inquiry engaging themes such as shamanism, ecological kinship, sound, and childbirth, we will interrogate and reimagine what constitutes the “psychedelic.” Rooted in queer, feminist, ecological, and decolonial efforts, this group offers a collaborative space for exploration and critical questioning. We aim to affirm multiple ways of knowing, deepen our ethical and relational practices, and collectively contribute to defining the evolving field of the Psychedelic Humanities.
Facilitators include:
LILA GLENN RIMALOVSKI is an MDiv candidate at Harvard Divinity School studying the relationship between eco-spiritual practice and movements for land justice. Her r…
Programming Series: Psychedelics and the Future of Religion. Transcendence and Transformation. Spirituality and Psychedelics. Psychedelics and Ethics. Contact: Laurie D. Sedgwick, CSWR Events Coordinator
ldsedgwick@hds.harvard.edu.
Wednesday, November 5, 2025, 3:00 PM – 5:00 PM.
Conference Room, CSWR, 42 Francis Ave. Cambridge, MA 02138.
Reading Group: Transcendentalism—Mystics, Misfits, Rogues, and Dissidents
This group meets on Tuesdays, 12–2pm (9/16, 9/30, 10/14, 10/28, 11/11, 12/2)
American Transcendentalism emerged in the mid-1800s from New England Unitarianism and European Romanticism. It distinguished itself by rejecting convention, challenging traditional religious doctrines of authority and election, opposing dominant philosophies, discarding genteel literary styles, and defying political complacency regarding slavery, gender inequality, and disenfranchisement. At Harvard, Transcendentalists were seen as mystics, misfits, rogues, and dissidents. Their refusals, however, sparked a social movement based on friendship and collaboration, united by a radical spirituality promising personal renewal and social transformation. This reading group invites participants to explore both sides of that legacy. We'll focus on Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and Margaret Fuller in the fall, and on figures including Bronson Alcott, Theodore Parker, Orestes Brownson, Elizabeth Palmer Peabody, and Caroline Dall in…
Programming Series: Transcendence and Transformation. Contact: Laurie D. Sedgwick, CSWR Events Coordinator
ldsedgwick@hds.harvard.edu.
Tuesday, November 11, 2025, 12:00 PM – 2:00 PM.
Conference Room, CSWR, 42 Francis Ave. Cambridge, MA 02138.
Reading Group: Esotericism and Alternative Spirituality
Registration is required.
This group meets on Tuesdays, Sept. 9 & 23, Oct. 14 & 21, Nov. 4 & 18, 1–3pm
Esotericism has long been associated with the ideas of mystery, secrecy, and conspiracy. This is connected to the very etymology of the word, which hints at the possibility of acquiring special, inner knowledge that is different from what ordinary people usually have access to. The elitism that goes with this assumption can take on a political dimension. Insofar as esotericism is identified with the practice of secrecy, fears of clandestine manipulation of society and history arise almost naturally, and questions about its compatibility with the principles of modern democracy are raised. However, strategies of secrecy have also been used to promote the values of progress and democracy, as has been the case during the Enlightenment with the emergence of modern Freemasonry. Despite the relevance of these aspects for the study of esotericism, scholars have been reluctant to include them in their theorizations…
Programming Series: Transcendence and Transformation. Contact: Laurie D. Sedgwick, CSWR Event Coordinator
ldsedgwick@hds.harvard.edu.
Tuesday, November 18, 2025, 1:00 PM – 3:00 PM.
Conference Room, CSWR, 42 Francis Ave. Cambridge, MA 02138.
Reading Group: Psychedelics Beyond Psychedelics
Registration is required.
This group meets, Wednesdays 3-5, 9/10, 9/24, 10/8, 10/22, 11/5, and 11/19
The Psychedelics Beyond Psychedelics Reading Group invites participants to explore expansive understandings of transcendence, healing, consciousness, and connection that extend beyond the use of psychedelic substances. Through rigorous interdisciplinary inquiry engaging themes such as shamanism, ecological kinship, sound, and childbirth, we will interrogate and reimagine what constitutes the “psychedelic.” Rooted in queer, feminist, ecological, and decolonial efforts, this group offers a collaborative space for exploration and critical questioning. We aim to affirm multiple ways of knowing, deepen our ethical and relational practices, and collectively contribute to defining the evolving field of the Psychedelic Humanities.
Facilitators include:
LILA GLENN RIMALOVSKI is an MDiv candidate at Harvard Divinity School studying the relationship between eco-spiritual practice and movements for land justice. Her r…
Programming Series: Psychedelics and the Future of Religion. Transcendence and Transformation. Spirituality and Psychedelics. Psychedelics and Ethics. Contact: Laurie D. Sedgwick, CSWR Events Coordinator
ldsedgwick@hds.harvard.edu.
Wednesday, November 19, 2025, 3:00 PM – 5:00 PM.
Conference Room, CSWR, 42 Francis Ave. Cambridge, MA 02138.
Public Research Talk: A Magic Still Dwells: Occulture in Contemporary Art
Registration is required.
Please register to attend in person.
Please register to attend on Zoom.
Fifteen years ago, I began to notice the conspicuous presence of esoteric motifs in contemporary art. At first, I was intrigued but also surprised, assuming this was only a passing trend. Over time, however, I came to realize that the phenomenon was more significant and deserving of attention than I had initially thought.
The influence of esotericism on modern art—roughly up to the end of the Second World War—has been the subject of serious scholarly research since at least the 1960s. Yet it soon became clear to me that scholars of esotericism and art historians alike were paying insufficient attention to its role in contemporary art.
In this lecture, I will share my findings and reflections on this phenomenon, which I believe is essential to understanding the place of esotericism in our societies today. Contemporary art holds considerable cultural and social influence, and examining its relationship with…
Programming Series: Transcendence and Transformation. Contact: Laurie D. Sedgwick, CSWR, Events Coordinator
ldsedgwick@hds.harvard.edu.
Monday, December 1, 2025, 11:30 AM – 1:00 PM.
Common Room, CSWR, 42 Francis Ave. Cambridge, MA.
For more info visit cswr.hds.harvard.edu.