The Center for Reconciliation sponsors the annual Summer Institute for Transformation and Reconciliation that brings scholars, students, community members, church leaders, and leaders of faith-based organizations to the Duke Divinity campus for an intensive three-day institute. The program combines plenary speakers, round-table issues panels, break-out sessions, and ecumenical worship to create a space to grow together as scholars and practitioners of transformation and reconciliation.

Rooted in the Duke Divinity School conviction that reconciliation is at the heart of the gospel, the institute draws on the strengths of a faculty of world-class scholars and practitioners. Since God’s ministry of reconciliation is entrusted to all Christians, the institute is designed to provide opportunities to cultivate the mindset of Christ (Phil 2: 3-11). Christ-like reconcilers seek a robust vision and practice of Christian transformation (Romans 12: 1-2) and reconciliation (2 Co. 5:16-21) that is faithful to the scriptural witness. They also seek to discern the signs of the times by growing in awareness about the realities that surround them, practicing the discipline of lament, and pursuing God to discover what God is doing to address what needs changing in their context.

The institute centers on content with a biblical vision of reconciliation that inspires a movement of transformed communities and relationships. This formation of communities is nurtured by each other’s witness that Christ is strengthening us to the end and affirming us so that we do not “lack any spiritual gift” in our life together (1 Corinthians 1:4-9).  As an integral part of the Divinity School at and rooted in a Christian vision of God’s ministry of reconciliation, the institute aims to serve the academy, the church, and the world.

Learn more about the institute.