For the Life of the World / Yale Center for Faith & Culture

What is the state of Christianity and Democracy in America? We mined the past 6 months of episodes for the most timely, relevant, and even strangely prescient reflections on faith and politics in America. Past guests Willie Jennings, David French, Marilynne Robinson, Robert George, and Samuel Perry and Andrew Whitehead, and Arlie Hochschild each offer perspectives we need to understand the political moment through the eyes of faith and culture. Here’s the breakdown of our episode today—it’s really a “best of" for faith and politics in America today.Episode Contents / Show Notes3:33 - Theologian Willie Jennings on crowds, mobs, fear, and anger14:17 - Sociologists Samuel Perry and Andrew Whitehead on Christian Nationalism, identity, and violence 20:01 - Novelist Marilynne Robinson on Christianity and democracy23:17 - Political commentator David French on political exhaustion, culture war, and the role of faith in political division34:22 - Legal scholar Robert George on the breakdown of civic friendship44:32 - Sociologist Arlie Hochschild on building shelters from shame and crossing a bridge to empathySupport For the Life of the World by Giving to the Yale Center for Faith & Culture: https://faith.yale.edu/giveEpisode IntroductionHello friends and listeners. Thanks for tuning in to the show. This week, in light of the tension and need for perspective, we’re turning to some of the more significant points of relevance from some of our past episodes. We’ve got plenty more fresh conversations and reflections coming your way in 2021, but this week has seemed to just catch us all. And if you haven’t yet heard Miroslav Volf deliver our joint statement from the staff of the Yale Center for Faith & Culture on Sedition at the Capitol, then check out that 10-minute episode as well.As we’ve searched for words to understand, words to grieve the violence and death, words to evaluate, critique, and condemn, and words to forgive, to heal, to unite what seems unifiable—the words often come up empty, lacking, half-hearted. It’s reminiscent of the piercing words of the prophet Jeremiah, a hot take if ever there was one, as he condemns those who have “treated the wound of my people carelessly, saying “Peace, peace’, when there is no peace. They acted shamefully, they committed abomination; yet they were not ashamed, they did not know how to blush.” He goes on, “Thus says the Lord: Stand at the crossroads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way lies; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls” (Jeremiah 6:14-16).As we walk together, seeking where the good way lies, these ancient paths, trod by so many before us, let’s not give up on a hope against hope, a hope for things that we most certainly now do not see. There is no peace, but we need to envision it. We must be the instruments of that peace. 

Miroslav Volf and the staff of the Yale Center for Faith & Culture respond to the lies, provocation, and violence at the Capitol building on January 6, 2021.Show Notes"The most responsible thing to say about the President’s and the attackers’ actions is that they were without qualification wrong. To praise, to condone, to excuse, or to ignore them is to 'call evil good… put darkness for light… put bitter for sweet' (Isaiah 5:20)."At the heart of the current effort to deny and overturn the results of the presidential election is the wounded pride of a man who cannot handle the truth of his own imperfection and the fact that he lost a fair democratic contest.There is a sorrowful, pathetic smallness to this petty woundedness even as it produces momentous—and tragic—consequences. Faced with painful realities that conflict with his self-image but that he cannot control, President Trump has given himself over to wishful thinking, conspiracy theories, and falsehood. He has constructed a pseudo-truth to fit the needs of his immense but fragile and wounded pride.We must commit firmly to the truth, even and especially when it hurts our pride, when we lose, and when it calls for sacrifice.We must orient ourselves toward peace and bearing with one another, being ready to forgive, as we have been forgiven. Indeed, our commitment to the truth is never at odds with love of neighbor. Peace is in fact unintelligible and unimaginable apart from the truth of Christ.We must stand up for the downtrodden, marginalized, and afflicted, speaking and acting on their behalf, for their good, for their healing, and for their inclusion in flourishing.We must never compromise or distort Christian faith in service to the idol of political power.We must restore confidence in our democracy and trust in each other. Suspicion and conspiracy theories have distorted and disconnected us from reality.We must live constantly from the deep truth that our worth doesn’t come from victory, triumph, or any other kind of power or influence. Our worth is secured by the love of God for us.May we all become instruments of peace in this time of conflict.Make a gift to the Yale Center for Faith & Culture: faith.yale.edu/give

