Three Profs. Win Luce Fellowships

A feminist exploration of Christian theology and a project on the treatment of Christianity, Islam and Judaism in North American film are among the projects that helped three Harvard professors to win half of the first ever Henry Luce III Fellowships.

Professor of Christian Theology Sarah Coakley, Professor of Comparative Religion and Indian Studies Diana L. Eck and Bussey Professor of Theology Margaret R. Miles won three of the six Luce Fellowships awarded this year by the Association of Theological Schools.

The fellowships "indentify leading scholars in theology" and give them funding of up to $50,000 to take full-year sabbatical leaves for further research of their project proposals.

The films "Not Without My Daughter", "The Last Temptation of Christ" and "Jungle Fever" will be among those that Miles will discuss in the book she is completing during her sabbatical. Miles said the book on the cinematic treatment of Islam, Judaism and Christianity evolved from her course Religion 1532, "Religion and Values in Contemporary American Film."

In an interview yesterday, Miles noted the "unbelievably negative treatment of Muslims and Islam" in the movie "Not Without My Daughter," saying that its release in the first month of the Gulf War "played directly upon the fears of the moment."

Eck's project is to write a book titled Multireligious America: New Questions for American Pluralism. Eck said the book will examine "the new religious landscape of America."

"We had a fairly racist basis of immigration until 1965," said Eck, referring to the quota on immigrants from Asia lifted by the Kennedy administration. In researching her project on America's newest religious communities, Eck plans to visit Buddhist groups in Los Angeles and the annual Durga Puja festival in New Jersey, which honors a Hindu god- dess.

Coakley's project is to write the first volumeof a Christian feminist systematic theology thatprobes the relationship between the centraldoctrine of the Trinity and its authors' views ofmarriage and women.

Ronald F. Thiemann, dean of the DivinitySchool, called the Luce grants a uniquedevelopment in the field of theology and likenedthem to Guggenheim grants in other academicdisciplines

Coakley's project is to write the first volumeof a Christian feminist systematic theology thatprobes the relationship between the centraldoctrine of the Trinity and its authors' views ofmarriage and women.

Ronald F. Thiemann, dean of the DivinitySchool, called the Luce grants a uniquedevelopment in the field of theology and likenedthem to Guggenheim grants in other academicdisciplines