John Jay Institute Lectures
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Tuesday October 20, 2009: C.S. Lewis on Power and Politics: Thoughts on the Reconciliation of Conservatism and Liberalism
by The Rev. Dr. Michael Ward
In this lecture Dr. Michael Ward, Lewis scholar and author, will outline Lewis's understanding of the relationship between hierarchy, equality, and power. Drawing on a wide range of Lewis's writings, including: The Abolition of Man, its fictional counterpart That Hideous Strength, and an essay on John Milton entitled "A Preface to Paradise Lost," Dr. Ward will demonstrate that Lewis thought hierarchy and equality, tradition and liberal democracy were reconcilable ideas for using and constraining political power.
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Thursday October 9, 2008: Creating a Better World: Lessons for Cultural Engagement from the Life of William Wilberforce
by Dr. Chuck Stetson
In this lecture Dr. Stetson, author of a new book on Wilberforce, argues that Wilberforce's highly successful model of Christian cultural engagement is still relevant and waiting for application by Christians today. How did Wilberforce and ten of his friends redirect the moral and social course of a 19th Century Superpower? How can their model be effectively applied to work in American public life today? These questions and others will be addressed in the lecture.
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Thursday May 8, 2008: After Urbanism: How St. Benedict Saved Civilization & May Have to do so Again
by Philip Bess
Is traditional urban form sufficient to revive the goods of traditional urbanism in a cultural context of therapeutic and consumer individualism? Or does New Urbanism become a niche market for those wealthy enough to buy a living urban environment? How can a just and generous moral order come to characterize our cities in our strange and estranging modern culture? The history of western monasticism suggests some possibilities.
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Thursday April 17, 2008: Family-Centered Neighborhoods: The Building Blocks of Vibrant Towns and Cities
by Allan Carlson, Ph.D.
In this lecture, Dr. Carlson will address questions including: Are these trends friendly to children? What are the components of a family-friendly neighborhood? What failures of suburbia contribute to this migration? How can religious faith again play a role in building neighborhoods?
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Thursday March 13, 2008: Planting Seedlings in Stone: Art in the City
by Makoto Fujimura
Makoto Fujimura believes that art is both agrarian and urban and that it represents both the farm and the city. In this lecture Mr. Fujimura will address these themes by focusing on art of Andy Goldsworthy – the brilliant British artist who collaborates with nature to make his creations.
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Thursday February 14, 2008: Preservation and Anticipation: The Cultural Tasks of a Great City
by Wilfred M. McClay, Ph.D.
In this lecture Dr. Wilfred McClay will offer insight as to why and how social and religious conservatives ought to care about cities and the civic and cultural tasks associated with fostering and developing them.
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Thursday January 24, 2008: The Church in the City: Redeeming Our Civic Common Life
by The Rev. Dr. Eric Jacobsen
In this lecture the Rev. Dr. Jacobsen will be explore various ways that churches can help redeem the civic life of their city by working in and through their own neighborhoods.
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Thursday December 6, 2007: Is There Such a Thing as Christian Urbanism?
by Daniel Lee
In this lecture Mr. Daniel Lee reasons that creating cities ought to be a human act, undertaken with joy, empowered by the Holy Spirit, informed by special and natural revelation, to reveal and enjoy the glory of God.
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Thursday November 15, 2007: The Colorado Springs Colony: General William Jackson Palmer's Christian Civic Vision
by Donald McGilchrist
In this lecture Mr. McGilchrist will reflect on the origins of Colorado Springs as the expression of a humane and Christian civic vision. Which aspects of the city's early years offer lessons for the vastly more complex conditions of today?
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Thursday October 18, 2007: Good Living, Good Neighborhood, and Cordial Friendship: William Penn's Philadelphia - City of Brotherly Love
by John Fea, Ph.D
This lecture will examine William Penn's vision for Philadelphia as a unique chapter in the history of early American urban development. Dr. Fea's lecture will explore the life, thought, and legacy of this important and unfortunately neglected American founder.
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Thursday September 20, 2007: Between the Garden and the New Jerusalem: A Trinitarian Vision for Urban Blessedness
by Ken Myers
In this lecture Mr. Myers offers a survey of the biblical themes integral to a theology of urban blessedness, from the earliest experience of human community in the Garden of Eden to the full flourishing of eschatological urban dynamism in the New Jerusalem, providing practical implications for contemporary Christians living in America's cities and towns.
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Thursday May 3, 2007: Attacking America: How Jihadis are Fighting Their 200-year War with America
by Dr. Mary Habeck, Johns Hopkins University
In this lecture Dr. Mary Habeck, professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies will provide an in-depth look at the "War on Terror" from the viewpoint of the jihadis. Why did they carry out 9/11? What did they hope to achieve?
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Thursday April 12, 2007: Islamism and the American Freedom Agenda
by Dr. Thomas F. Farr, Ph.D.
In this lecture Dr. Farr will argue that U.S. foreign policy must overcome its own secularist prejudices, identify Islamists who are tempted by democratic norms, and find ways to move them toward liberal democracy.
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Thursday March 1, 2007: Islam and the Challenge of a Civil Public Square: Living with our Deepest Differences when the Differences are Absolute
by Dr. Os Guinness, D.Phil.
In this lecture Dr. Guinness will argue that Islamic terrorism is only the sharp end of a much wider problem that also touches on the America's culture wars, the European constitutional crisis, questions about the future of China, and the emergence of a global public square.
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Monday February 26, 2007: Profiles in Christian Public Leadership: John Jay and William Wilberforce
by Alan R. Crippen II and Kevin C. Belmonte
Jay and Wilberforce, both political giants in their day, were evangelical Christians who, so shaped and inspired by their religious conviction, leveraged the weight of their political prominence to better the condition of humanity. They served as prophetic witnesses in their day and examples of principle and courage in ours.
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Thursday December 7, 2006: Mosque and State: Religio-Political Conceptions of Islamic Society
by Dr. David Forte
In this lecture Dr. David F. Forte explores the Islamic tradition for the religious, political, and legal concepts necessary for Muslims to live in community with each other and at peace with the western world.
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Thursday November 16, 2006: The Ghosts of Appeasement: Christian Realism and the Rise of Islamo-Facism
by Joseph Loconte
In this lecture Mr. Joseph Loconte offers a historically informed critique of liberalism through the lens of Christian realism with some applications for U.S. foreign policy today.
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Thursday October 26, 2006: Radical Islamism and the Idea of Jihad
by Dr. James Turner Johnson
This lecture explores the core tradition on jihad of the sword and compares it to the just war idea.
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Thursday September 28, 2006: Just War in an Age of Terrorism
by Dr. Keith Pavlischek
Drawing upon recent examples in the war between Israel and Hezbollah Dr. Keith Pavlischek will show how the classic just war tradition can provide moral clarity in the terrorist age.
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Monday September 18, 2006: British Christianity and the American Order: Stephen Langton and the Magna Carta
In this lecture Alan Crippen argues that the Magna Carta was of primary importance for the formation of the American Constitution and that the Christian worldview, personal character, and courageous actions of Stephen Langton are of significant consequence for the American political heritage of liberty under law.
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Thursday May 11, 2006: The Religious Dimension of the "War on Terror" - Understanding Radical Islam
by Dr. Paul Marshall
In the inaugural lecture of the John Jay Institute for Faith, Society and Law Dr. Paul Marshall discusses the religious motivation and character of radical Islam and sharia law as well as the prospects for the emergence of democracy in the Middle East.