Mike Cosper, host of Cultivated, a podcast about faith and work, interviews Miroslav Volf about his vocation as theologian. They discuss Miroslav's youth in Croatia and his family's influence on his spirituality and theology, as well as the urgent need for faithful witness in our turbulent times. Original air date: November 2, 2020. Show Notes“I had parents who were extraordinary spiritual human beings, not in a sense that they were total exemplars of holiness, but there was kind of an honesty about the spiritual life”His father “experienced God’s love in the midst of Hell” on a socialist death march“A vivid representation of what faith can do, what God can do”Volf’s early experience of the Church via his father’s ministry“Oh, what an incredible thing. To devote one’s life to helping people who are so much on the margins”Volf traveled as a translator: “I realized there that one could be cool and the believer as well”“To my shame and chagrin, it's the being possible to be cool and a believer that opened up space for me to enter. And then slowly I was getting deeper into faith”“How am I supposed to behave and how should I speak to these people? That made it a little theologian in me”“I haven't regretted a single time, single date, single hour, the choice that I've made”He studied with Moltmann in graduate school “We became friends and he proved very important in my life”“He said to me, Miroslav, take something that moves people and shine the light of the Gospel on it”While teaching at Fuller, he started to think about Exclusion and EmbraceMiroslav Volf, Exclusion and Embrace, a Theological Exploration of Identity, Otherness, and ReconciliationThe fall of the Berlin Wall, how to address a war about religious identity? Luke 15:11-32, The Prodigal Son, family, community, and belongingForgiveness, victimization, and communityThe importance of boundaries: “they define who we are”The political division underneath the racial division, are we able to build bridges? Can we enter into the position of the other? Hannah Arendt - “forgiveness is the only way to reverse the flow of history” How we deal with forgiveness – we must name the wrong as wrong “Trump is an embodiment of paganism” - Volf Alain de Benoist, On Being a PaganPagans don’t like to sacrifice for others, Trump thinks: ‘I do what benefits me ‘“Trump’s God is my Devil” –Volf Evangelical paganismIs this new or is this an unmasking?“The problem is not that people commit sin. It's the pretense of holiness when there's exactly otherwise happening”“Jesus has become a moral stranger to us, everything that mattered to him seems not to matter to us, and everything that matters to us as a culture seems not to have been important to him”Reclaiming morality ---Introduction from Cultivated, featured on Christianity Today(Click here to listen on ChristianityToday.com.)Miroslav Volf’s writing is considered some of the most significant theological work of the last century. He was born into a family of Pentecostal Christians in Croatia, under oppressive Communist rule, and a “minority of a minority” (as he would later describe it). For almost four decades, his writing has been a testament to the power of the gospel for reunification and healing in the aftermath of war and political turmoil, as well as a vision for human flourishing in an experience of Trinitarian love.On this episode, we talk about his emergence as a theologian, the development of his work, and his perspective on the turbulent times we’re experiencing today.Cultivated is a production of Christianity Today.This episode was produced by Mike CosperIt was edited by Mark Owens.Theme song is by Roman CandleMusic is by Dan Phelps and Roman Candle

Santa doesn't just want you to be happy. Santa needs you to be happy. Matt Croasmun explains how the contemporary Christmas myth—the Gospel of Christmas according to St. Nick—sets emotional norms that are vastly different from the Gospel of Christmas according to St. Paul. 

