University of Chicago Divinity School

"The world cannot be justified."

Those words from Susan Taubes anchor the lead article in the newest issue of the "Journal of Religion," which traces her refusal of theodicy and her enduring engagement with suffering and meaning.

The issue also features new scholarship on Kant's understanding of God and the politics of the "Zhuangzi," continuing the Journal's long tradition of publishing innovative research in the study of religion.

We'll also highlight the new issue in tonight's edition of Criteria, together with the latest news and stories from across the University of Chicago Divinity School. https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/toc/jr/2026/106/3

What does a Divinity School education prepare students for in an age of artificial intelligence and information overload?

In her 2026 convocation address, Professor Angie Heo reflects on why the academic study of religion and the humanities remains essential for cultivating curiosity, discernment, and deep understanding.

Watch the full address on YouTube: https://youtu.be/7Z8CSvAobro?si=6m5Qx6rkCbuGBkw7

A team of scientists has built the first synthetic cell that can feed, grow, and reproduce, and the Div School's own Laurie Zoloth weighed in on what comes next. Zoloth, Margaret E. Burton Professor of Religion Ethics, spoke with CNN about the ethical questions raised by this kind of breakthrough and the new nonprofit created to help answer them. Read more on CNN.

Scientists say they have built a basic component of life from scratch | CNN Scientists say they have built a cell from scratch for the first time that feeds, grows and replicates like a natural cell, a breakthrough in synthetic biology.

June 30 is the last day of our fiscal year, and we're marking it with a small thank-you: donors who give before midnight receive a commemorative poster of Swift Hall, created by artist Steve Shanabruch.

Make a gift before the deadline here: givetoday.uchicago.edu/campaigns/80382/donations/new?designation=Swift+100&utm_source=ang-fy26&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=fye26&utm_content=31S2606AA

What does holiness smell like?

That's the question perfume influencer Audrey Robinovitz put to a room of parishioners, perfume devotees, and the spiritually curious at a Gold Coast church last month, tracing scent from scripture straight into a collection of glass bottles passed around a table.

The Chicago Reader covered the event, and the Div School's own Angie Heo, Associate Professor of the Anthropology and Sociology of Religion, contributed a perspective rooted in her research on Coptic Orthodoxy and saint veneration. Heo explained how smell functions as a form of contact, not just a symbol, capable of transmitting blessing and bodily presence across time and distance.

It's a fascinating piece on fragrance, faith, and what it means to carry a sacred experience home. Full article linked below.

The scent of resurrection - Chicago Reader At Ascension Chicago, Audrey Robinovitz opened a small reliquary of scent, guiding attendees through the fragrant history of anointing.

"Where fun comes to die." That is the old line about the University of Chicago. In her Convocation address to the Class of 2026, Angie Heo offered a reversal: "in a world where fun has not so much died but been flattened, our craftwork is nothing short of the antidote."

Speaking at the 2026 Hooding and Pinning Ceremony in Rockefeller Chapel, Heo, Associate Professor of the Anthropology and Sociology of Religion, made the case for craft as the work of the Divinity School: the slow, attentive practice of reading, interpreting, and staying with a question long enough to know what it is really asking.

Read "Craft in the Fullest Sense," the lead story in the new edition of Criteria. https://divinity.uchicago.edu/news/craft-fullest-sense

What if a revenge thriller is really a parable about sin?

In the latest Q&A for Pop Religion, Professor Abimbola Adelakun sits down with 'Criteria' to talk about Aleshea Harris's "Is God Is," the story of twin sisters who set out to kill the father who burned them as children.

"That itself started to tell me that these are not two people," Adelakun says of the sisters' near-telepathic bond. "This is one person. The story breaks them into two."

She reads the mother as God, the father as the devil, and the daughters as two halves of a whole left to set the world right. Along the way: twins in Greek and Yoruba myth, sin as a collective burden, and why Black rage sits at the center of the film's theological imagination.

Read the full conversation: https://divinity.uchicago.edu/news/pop-religion-two-nations-one-womb-professor-abimbola-adelakun-god-destiny-sin-and-religious

What's on a Hebrew Bible scholar's summer reading list? Jeffrey Stackert, the Caroline E. Haskell Professor of Hebrew Bible, has two picks in The University of Chicago News's roundup from this year's teaching award winners.

First, Allegra Goodman's 'Intuition': "I love academic novels, and Allegra Goodman's 'Intuition' is better than most." The novel follows the ambitions and uncertainties of a cancer research lab.

Second, Professor Emeritus Bruce Lincoln's 'Secrets, Lies, and Consequences,' a murder mystery that reflects soberly on the twentieth century's worst political offenses. It revisits the 1991 assassination of Ioan Culianu in Swift Hall, and Lincoln taught himself Romanian just to write it.

Check out the full list: news.uchicago.edu/story/what-read-during-summer-2026

At Convocation on June 5, we recognized this year's student prize and fellowship winners during the Hooding and Pinning Ceremony at Rockefeller Chapel. Their work this year reached from the Greek of the New Testament to contemporary Jewish prayer, from interfaith exegesis to the future of congregational life. These awards celebrate scholarship, teaching, ministry, interfaith engagement, and writing across the Divinity School. Congratulations to all of our 2026 recipients. See the full list: https://divinity.uchicago.edu/news/divinity-school-honors-2026-student-prize-winners