Center for the Study of World Religions
About CSWR
The Center for the Study of World Religions is a world-renowned research center for the comparative, historical, and cultural study of the world’s major religions and spiritual traditions. Centered in Harvard Divinity School, drawing on the unparalleled resources of Harvard University, and serving a worldwide constituency of scholars, religious leaders, policy makers, and concerned individuals, the center aspires to:
encourage interreligious understanding;
strengthen scholarship and teaching in both individual traditions and the comparative endeavor;
enhance the awareness and appreciation of the theological, ethical, aesthetic, and historical aspects of the world’s major religious and spiritual traditions within the global intellectual community; and
strengthen understanding of all belief systems among leaders and adherents of all the world’s religious and spiritual traditions.
The center was established by a single gift given by a group of anonymous donors in 1957. The Deed of Gift conveying this gift to the University is an eloquent statement of the donors’ intent in founding the center, and continues to guide our work.
The CSWR currently sponsors an active program of events open to members of the University and the interested public.
The Center has also sponsored various residential fellowships and provided scholarships to promising graduate and undergraduate students.
The Center has supported a limited number of research projects reflecting some of its central objectives and shaped by faculty members from the Divinity School and the wider University.
A program of publications sponsored by the Center has brought significant work in the field of religious studies and comparative religions to a worldwide audience of scholars.
Funding Grants
Publications
CSWR News
For more information please visit the website.