This month the Religion & Culture Forum commemorates the retirement of Bruce Lincoln, the Caroline E. Haskell Distinguished Service Professor of the History of Religions at the Divinity School.  Lincoln is an alumnus of the Divinity School (PhD, History of Religions, 1976) and was appointed to the faculty in 1993.  He is the author of numerous books, including Discourse and the Construction of Society: Comparative Studies of Myth, Ritual, and Classification (1989) and Theorizing Myth: Narrative, Ideology, and Scholarship (1999). Lincoln has taught courses on topics as varied as Ancient Near Eastern creation myths, Swazi kingship rituals, and American political discourse and has advised over twenty dissertations.  He retired from the Divinity School on January 1st, 2017.

In this issue we share pieces from three PhD students in the History of Religions, Emily D. Crews, Andrew Durdin, and Adam Miller, in which they reflect on the impact of Lincoln’s scholarship, teaching, and mentorship on their own work at the Divinity School.   

Click here to read PDF of the reflection from contributor Emily D. Crews.  Crews is a PhD candidate in History of Religions at the University of Chicago Divinity School.  Her dissertation investigates the role of religion (in its many forms) in Nigerian immigrant communities in the United States.

Click here to read PDF of the reflection from contributor Andrew Durdin.  Durdin is a PhD candidate in History of Religions at the University of Chicago Divinity School.  His dissertation seeks to redescribe the category and practices of “magic” in ancient Rome.

Click here to read PDF of the reflection from contributor Adam Miller.  Miller is a PhD student in History of Religions at the University of Chicago Divinity School.  His most recent work focuses on Indian Mahayana history and literature.


photo image: Jasmine Kwong, Seminary Coop Documentary Project