Duke Divinity School held a worship service and lunch this week to dedicate a special work of art: The "(We Are) The Body of Christ" quilt, commissioned as a commemoration of Duke Divinity School’s Centennial in the 2026-2027 academic year.
Created by Professor of Old Testament Anathea Portier-Young, the quilt is also a celebration of Duke Divinity School’s Women’s Center, the first center to support women students on Duke University’s campus.
Associate Professor of Homiletics Jerusha Neal preached during the service, praising the complex artistry, physics, and grit it requires to create such an intricate quilt.
"The creation of this quilt, its challenge, its inability to be reduced to just one thing or even two things, its extravagant multi-hued beauty testifies to the weaving work that God has been about and that women in all of their diversities have been about in this place for many, many years," she said.
The quilt is symbolic of the intricate work of scholarship at the Divinity School, relationships through difference, and the diversity of life created by God.
"When scholarship grows out of a commitment to a God that transcends human domestication, there will be differences. There will be different colors, there will be different shapes. There's even real disagreements," said Neal.
"But when such scholarship also holds tight to the world-redeeming, rainbow-covenanting, cross-bearing, creation-embracing character of that undomesticated God, there are patterns that emerge graciously testifying to an Image that we could never have created on our own. There's something potent when all of a community's gifts and everyone that the spirit moves is encouraged to bring their best to God's tabernacle."
The quilt is inspired by the central image of community: a circle. The primary block is a circle composed of four quarters, representing a eucharistic host transected by the cross. This circular construction and image also allude to other key components of the Divinity School’s life, like a seminar table, the bonds between students, and the concentric and evolving nature of life in Christ.
The quilt’s curving lines also echo the silhouette of the Women’s Center logo and the women’s bodies it portrays while also tracing the outline of a cathedral—illustrating the sacred nature of theological education and the diversity of the body of Christ.
The quilt’s colors also bring together key commitments of the school: blues, pinks, purples, and accompanying oranges and reds bring together the colors of Duke University with those of womanism and feminism and the traditional hues of the Holy Spirit.
Created with care and meticulous addition to detail, this piece provides an opportunity to reflect on the fruits of Duke Divinity School’s first hundred years and the joy of sanctified celebration that will carry us into the future. The quilt can be seen in the Divinity School hallways, next to the Office of Black Church Studies.
