At the heart of the Theology, Medicine, and Culture Initiative is a vibrant community of students, scholars, and practitioners drawn together by a shared commitment to exploring the intersections of faith, health, and healing. Whether you are part of our residential fellowship or hybrid certificate program, your time at TMC will be shaped by intentional gatherings, deep conversations, and enduring friendships that sharpen your thinking and nourish your spirit.

Doing Life Together Beyond the Classroom

Whether gathered around a table weekly during “TMC Time” as a residential student, connecting on Zoom across time zones as a hybrid student, or walking Duke’s campus during immersive weeks, our alumni speak to the lasting impact of doing this work—and this learning—in community.  Relational depth and intellectual vibrancy define student life at TMC. It's more than a program—it’s a place of belonging, growth, and purpose.

What is it like to be part of the TMC community? Hear directly from one of our alumni, Georgina Keene, as she reflects on her experience of community at the annual fall immersive week TMC picnic.

TMC at CMR 2024 Indianapolis

A Community That Gathers

Residential students engage regularly in person through classes, weekly brown bag lunches, and “TMC Time”—a beloved rhythm of shared meals and guest speakers who offer theological, clinical, and cultural insights. These informal gatherings provide space for students to challenge and refine one another’s ideas while building a network of support that often extends far beyond the Divinity School.

Hybrid students join from across the country, coming together online for weekly classes that cultivate meaningful connections across distance. Twice a year, they meet in Durham for immersive, in-person weeks—joyful times of learning, conversation, and connection. These visits often deepen the relationships that form throughout the program, turning classmates into colleagues and lifelong friends.

Thinking and Thriving Together

TMC is a place where academic inquiry meets vocational reflection, where rigorous scholarship grows in conversation with lived experience at the intersection of theology and medicine. In classrooms, over lunch tables, and during immersive weeks, students help shape each other’s imaginations. It’s a space to grow intellectually, spiritually, and personally—together.

TMC Hybrid Students Tour Trent Collection
TMC Fellows gather with faculty and staff at St. Francis Springs for retreat

Shared Traditions

Students, faculty, and staff in the TMC Initiative regularly step away from the rhythms of coursework and clinical work for shared meals and retreat. The hybrid and residential programs build in time set apart for rest, reflection, and renewal. These opportunites, both formal and informal, offer space to deepen relationships, share stories, and reconnect with the deeper questions that bring us to this work. Through prayer, conversation, meals, and silence, we cultivate the kind of community that sustains both scholarship and vocation.

David Stevens wears suit and tie

"The TMC community is unique among academic spaces...mostly because the members of this community seem to be committed to hospitality and friendship before academics, which is a reversal I wasn’t expecting. That’s been one of the most unexpected joys of being in TMC–I didn’t expect to make such deep friendships in the way that I did."

David Stevens, MD, CTHC '23