Howard University School of Divinity

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🦬Preaching and Practicum (STMI 217)
🦬Preaching as Theologian (THEO 415)

BISON, please pay attention to registration deadlines for Fall 2026! The last day to register for classes is SEPTEMBER 4 | No exceptions.

Theological Term to Know | Divine Condescendence

Dear Divinity Bison,

Professor Eddie Glaude’s book Begin Again explores the life of the towering Black literary truth-teller of the Civil Rights Era, James Baldwin. Glaude forwards a countercultural notion on human responsibility for postmoderns when he writes: Responsibility cannot be lost, it can only be abdicated. If one refuses abdication, one begins again.

My interpretation: our responsibility tax debt for existing humanly is payable to the human communities that form us, as imperfect as they are, because the obligation to remake our world is one that is generationally enduring, handed on from one community-formed person to another. Our human existence is tied to human responsibility. We can forfeit our obligations or take up the challenge of paying life’s responsibility tax. To embrace the latter is to have another go at it—a go that can evidence in and around us profoundly positive consequences.

The start of a new academic year brings excitement to forward-lookers, who plan ahead and remain open to the possibility of growing intellectually as an act of spiritual discipline. But new beginnings can also bring terror and dread to those who cling too tightly to their past performances, or to those who expect the same set of circumstances to meet them upon their return to campus life. Having to learn or re-engage our learning management systems—Canvas, Bison Hub, and CourseDog—and selecting the right courses all force adjustment and readjustment. We do not get to call all the shots when we have to adjust to new realities, and seldom do things happen as we have planned. And still, it's better to plan than not to plan. Proverbs 19:21 has been truth-speak all of my life, “The human mind may devise many plans, but it is the purpose of God that will be established.” My encouragement to you as you begin again is to refuse to abdicate your responsibility to be fully engaged, fully present, fully human, stirred by the hopeful fact that newness awaits us and the possible futures we together co-create will make this world a better one for us to inhabit. Be prepared to begin again!

Divinity Forward,
Dean Gilbert

New Academic Year | Clock it 🤌🏾 WELCOME HOME, BISON BBQ (9/22) & OPENING CONVOCATION (9/23)

Alumni, please use the chat to encourage our new MDiv and DMin students while they participate in their orientation, today!

STUDENT HIGHLIGHT | Megan Rivers, Current MDiv Student

"Megan Rivers, right, addresses a group of young people during the Progressive National Baptist Convention annual session at the Omni Shoreham Hotel on July 22, 2026, in Washington, D.C. (RNS photo/Adelle M. Banks)"

Progressive National Baptist young people see signs of welcome but seek less judgment WASHINGTON (RNS) — ‘I feel like also seasoned adults complain about what we're wearing,’ said one teen about her historically Black denomination.

CURRENT STUDENTS please register for Fall 2026 today! NEW STUDENTS will register during orientation.