Welcome

Save the date for Summer Study 2025: June 2 - 6.

Registration is now closed. Contact campbell.harmon@yale.edu for assistance.

As always, Summer Study will feature renowned YDS faculty in small seminars that focus on the Bible or on a specialized topic in religion and theology. See the full list of courses that were offered in 2024. Check back for updated courses in February 2025.

Courses are not for academic credit, but can count towards continuing education requirements for some clergy. Participants receive a Yale Certificate of Completion at the end of the course week. All courses are offered exclusively online via Zoom. There is no on-campus instruction offered. All classes are $400 each.

Please share this program with churches under your care and pastors who are part of your denominational tradition—or anyone else in your networks who you think will enjoy the opportunity to immerse themselves in weeklong courses on topics essential to practical church ministry and personal enrichment.

Yale Divinity School’s Summer Study program is open to the public, and all are welcome.

For further information about Summer Study, Contact Us.

2024 Keynote Address by Prof. Volker Leppin, Yale Divinity School
The Mystical Church – A Vision for the Future?

 
The ranks of the “spiritual but not religious” are growing rapidly, and church institutions are shrinking.  Christianity has rich historic traditions, particularly within mysticism, for personal spiritual practices.  How might churches draw on this heritage in ways that both nourish individual spirituality and also draw people together in vibrant communities of faith?

Prof. Volker Leppin is the Horace Tracy Pitkin Professor of Historical Theology at Yale Divinity School.  His publications on late medieval church history have received many awards.  His most prominent work examines Martin Luther against the background of medieval mysticism.  His most recent book, Ruhen in Gott.  Eine Geschichte der christlichen Mystik [Resting in God: A History of Christian Mysticism], analyzes the yearning for God as a centerpiece of Christian faith.  
 
Following this keynote address, there will be an opportunity for questions and answers.
 

Information on Biblical Language courses offered separately from the Summer Study program is available here at the Yale Divinity Summer Language Courses.

These programs are part of the Center for Continuing Education at Yale Divinity School. More free and online resources are available at the CCE website.