How can the Magi of Matthew 2—the Three Wise Men "bearing gifts" and "traversing afar"—help us understand faith and reason, giving and receiving, the nature of God, and how to be human? Drew Collins offers some new perspective on a familiar Christmas story.Introduction and NotesMerry Christmas friends—for this week, we’re dropping a double dose of Christmas reflections from the Yale Center for Faith & Culture. We’ll be hearing from Matt Croasmun and Drew Collins, both of whom are Associate Research Scholars and lead our Life Worth Living and Christ & Flourishing initiatives, respectively.In this episode, I interview Drew Collins about the Magi of Matthew Chapter 2—these wise men from the east come to pay Jesus homage, but in so doing, they offer for us an outside perspective on the wonder and the weirdness of Christmas.  hey’ve been lauded through centuries of Christian theology for both their reason and their faith, but W.H. Auden’s treatment of their intentions in his beautiful Christmas Oratorio, For the Time Being, brings into clearest brightest view why they followed the star, and offers us something to aspire to. Auden gives them the lines:To discover how to be truthful now...To discover how to be living now….To discover how to be loving now...To discover how to be human now …. Is the reason we follow this star.And well, in that sense, we’re all magi. Trying to learn how to be human now."Matthew 2:1-12 asks us, in other words, to confront the possibility that those outside of our particular Christian communities might offer us new ways of understanding of who Jesus is, while at the same time revealing new insights into the identities of our non-Christian neighbors.”"The Christian faith affirms that God is a gift giver. We can say more. For God’s giving is so radical, so total, that even in God’s receiving the gifts we bring, however paltry and imperfect, God is also giving. In receiving the gifts of the Magi, or in affirming our receiving of them on God’s behalf, God is giving us hope that our own lives, scruffy and flawed though they might be, might be received by others as giving, like the Magi, greater insight into who Jesus is and might be received and redeemed by God in the coming of God’s Kingdom.”

Evan Mawarire is a Pentecostal minister and democratic activist in Zimbabwe. He is founder of #ThisFlag Citizen's Movement and has been instrumental in standing up to corruption, injustice, and poverty in Zimbabwe. Miroslav Volf interviews Pastor Evan about his story of faith that leads to activism; the transformation he experience while being unjustly arrested, detained, and tortured in maximum security prison; and what it means to live a life worthy of our humanity.Show NotesIntroduction and clip from #ThisFlag viral videoHow Evan Mawarire became a Pentecostal minister#ThisFlag movement - united around the symbolism of the Zimbabwe flag Compassion, mercy, and other biblical values that can be practiced across all levels“If we don’t stand up, our children will hold us to account one day, and say ‘Why did you do nothing?’""I was asking people to shut down the government in 48 hrs."The other side of fear is possibilityThe atrocities of Robert Mugabe: abduction, silencing, torture, murder, citizen fear-based self-policing#ThisFlag Campaign Slogan: “If we cannot cause the politician to change, then we must inspire the citizen to be bold."Pentecostalism and Political Activism: Apostolic Faith Movement, Reinhard BonnkePastor Evan’s detention and torture in maximum security prisonHow encounters with prison inmates transformed Pastor Evan“Look at the walls that are holding you back, and understand that there is a bigger prison that holds you back: the prison of your mind… Ignore these walls, behave as if they do not exist."What is a life worth living?About Evan MawarireEvan Mawarire is a Zimbabwean clergyman who founded #ThisFlag Citizen’s Movement to challenge corruption, injustice, and poverty in Zimbabwe. The movement empowers citizens to hold government to account. Through viral videos, the movement has organized multiple successful non-violent protests in response to unjust government policy. Evan was imprisoned in 2016, 2017, and 2019 for charges of treason, facing 80 years in prison. His message of inspiring positive social change and national pride has resonated with diverse groups of citizens and attracted international attention.Evan has addressed audiences around the world, and Foreign Policy magazine named him one of the 100 global thinkers of 2016. The Daily Maverick Newspaper of South Africa named him 2016 African person of the year. Evan is a 2018 Stanford University Fellow of the Centre for Democracy Development and the Rule of Law. He is a nominee of the 2017 Index on Censorship Freedom of Expression awards and the 2018 Swedish government’s Per Anger Prize for democracy actors.Give to the Yale Center for Faith & CultureVisit faith.yale.edu/give to make a financial gift to support For the Life of the World and the Yale Center for Faith & Culture. Thank you for partnering with us in our work.

