God of the Archives
(an excerpt from Convocation 2024)
I spent my graduate school years deep in the archives of Olin Library in Ithaca, New York. I learned at least three important lessons about the Divine in those dark and dusty spaces, while researching eighteenth and nineteenth-century texts about American slavery and religion. First, despite some of the most painful texts you could ever imagine, in the archives were also affirmations of hope, tenacity, survival, and love. These writers wrote about a God who was present with them, and active on their behalf, through unimaginable struggles.
Secondly, the archives were filled with people of faith asking profoundly theological questions and not being afraid to voice their doubts. Doubts are not the sole domain of this modern age. Affirming both belief and unbelief have long been a part of a spiritual journey, especially among those whose faith was at the center of their lives.
And finally, in the archives, I learned that while theological deconstruction was important to these writers, so was the work of community rebuilding. These early writers I studied understood critique of organized religion as holy work, but they also cherished their role in rebuilding anew on a firm foundation.
As the Vanderbilt Divinity School begins another academic year, I want to encourage us to dig in the archives and learn from the faith of our fathers, and mothers, living still. From these historical examples we are both reminded and encouraged that we are inheritors of a rich legacy of faith and we have a responsibility, along with the great privilege, to study, read, learn, critique, and explore even as we grow, stretch, and are transformed through this sacred work.
Best,
Yolanda Pierce, Ph.D.
Dean
Cornelius Vanderbilt Chair
Professor of Religion & Literature
