Religion and Human Flourishing

Azza Karam, of the UN Population Fund, comes to the Wheatley Institute's annual Student Conference of Religion in the Public Sphere. She describes the fine line between supporting and patronizing religious actors across the world.

Dr. Shaun Casey, director of the Berkley Center and former U.S. special representative for religion and global affairs/director of the U.S. Department of State’s Office of Religion and Global Affairs, details why religion should be a part of statecraft. He dives into his work establishing the Religion and Global Affairs office in the State Department and the work his office did in establishing religious harmony in the Israel-Palestine conflict, the refugee crisis, and the normalization of US-Cuba relations.

David Campbell from the University of Notre Dame presents the Keynote Address for the 2017 Wheatley Religion in the Public Square Conference. His talk discusses the surprising role that religion has played in partisan politics.

Roger Scruton, eminent scholar of aesthetics, raises important questions about the individual's relationship with morality and the arts.

When the Pew Research Center released their report on America’s religious landscape in 2014, they noted a striking change—specifically, a dramatic increase in the share of Americans who identify themselves as religiously unaffiliated The increase from 16% to 23% between 2007 and 2014, was largely driven by Millennials, a generation that is not only less religious, but also less likely to view religious organizations positively reported in 2016, that Millennials’ ratings of churches and other religious organizations had dropped 18 percent over a 5-year period. In that time, the percentage of Millennials who said churches had a positive impact on the country fell from 73% to 55%.

Dr. David I. Smith, a Calvin College Professor and Director of the Kuyers Institute for Christian Teaching and Learning, has spent his life developing ways to incorporate the Christian values he holds dear into the secular language subjects he loves to teach. In this speech given on March 1 at Brigham Young University, he gives his advice on how to bridge the gap between the two, thus creating an improved learning experience for both teachers and students. He challenges academic norms that have crept into every subject and that cause students to see subjects in a selfish and 2 dimensional way. His discussion is a battle cry to teachers of faith everywhere to teach better, more engaging, and unusual lessons; and not be afraid to use their values to enrich every facet of their teaching.

Mary Eberstadt delivers the 2017 Wheatley Roundtable on Family Keynote Address. Dr. Eberstadt discusses how we do live in a pagan time and the impact that has on the family.

Dr. Daniel Mark is an expert on family law and government from Villanova University. He speaks about how each of us have an responsibility to promote religious liberty and human rights.

John D. Caputo discusses the complexities of post-modern religious sentiments.