Duke Chapel Reads 'Between the World and Me'

In the note below, Chapel Dean Luke Powery invites the Chapel community to participate in a new initiative called Duke Chapel Reads. The first book in the program, Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates, is available at Duke’s Gothic Bookshop and elsewhere. Students interested in participating should contact Joshua Lazard, the Chapel's C. Eric Lincoln Minister for Student Engagement. All are invited to participate in a conversation about the book 7 p.m., Tuesday, Nov. 17, at the Alumni Memorial Commons Room in Duke Divinity School. Helping to leading the discussion will be Dr. Mary McClintock Fulkerson, a professor of theology at Duke Divinity School, and Dr. Timothy Tyson, Visiting Professor of American Christianity and Southern Culture at the Divinity School.

Dear Duke Chapel Community, Friends and Colleagues:

I’d like to invite you to join with students in the Chapel’s PathWays student ministry as they explore faith through the arts with questions of history, justice, and reconciliation through shared reading and discussion.

The students are forming small groups this semester to read journalist Ta-Nehisi Coates’ recent book Between the World and Me. Written as an epistle to his son, Coates wrestles with the questions of race in America. The book is timely in providing a larger context for the protests connected to the Black Lives Matter movement. It also speaks to enduring themes of hope, struggle, and prophetic witness.

I invite you to read Between the World and Me alongside the students and participate in a discussion about the book on Tuesday, Nov. 17. My hope is that community conversations prompted by this book will help us live into being a “Chapel without walls,” that follows Christ’s example in breaking down the walls that divide us from one another and from God.

Please consider this community reading project to be the first installment in a “Duke Chapel Reads” initiative, as part of the Chapel’s mission to bridge faith and learning.

In peace,

Luke A. Powery
Dean of Duke Chapel