June 12, 2025
Yale Divinity School Greg Sterling made the following announcement to the YDS campus community today.
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Dear Colleagues,
With great pleasure, I am writing today to announce significant promotions and distinctions for a number of our faculty members over the past academic year.
Braxton Shelley has been appointed to the newly endowed George Washington Williams Chair at YDS, named for the first African American to graduate from Newton Theological Institution (which continues today as part of Andover Newton Seminary at YDS). Professor Shelley’s accomplishments have probably become familiar to you over the four years he has served on the YDS and Institute of Sacred Music faculties. He has become a tremendously influential scholar and has set a high standard internationally. His academic publications have won awards from all three of the most significant professional societies in music—an extremely rare accomplishment. He has published two significant books: Healing for the Soul: Richard Smallwood, the Vamp, and the Gospel Imagination (2021) and An Eternal Pitch: Bishop G. E. Patterson and the Afterlives of Ecstasy (2023). He has two more books nearing completion and under contract: Digital Antiphony: Black Gospel, Social Media, and the Craft of Collectivity (Oxford University Press) and Mattie Moss Clark: A Life in Song (Yale University Press). The Music and the Black Church program under Professor Shelley’s directorship has flourished since its founding in 2021, engaging scholars across the University and bringing to Yale some of the most prominent gospel musicians in the country for concerts and transformative interactions with students.
Promoted to full professor is Michal Beth Dinkler, Professor of New Testament. Professor Dinkler pursues scholarship at the intersection of New Testament, Ancient Christianity, and contemporary literary theory. She is the author of three books: Silent Statements: Narrative Representations of Speech and Silence in the Gospel of Luke (2013), Literary Theory and New Testament Scholarship (2019), and Influence: On Rhetoric and Biblical Interpretation (2021). Her next book, How to Do Things with Stories: Early Christian Narrative as Rhetoric, is under contract with Cambridge University Press and nearing completion. Professor Dinkler’s work has also been published in multiple edited volumes and in top academic journals such as the Journal of Biblical Literature, Frontiers of Narrative Studies, Journal for the Study of the New Testament, and New Testament Studies. She is an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA) and Head of Yale’s Timothy Dwight College.
Ra’anan Boustan has been appointed to our faculty as a tenured Associate Professor of Jewish Studies. Professor Boustan was with us during the 2024-25 academic year as a Presidential Visiting Fellow. At previous points in his career, he was Associate Professor in the Department of History at UCLA and Research Scholar in the Program in Judaic Studies at Princeton. His work explores the dynamic intersections between Judaism and other Mediterranean religious traditions in late antiquity, with a special focus on the impact of Christianization on Jewish culture and society. In addition to publishing numerous articles and edited volumes, Dr. Boustan is the author of From Martyr to Mystic (2005) and co-author of The Elephant Mosaic Panel in the Synagogue at Huqoq (2017). He currently serves as the Editor-in-Chief of two international journals, Jewish Studies Quarterly and Studies in Late Antiquity. Dr. Boustan is the site historian for the Huqoq Excavation Project and collaborates with Dr. Karen Britt on the publication of the mosaic floor in the site’s late fourth-century synagogue.
Frederick “Jerry” Streets ’75 M.Div. has been appointed Professor in the Practice. The Rev. Dr. Streets has been leading our joint-degree program in Divinity and Social Work with aplomb since 2023 while serving as Adjunct Associate Professor of Divinity and Social Work. Professor Streets is a licensed clinical social worker who has had an outstanding career in theological education, ministry, and social work. He has been an important presence in the YDS and Yale communities for more than 35 years. He has taught at YDS since 1987 as an adjunct associate professor of pastoral theology. He served for 15 years as Chaplain of Yale University and Senior Pastor of the Church of Christ in Yale, from 1992 to 2007. In addition, he served for a decade as Senior Pastor of Dixwell Avenue Congregational Church in New Haven. Professor Streets is the author of, most recently, How Are You “Being”?: Clergy Wellness in a Time of Uncertainty (2024). As further recognition of what he has meant to this community, Professor Streets has one of our student awards named after him: the Reverend Frederick J. Streets Prize, awarded annually to a graduating student deemed to have made a distinguished contribution to the advancement of social justice.Let me next congratulate the following faculty members for their outstanding accomplishments.
Willie James Jennings, Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Systematic Theology and Africana Studies, gave Cambridge University’s four-part Hulsean Lectures last November, speaking on “Unfolding Creation.” Professor Jennings was given yet another honor last month, receiving an honorary doctorate at Meadville Lombard Theological School’s Commencement. Click here for more information on his Hulsean Lectures and here for the audio recordings.
Mark Miller, Lecturer in Sacred Music at YDS and the Institute of Sacred Music, received an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree in May from Christian Theological Seminary, which also invited him to debut a new hymn he composed. Read more here.
Miroslav Volf, Henry B. Wright Professor of Systematic Theology and Director of the Center for Faith & Culture at YDS, gave the Gifford Lectures at Aberdeen University in Scotland last month. Professor Volf’s five lectures explored “Amor Mundi: God and the Character of Our Relation to the World.” More information and a link to lecture videos can be found here.
Teresa Berger, Professor of Liturgical Studies and the Thomas E. Golden Jr. Professor of Catholic Theology at YDS and the ISM, received the Berakah Award last September from the North American Academy of Liturgy for her distinguished lifetime contributions to the professional work of liturgy. Learn more here.We applaud Dr. Berger not only for her award but for her career as she makes the transition to Professor Emerita. She came to YDS in 2007 from Duke Divinity, where she served on the faculty for 22 years. In her 18 years at Yale, Professor Berger has been a transformative scholar and teacher. To say that these have been productive years would be an understatement. She has produced seven edited volumes and monographs over that time span, including @ Worship: Liturgical Practices in Digital Worlds, in addition to a dozen scholarly articles and numerous pieces for more general audiences. She has been a sought-after public voice on matters concerning the Catholic Church, such as the recent election of Pope Leo. An in-depth article about her and her work will appear later this summer at YDS News and in Notes from the Quad.
Please join me in sending hearty congratulations to these colleagues for their remarkable achievements and contributions to YDS, the academy, and the world.
Best wishes,
Greg Sterling
The Reverend Henry L. Slack Dean
Lillian Claus Professor of New Testament
June 12, 2025