NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — It's more than likely that the people who lead our local religious congregations started in divinity school.
However, you may be surprised to hear many studying religion today, aren't looking for a path to the pulpit.
At Vanderbilt University's Divinity School, about a quarter of their students are actually mid-career professionals working in other fields.
So why are they studying theology?
A variety of reasons.
The first time Graeme Dennis attended Vanderbilt was in the mid-1990s.
“I studied chemistry, and I had a career in drug discovery informatics, so sort of the computing that supports pharma research and development,” said Graeme Dennis, a graduate divinity student at The Vanderbilt Divinity School and Graduate Department of Religion, at Vanderbilt University.
After a successful career, he's traded the flicker of computer screens for a different kind of blue light courtesy of stained glass in a chapel.
He's back on campus studying divinity, but he doesn't plan to spend his Sundays at the pulpit.
"In my class, none of my classmates plan to do congregational ministry," Dennis said.
Dennis is part of a large segment of religious studies students who plan on using their faith knowledge in an unconventional way.
According to Data USA, about a quarter of divinity students nationwide will actually lead congregations.
At Vanderbilt, that number goes up to about a third.
Dennis is also part of the one-quarter of students who is a mid-career person going back to school.
“I think that a lot of second career folks find themselves in jobs that are meeting the needs of their minds and meeting the needs of their body, but aren't necessarily engaging the needs or the leaning of their spirit or their soul,” said Harper Haynes, senior director of strategic enrollment management for The Vanderbilt Divinity School and Graduate Department of Religion, at Vanderbilt University.
According to Haynes, many divinity students earn dual degrees or take interdisciplinary courses.
"We have students who earn medical degrees as well as a Masters of Divinity,” Haynes said.
Some will use the teachings of ancient religions in extremely modern careers.
"What are the human virtues that are necessary to inform really effective and safe generative artificial intelligence,” Haynes said.
For Dennis, he hasn't made up his mind yet on what exactly he'll do after graduation.
“I can't say that I won't go back to doing the exact kind of work that I was doing," Dennis said. "I'll just do it with the benefit of what I've learned and considered and thought about while I've been in school here.”
After decades of a more planned life, now not knowing exactly what comes next may be one of the biggest lessons faith is helping him learn.
"We develop these competencies in how do people live with uncertainty. And it turns out that those are very broadly applicable in how we live,” Dennis said.
For more information on the different divinity programs available at Vanderbilt click here.
Do you have more information about this story? You can email me at robb.coles@newschannel5.com.
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