Durham, North Carolina – A soft afternoon light illuminated Duke Divinity School’s Chapel on the day that Dr. Ellen Davis gave a sermon to celebrate and bless the School’s new Heritage Edition of The Saint John’s Bible.
“Beauty is a matter of urgency when it is summoned in the service of hope,” spoke Dr. Davis, Distinguished Professor of Bible and Practical Theology at Duke Divinity School, to a crowd hanging on to her every word. “When beauty is offered to us, not in an attempt to sell us something but rather to feed our hope, then we may recognize how badly we need it, if we ourselves are to live as agents of hope.”
Dr. Davis is indisputably one such agent of hope. One of the many ways she embodies this idea is through her work offering classes to incarcerated students through Duke University’s Prison Teaching initiative. The program, launched in February 2024, brings the Duke classroom to Butner Federal Correctional Complex, to the medium-security unit, allowing incarcerated students to pursue degrees in the arts and sciences.
The class – one of several that Dr. Davis teaches at Duke – is called Theology From the Inside: Reading Psalms as Prayers of the Heart.
The class consists of twenty-two students total, with twelve incarcerated students and ten Duke Divinity campus students who travel with Dr. Davis to Butner each week.
Thus far, about one month into the semester, Dr. Davis has lectured and facilitated discussions on Anglican chant and the history and meaning of the Psalms in monastic communities. Naturally, these discussions take on a different meaning in this context than they would on campus.
“I think of my student whose face is just bright with joy. In class, he radiates joy, peace, calm, and generosity,” said Dr. Davis. “I consider how this man will be released into a world that he has not seen in something like 25 years. How can his joy be protected when he rejoins society with the identity of a criminal?”
This question and others float in the classroom’s ether. Instead of shying away from it, Dr. Davis invites it into the conversation. One way she did this was by focusing one class period on the theological anthropology of the Psalms. Together, the class used the Psalms as a vehicle to explore who each person is in God’s eyes, and how that may differ from “who they are in the eyes of society,” according to Dr. Davis.
“Prison is a wilderness,” said Dr. Davis. “In the Bible, wilderness is a growing place between two precarious situations. So, I wonder: How can I as a teacher help people be in that space in a way that enables them to grow in God and develop resilience?”
One week, Dr. Davis brought the trade edition of the Psalms volume of The Saint John’s Bible to class to support her teaching. According to Dr. Davis, a larger event with the real Heritage Edition, which Duke University acquired in October 2024, is in the works. For now, she brings the trade edition to Butner.
“My students understand that there is some connection between their life and the tradition that underlies The Saint John’s Bible,” said Dr. Davis. “A number of them are musicians, for example, and enjoy the artistic and musical aspect of the Psalms.”
Recently, while contemplating her work in the prison and her study of The Saint John’s Bible, Dr. Davis was struck with the observation that no illumination was firmly and fully bordered.
“In the Psalms volume, I do see panels, and yet the lines of chant music cross that bordered image and reach out beyond. I don’t think there’s any image in the Bible that stays entirely confined within a border,” said Dr. Davis. “If that’s true, then I find it to be a really interesting commentary on the Word going out into all the world, not constricted by time or space or language. It’s always reaching beyond confinement.”
The Heritage Edition on Campus
Duke University’s Heritage Edition of The Saint John’s Bible came to the University in 2024. Alumnus Ken Krebs and Jackie Krebs gifted the volumes in October to show their deep appreciation for the scholarship that allowed Mr. Krebs to attend the University Law School.
Though it’s only been several months since Duke welcomed the Heritage Edition in October, the impact it has had on campus and the community has already been deeply felt. Dr. Davis is, of course, one wonderful facilitator of that impact.
Besides using the Bible in her class at Butner, she also brings the Heritage Edition into class on the Duke campus.
“In the classroom, my students sensed in the Heritage Edition not only its extraordinary beauty but the reverence for the text that it represents,” said Dr. Davis. “When we dedicated the Heritage Edition here at Duke, people stayed a long time afterwards just gazing at the volumes. I think there’s a subliminal sense of recognition that this is qualitatively different from what they’ve seen before. It is not the same as reading the text on your phone, which has become so frequent.”
When considering other ways that the Heritage Edition might influence education and worship on campus, Dr. Davis offers that the work of sacred art and Scripture might act as a powerful lens through which to view any and all educational and spiritual work.
“This is the critical moment when the Heritage Edition of The Saint John’s Bible comes to our School as a gift of responsibility and hope,” said Dr. Davis in her sermon at the Divinity School’s Chapel. “If we are to use it well, then we must learn to read these images in a way akin to the way we read Scripture itself. That is to say, we must learn to read the world through them, as they exquisitely illumine so many facets of this world on which God lavishes boundless care and love.”
“Thus,” she continued. “They point to our own responsibility to meet God and one another precisely in the midst of all this unfathomable beauty and join together in cherishing it, preserving it, even making our own modest contributions to magnifying beauty in whatever ways are given us. May God grant us the grace to do so wisely, generously, and well.”
As far as incorporating the Heritage Edition into scholarly research, the work is still too much in its youth at Duke to say definitively, but Dr. Davis feels optimistic about the prospect. “It’s too soon to say how it will affect research here, but I dare say it will in the course of time,” said Dr. Davis.
Light Within Light
Dr. Davis has authored eleven books and many articles throughout her career, and she has another book in the works. Her upcoming book will be titled Light Within Light: Psalms and the Arts of Insight.
The book was co-written with two of her colleagues, prominent theologian Rabbi Shai Held and world-renowned artist Makoto Fujimura. The book will compile Dr. Davis’ translations of the Psalms and sermons on them, Fujimura’s paintings and visual commentary on the Psalms, and Rabbi Held’s meditations.
“Of course, the Psalms look different when they’re viewed from different religious traditions, academic disciplines, and angles,” said Dr. Davis. “So, we’ve highlighted three themes, which I chose because they are central to Makoto’s art. The three themes are transformation, earth, and light. We thought focusing our attention on those three themes would help us cross the bridge between the very different ways that a painter thinks and a text scholar thinks.”
“I believe it has worked very well, and deepened all of our understanding of the Psalms,” said Dr. Davis. “We feel that the book represents all of us, because we’ve allowed our friendship to guide the project. At times it felt risky, but it was always a life-giving process.”
Keep an eye out for the book in the upcoming months. In the meantime, explore Dr. Davis’ other works, available here.
The Saint John’s Bible Heritage Edition: Ignite the Spiritual Imagination
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