Social ethicist Stacey Floyd-Thomas offers a womanist perspective on how humility can go terribly wrong, when it's hung over the heads of the humiliated, marginalized, and oppressed. This criticism of the traditional Christian virtue helps clarify the role of joy as the ultimate virtue of Black life, the centrality of black folk wisdom, and the beauty of black sisterhood. Interview by Ryan McAnnally-Linz.LinksThe Womanist Salon Podcast, featuring Stacey Floyd-ThomasThe Joy of Humility: The Beginning & End of the Virtues (edited by Drew Collins, Ryan McAnnally-Linz, and Evan Rosa)About Stacey Floyd-ThomasStacey Floyd-Thomas is the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Chair and Associate Professor of Ethics and Society at Vanderbilt University, and is a nationally recognized scholar and leading voice in social ethics who provides leadership to several national and international organizations that educate, advocate, support and shape the strategic work of individuals, initiatives, and institutions in their organizing efforts of championing and cultivating equity, diversity, and inclusion via organizations such as Black Religious Scholars Group (BRSG), Society for the Study of Race, Ethnicity and Religion (SRER), Strategic Effective Ethical Solutions (SEES), Society of Christian Ethics (SCE) and the American Academy of Religion (AAR). She holds a PhD in Ethics, a MBA in organizational behavior and two Masters in Comparative religion and Theological Studies with certification in women’s studies, cultural studies, and counseling. Not only has she published seven books and numerous articles, she is also as an expert in leadership development, an executive coach and ordained clergy equipped with business management. As a result, Floyd-Thomas has been a lead architect in helping corporations, colleges, universities, religious congregations, and community organizations with their audit, assessment, and action plans in accordance with evolving both the mission and strategic plans. Without question, she is one of the nation’s leading voices in ethical leadership  in the United States and is globally recognized for her scholarly specializations in liberation theology and ethics, critical race theory, critical pedagogy, and postcolonial studies.  Additionally, leaving podium and pulpit, she hosts her own podcast to popularize and make her profession and vocation intergenerationally and intracommunally accessible through The Womanist Salon Podcast.

Arlie Hochschild discusses her book, Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right, reflecting on how 2020 has made our mutual political alienation worse, and how we can implement deep listening, emotion management, hospitality, and create shelters from shame. Interview by Evan Rosa.How to Give to the Yale Center for Faith & Culture: faith.yale.edu/give We’re passionate about making this work consistently accessible to a people who are genuinely concerned with he viability of faith in a world wracked with division, contested views about what it means to be human and what it means to live life well. If you’re in a position to support our show financially, and are looking for some year end opportunities, please consider partnering with us. We rely on the generosity  of individuals like you to make our work possible. And if you’re not, please continue listening and engaging the content and let us know what you’re interested in. But if you can give, if you’re truly passionate about supporting podcasting that’s all about pursuing—really living—lives that are worthy of our humanity, then consider a gift to the Yale Center for Faith & Culture. Visit faith.yale.edu/give (or find the link in the show notes) to make a year end contribution. It’s our joy to bring these shows to you; and we’d invite you into that same joy of supporting this work. As always, thanks for listening, and we’ll be back with more, next week.Episode IntroductionHow do we understand each other’s political lives? It’s all too easy to depend on the consistent narratives of bafflement at the political stranger. How could you possibly have voted for [fill in the blank]. I have no idea how you could support [you know who]. Maybe to stay baffled is a defense mechanism. It keeps the stranger strange. If you rely consistently on your inability to fathom another’s behavior or reasons or motivations—or the fears that underlie them all—maybe that helps you cope a little better.Our guest on the show today turned off all her alarms, set aside the narrative of confusion, and set out to learn about the political other, when around 10 years ago, she began regular