Dean Powery on the Spiritual Benefits of Campus Dialogue
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Students an their instructor sit in a cirlce talking outside.
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Students an their instructor sit in a cirlce talking outside.
Students engage in discussion during their house course, “The Gratitude Equation: Adding Joy to Life at Duke,” led by senior Danica Bajaj on the Abele Quad during an early September evening.
Drawing on his experience as a moderator at the recent Provost's Forum on Universities and the Israel-Palestine Conflict: How to Discuss, How to Engage, Chapel Dean Luke Powery says, “Dialogue is not only a sociological phenomenon; it is a spiritual one.”
Writing in the (Duke) Chronicle, Dean Powery cites the Jewish concept of “Argument for the sake of Heaven” as an ideal aligned with one of the university’s longstanding goals “to promote a respectful spirit of dialogue and understanding; to discourage all partisan and sectarian strife….”
“In the current time of tense political, social, cultural and religious polarization, I encourage you to ‘argue for the sake of Heaven,’” he says. “Don’t be afraid to learn from the other, whoever they may be, because they, too, are human, and by engaging their humanness you may encounter holiness.”