The search for God at Harvard

by Ari L. Goldman

In 1985, Ari L Goldman took a year's leave from his job as a religion reporter for The New York Times and enrolled in the Harvard Divinity School. What began as a project to deepen his knowledge of world religion turned out to be an extraordinary journey of spiritual illumination, in which Goldman reexamined his own faith as an Orthodox Jew while at the same time opening his mind to the great religions of the world. In his year at Harvard, Goldman found, to his surprise, that his fellow students were not straight-laced, somber clerics, but a diverse, vibrant, sometimes embattled group from every major religion of the world, united only by their deep spiritual commitment. Even more surprising was the spiritual climate of the Divinity School itself: far from being an ivory tower or a bastion of old-time Christian piety, the school was a forum for student debate on the relationship between religion and politics, social mores, and sexuality. Written with warmth, humor, and penetrating clar