visits to Lake Charles, Louisiana, a working class Tea Party stronghold that followed suit with Trump support in 2016—suspicious of the government, struggling for their economic flourishing, feeling the whole time that they were being cut in line, that they were unseen, unrecognized, dishonored, alienated in a hidden social class war.Sociologist Arlie Hochschild is Professor Emerita in Sociology at the University of California Berkeley and author of Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right. In this episode, I ask Arlie about her experience of intentionally identifying her own ideological bubble, forging out to scale a wall of division, bafflement and hostility to find empathy, turning off her political and moral alarms and attuning her mind to hear the desires that inform the deep story of her friends in Louisiana. We discuss political division, resentment, and alienation; how the Trump presidency and subsequent 2020 loss to Biden has continued to make strangers in their own land; she explains the emotional roots of political beliefs and tribalism—especially those held by her conservative friends, the blind spots of progressive views of conservatives, and finally curiosity, humility, emotion management, and putting oneself in perspective. Thanks for listening. —Evan Rosa, from the introductionShow NotesHow Arlie Hochschild decided to reach out to Tea Party Republicans from within her media bubble, befriend them, and then write a book about understanding how emotion informs political anger, resentment, and Trump supportThe paradox of biting the hand that feeds youMoving beyond political appearances and surface tensionsHow to create a shelter from shame in order to connect and disagree in fruitful waysWhat it was like to cross the empathy bridge, to meet people who live in a different bubble, who live with a different sense of what is trueMeeting Republican women in Lake Charles, LouisianaThe appeal of Rush Limbaugh: fighting against “feminazis,” “environmental wackos,” and “socialists.” And the deepest reason: protecting southern Republicans from the shame of coastal elites Turning off one’s alarm system for the sake of genuine encounter across division, deep listeningWhen to turn the alarm system back on“Things have grown worse”: One’s own government as a foreign occupying forceThe deep story: we can’t do politics without understanding the deep mythology that informs it.The right wing deep story: Waiting and being cut in line, Obama’s role, Trump’s role, and liberation from shameShaming the shamers: Trump’s appeal to those who have been "cut in line"Belong before you believe: How tribalism drives the political drama of AmericaThe religious overtones of Trumpism: Trump has connected with Hochschild's friends in Louisiana not only as their liberator, but their righteous sufferer, their shelter from shame.A giant, hostile shame machine: counter-shaming has a backfire effect: “Our shelter from shame is being attacked by the shamers."What is the greatest felt need for political combatants? What will discuss the vicious cycle?Recognition of the other across disagreement; finding an opportunity for common ground that we so dearly need right now; encountering the better angels of the political otherBlind spots: Social class, particular economic value, and the wonder inspired by the skill of the working classThe Virtues of Climbing the Empathy Wall and Encountering Others’ Deep Stories: Curiosity, Humility, Emotion Management as a Service to Society, Putting Oneself in PerspectiveRecalling the feeling of being a stranger in order to practice an emotional hospitality that makes space for the deep stories of the other

Defining gratitude as joyful recognition, the courage to be grateful, comparing gratitude for self-help vs  gratitude in prayer, resilience, seeing all as gift and everything as grace. Featuring: Stacey Floyd-Thomas, Sarah Schnitker, Jessica Hooten Wilson, and Miroslav Volf.Show Notes1:07 - Miroslav VolfOur gratitude for you listeners!Sometimes complaint comes easier than gratitude, requiring the courage to be grateful.Misconceptions about gratitude: repayment of debt, obligation to the giver, a strategy for happiness or subjective well-being.Miroslav’s view of gratitude: Joyful recognitionGratitude is "joy over the giver, joy over the gift, joy over having received the gift and having been set into relation to the giver marked by freedom.”6:45 - Stacey Floyd-ThomasSlow down and focus on what matters mostDespite what may seem grim in this moment, redeem now as a holy time. Gratitude as not merely a disposition but an essential duty of defiance