March 27 — 30, 2008
The Catholic University of America
Center for Law, Philosophy and Culture
Keynote Speaker
Cardinal Angelo Scola • Patriarch of Venice
Cardinal Angelo Scola is the patriarch of Venice. He is a prolific moral theologian whose interests include biomedical ethics, theological anthropology, human sexuality, and marriage and the family. Among his past offices, he has served, with distinction, as rector of the Pontifical Lateran University and president of the John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family, Rome.
Plenary Speakers
Hadley Arkes • Amherst College
Hadley Arkes is the Edward N. Ney Professor of American Institutions at Amherst College. He is a leading expert on American political philosophy, public policy and constitutional law. He is senior fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, in Washington, D.C., where he co-directs a program on the Constitution, the courts and the culture.
Mahmoud M. Ayoub • Temple University
Mahmoud M. Ayoub is professor of Islamic studies and comparative religion and director of Islamic studies in the Department of Religion at Temple University. He is an authority in both the scholarship and comparative study of Islam and Muslim-Christian relations, as well as inter-religious dialogue.
Nicholas Boyle • University of Cambridge
Nicholas Boyle is the Schröder Professorship of German at the University of Cambridge, where he is a fellow of Magdalene College. He is a scholar of literary and cultural studies. He specializes in German literature and thought of the 18th and 19th centuries, and especially in Goethe, and in the relation between religion and literature.
Jean Bethke Elshtain • University of Chicago
Jean Bethke Elshtain is the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Professor of Social and Political Ethics at the University of Chicago. She is a political philosopher whose task has been to show the connections between our political and our ethical convictions. She has been a fellow or scholar-in-residence at various of the nation’s most prestigious research institutes.
Rabbi Barry Freundel • Baltimore Hebrew University
Rabbi Barry Freundel is assistant professor of rabbinic literature at Baltimore Hebrew University, an adjunct lecturer in religion at the George Washington University and adjunct professor of law at Georgetown University. He is a scholar of rabbinics and liturgy. He is rabbi to the Kesher Israel Congregation at the Georgetown Synagogue, Washington, D.C.
Robert P. George • Princeton University
Robert P. George is the McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence and founder and director of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University. Professor George is a political philosopher and legal scholar. He is a member of the President’s Council on Bioethics and is also a former United States civil rights commissioner.
Kevin Hart • University of Virginia
Kevin Hart is the Edwin B. Kyle Professor of Christian Studies at the University of Virginia. He is a poet, philosopher and literary critic. He has published 11 volumes of poetry. His work has been honored by the C. J. Dennis Prize for Poetry, the Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry, and the Victorian Premier's Literary Award for Poetry.
Stanley Hauerwas • Duke University
Stanley Hauerwas is the Gilbert T. Rowe Professor of Theological Ethics at the Divinity School of Duke University. His work, as theologian, draws on a range of literatures from classical, philosophical and theological texts to current political theory. He works, as well, in medical ethics, issues of war and peace, and the care of the mentally disabled.
Thomas S. Hibbs • Baylor University
Thomas S. Hibbs is Distinguished Professor of Ethics and Culture and dean of the Honors College at Baylor University. He is a philosopher with interests in medieval philosophy, contemporary virtue ethics and problems of popular culture. He regularly speaks at academic conferences and is asked by the press to comment on film and popular culture.
Rev. Brian V. Johnstone, C.Ss.R. • The Catholic University of America
Rev. Brian V. Johnstone, C.Ss.R., is Warren Blanding Professor of Religion and Culture at The Catholic University of America. He is a moral theologian with interests in fundamental moral theology, bioethics, and peace and war. His research interests include moral theology and philosophy. He is a member of the Redemptorist Congregation.
Livia Kohn • Boston University
Livia Kohn is professor of religion and East Asian studies at Boston University. Professor Kohn is a scholar of Daoist studies and eastern religions who has devoted many years researching medieval Daoism and Chinese long-life practices. She has practiced Taiji quan, Qigong, meditation and other contemplative practices for more than 20 years.
V. Bradley Lewis • The Catholic University of America
V. Bradley Lewis is associate professor in the School of Philosophy of The Catholic University of America. His research and teaching have focused on classical natural right and natural law theory: their character, history and contemporary applications. He frequently presents papers and lectures at leading national and international conferences.
Gilbert Meilaender • Valparaiso University
Gilbert Meilaender is the Phyllis and Richard Duesenberg Chair in Christian Ethics at Valparaiso University. He is a Christian ethicist with a special interest in bioethics. He is a member of the President's Council on Bioethics and fellow of the Hastings Center. He has been the recipient of many outstanding scholarly fellowships and awards.
Francis C. Oakley • Williams College
Francis C. Oakley is senior fellow at the Oakley Center for the Humanities and Social Sciences, Edward Dorr Griffin Professor of the History of Ideas Emeritus, and president emeritus of Williams College. He is a scholar of medieval and early modern intellectual and religious history and is an authority on American higher education.
Rev. John Polkinghorne • University of Cambridge
Rev. John Polkinghorne is fellow of Queen’s College, University of Cambridge, and a priest of the Church of England. Theologian and particle physicist, he writes on the compatibility of religion and science. He is former professor of mathematical physics at Cambridge and former president of Queen’s College, Cambridge. By grant of Queen Elizabeth, he is Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire.
Jean Porter • University of Notre Dame
Jean Porter is the John A. O’Brien Professor of Theology at the University of Notre Dame. She is a moral theologian with research interests primarily in the areas of foundational moral theology and the history of Christian moral thought. She is currently working on a theory of positive law based on the theory of natural law set forth in her recent book.
Michael J. Sandel • Harvard University
Michael J. Sandel is the Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Professor of Government at Harvard University. He is a political philosopher. His scholarly work, which deals with the relation of politics and morality and basic issues in bio-ethics, have been translated into at least eight languages. His essays also appear in such publications as The Atlantic Monthly, The New Republic, and The New York Times.
Kenneth L. Schmitz • University of Toronto
Kenneth L. Schmitz is professor emeritus of philosophy and fellow of Trinity College, University of Toronto; associate fellow of the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, Toronto; and professor of philosophy, John Paul II Institute and The Catholic University of America. He is a past president of several eminent learned societies.
Rev. William Schweiker • University of Chicago
Rev. William Schweiker is the Edward L. Ryerson Distinguished Service Professor of Theological Ethics and director of the Martin Marty Center at the University of Chicago Divinity School. He is a scholar of theological ethics whose interests are in global dynamics, comparative ethics, the history of ethics and hermeneutics. He is an ordained minister in the United Methodist Church.
Kathryn Tanner • University of Chicago
Kathryn Tanner is the Dorothy Grant Maclear Professor of Theology at the University of Chicago Divinity School. She is a systematic theologian whose constructive Christian theology addresses contemporary challenges to belief through the use of history and interdisciplinary methods. She relies on cultural studies to rethink theological method.
Paul C. Vitz • New York University
Paul C. Vitz is professor and senior scholar, Institute for the Psychological Sciences, Arlington, Va., and professor emeritus of psychology, New York University. He is a scholar of theoretical psychology. His work focuses, in particular, on the relationship between psychology and Christianity. His study of the relation between defective fathering and the roots of atheism has gained scholarly acclaim.
Stephen Westerholm • McMaster University
Stephen Westerholm is professor of early Christianity in the Department of Religious Studies, McMaster University. He focuses primarily on the letters of St. Paul and on the synoptic gospels. He has written extensively on the role of Torah in Second Temple Judaism and in early Christianity. He is the recipient of a recent Canadian Christian Writers’ Book Award.