If you've ever taken "Religion in America Since 1865," you probably recall religious studies Prof. Heather Warren periodically strumming away at her guitar during class. The reason for Warren's display of guitar skills is not to give her rendition of a John Mayer ballad but to engage her students as she illustrates her main points.
"One of the things I do find within many faiths, particularly in American religious life, [is that] people sing what they believe," Warren said. "I think music is very powerful in that way."
Having spent most of her youth in Nashville, Tenn. as the daughter of a pastor and college professor, religion has always been a prominent part of Warren's life. Growing up, she never thought she would go into the ministry.
Warren graduated from Cornell University in 1981 with a bachelor's degree in literary and religious studies. She went on to The Candler School of Theology at Emory University, a seminary school in preparation for the ministry. After only one year there, Warren received a Rhodes Scholarship, which led to a two-year leave of absence to earn a bachelor's in theology at Oxford University.
Warren returned to Emory and received her Master's of Divinity and then served as a pastor in southern Maryland for two years. While pursuing her doctorate in history at Johns Hopkins University, she ultimately developed a desire to pursue teaching.
Teaching "was actually a lot easier than preaching," Warren said. "You have a much more captive audience."
Coming to the University in 1992, Warren said she was excited to be joining the highly reputable department of religious studies. Here, Warren has crafted her own 400-level seminar course entitled "American Religious Autobiography," in which her students write their own religious autobiography.
In Warren's courses, she said the focus is on ways to make connections, understand where something fits and acknowledge that there is a bit of mystery in life.
"But that doesn't mean that you don't seek to probe the mystery," said Warren.
This June, she and a group of diverse individuals finished up an 18 month-long state project that involved probing that mystery between peace and global security and how they bear upon each other, Warren said.
When Warren is not partaking in great conversation, she is staying active with hiking and trail work as a member of the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club. She recently finished a hiking trip, spanning 15 years, which covered the entire Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine.
While physical activity and giving back to nature is important to her, she is certainly captivated by human faith and the reason people keep living and make the best of things, she said.
"As a historian and theologian, one of the things I value is the desire for connection with others and connection with something beyond ourselves," Warrens said.
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