The Faith Council was organized in 2007 by former Chapel Dean, Sam Wells. This article in the Journal of Scriptural Reasoning outlines his original vision for the group. Today the Faith Council is one of the primary components of a larger interfaith initiative at Duke. Working together, the ten-person Council fosters and models profound conversations across faith traditions in order to deepen participants’ practice of their own faiths, understanding of other faiths, and relationships across religious and cultural divides, and to facilitate such conversations within the University and beyond.
Imam Abdullah Antepli
Muslim Chaplain, Imam for the Center for Muslim Life at Duke
Dr. Laura Lieber
Assistant Director of Jewish Studies and Director of the Center for Late Ancient Studies
Dr. Christy Lohr Sapp
Associate Dean for Religious Life
The Rev. Sumi Loundon Kim
Buddhist Campus Minister
Father Michael Martin
Catholic campus minister & Director of the Duke Catholic Center
The Rev. Katie Owen
Presbyterian Campus Minister
Rabbi Jeremy Yoskowitz
Jewish Chaplain & Rabbi for Jewish Life at Duke
Steve Hinkle
Evangelical Staff Leader for Graduate Christian Fellowship
The Faith Council sponsors a number of events throughout the year including interfaith panels and lectures. Past speakers have included award-winning author Stephen Prothero, Imam Feisal Rauf of the Cordoba Initiative. Panels have included “Saving the Earth: What can faith traditions teach about the environment?”, “Living Faiths: What do religions have to learn from each other?”, and “Religious Responses to 9/11”. The Faith Council also coordinates Duke’s involvement in President Obama’s Interfaith and Community Service Campus Challenge.
Students in Duke’s Undergraduate Faith Council create opportunities for interfaith engagement among their peers. They plan community service events, dialogue dinners, text studies and public events that will draw participation from students in their own faith traditions and the wider Duke community. These students see religious identity as an important, yet often overlooked, aspect of self-understanding, and they enjoy exploring opportunities to learn more about each other’s traditions as well as their own.
Duke’s interfaith engagement is strengthened by partnerships with a number of local and international interfaith organizations.