Leading Christian Conservative Scholar to Speak at Holy Cross
Robert P. George, considered one of America’s most influential Christian conservative thinkers, will give a lecture on “Natural Law, God, and Human Dignity,” Monday, Feb. 18 at 7:30 p.m. in Rehm Library, Smith Hall at the College of the Holy Cross.
George is the McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence and founder and director of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University. He serves on the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, is chairman emeritus of the National Organization for Marriage, and was a drafter of the Manhattan Declaration, a manifesto on life, marriage and freedom of religion signed by more than 150 American religious leaders. He is a former member of the President’s Council on Bioethics and previously served as a presidential appointee to the United States Commission on Civil Rights.
In this talk, George will explain how, according to natural law theory, every person possesses irreducible capacities for rationality, freedom, and moral discernment, and that these shared natural capacities can function as a common language between Christians and non-Christians in discussing issues of justice, human rights and the common good.
George is author of “Making Men Moral: Civil Liberties and Public Morality” (Oxford University Press, 1993), “In Defense of Natural Law” (Oxford University Press, 1999), and “The Clash of Orthodoxies” (ISI Books, 2001). He is editor of several volumes, including “Natural Law Theory: Contemporary Essays” (Oxford University Press, 1992) and “Natural Law, Liberalism, and Morality” (Oxford University Press, 1996), and “Great Cases in Constitutional Law” (Princeton University Press, 2000), and co-editor with Jean Bethke Elshtain of “The Meaning of Marriage” (Spence, 2005). He is co-author of “Embryo: A Defense of Human Life” (Doubleday, 2008) and “Body-Self Dualism in Contemporary Ethics and Politics” (Cambridge University Press, 2008).
George’s talk, presented by the Rev. Michael C. McFarland, S.J. Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture at Holy Cross, is one of the Deitchman Family Lectures on Religion and Modernity. To learn more about McFarland Center events and to find lectures online, visit www.holycross.edu/mcfarlandcenter.
About the Rev. Michael C. McFarland, S.J. Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture:
Established in 2001 and housed in Smith Hall, the McFarland Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture provides resources for faculty and course development, sponsors conferences and college-wide teaching events, hosts visiting fellows, and coordinates a number of campus lecture series. Rooted in the College’s commitment to invite conversation about basic human questions, the Center welcomes persons of all faiths and seeks to foster dialogue that acknowledges and respects differences, providing a forum for intellectual exchange that is interreligious, interdisciplinary, intercultural, and international in scope. The Center also brings members of the Holy Cross community into conversation with the Greater Worcester community, the academic community, and the wider world to examine the role of faith and inquiry in higher education and in the larger culture.
For additional information, please contact Cristal Steuer at 508-793-2419.