and determination that keeps us bound to our first duty: to care for our neighbors as our very best selves.Maya Angelou: “Let gratitude be the pillow upon which you say your nightly prayer, and let faith be the bridge you build to overcome evil and welcome good.” 10:18 - Sarah SchnitkerPraying gratitude together as more than self-helpThe difference between gratitude as prayer and gratitude as a tool for feeling happier14:30 - Jessica Hooten Wilson“Thank you for the fleas.” Corrie Ten Boom’s The Hiding Place1 Thessalonians: “Give thanks in all circumstances.""All is gift. Even sufferings of many kinds are gifts if we offer them up and allow God to redeem them."Cultivate a gracious imagination that sees all as graceA recent review from one of our listeners:"So much is happening and our society has rules where we often check our deepest meaning systems at the door. This works until a year like this year when we need to draw on much deeper resources, and we want a way to connect as a community. This group seems committed to softening those isolating norms, and showing us all what that could look like to do so with love and respect." (Donnied48, 10/5/2020, via Apple Podcasts)

Legal scholar Robert P. George comments on the meaning of friendship across disagreement, the need for public virtues of courage and humility, and how to address political polarization and hateful divisions through seeking the truth, thinking critically and openly, and respecting the dignity and freedom of the other. Interview by Evan Rosa.Episode Introduction (Evan Rosa)How do we heal from 2020? Yes, how do we heal from this pandemic, but how do we heal from the political rifts deeper than we can remember? How do we heal from physical distance that has isolated and alienated us from embodied presence and genuine connection with others? How do millions of public school children heal from remote learning and the psychological impact of disconnection? How do we heal in a moment like this?We’ve been trying to tackle this question in a variety of ways on the podcast, and we'll continue in upcoming episodes. This week, we’re sharing a conversation I had with Robert P. George, the McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence and Director of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University.  We spoke just a few weeks before the election, really, as the frenzy and vitriol and worry started to peak. We spoke about American division and the punishing and apparently unrelenting hatred that can be on display in the disgust one side mutually feels for the other, even in the birthplace of modern democracy, where the idea of personal dignity grounds our freedom to live together. I asked him about what it means to achieve friendship across deep disagreement—something he’s become widely known for in his close friendship and collaboration with Cornel West. We spoke about the virtues of citizenship, including humility and courage; specifically the courage to stand for what you think is right even at the horror of being thought heretic in your tribe. This kind of homelessness from the tribe, especially for Christians who find themselves in tension with their tradition. He reflects on seeking the truth in a world where anyone can portray themselves as an expert and facts are no longer commonly regarded as such. I asked him to offer some practical steps toward mutual understanding and civil discourse, which prizes collaborating around a pursuit of the truth far over mere victory for power’s sake.The kind of divisions we feel now—whether social distance or political distance—won’t be mended and healed with one strategy. So we’ll be bringing a variety of perspectives to bear on the question of healing. But the way Robert George frames civic friendship that shares a value for the truth and a commitment to respect for the other… maybe there’s some potential there. Thanks for listening today.Show NotesHow do we heal from the Pandemic? From the disconnect? American division and the unrelenting hostility of one side for the other Is friendship across division possible? The virtues of citizenshipHumility and courage Homelessness from your own tribe Civic friendship with respect for the other Mitt Romney, “politics have moved away from spirited debate to a vile, vituperative, hate-filled morass that is unbecoming of any free nation, let alone the birthplace of modern democracy.”The breakdown of civic friendship“If we fail to treat each other as civic friends, and instead as enemies, then everything is up for grabs every time there’s an election”Seeing the other as more than just the sum total of their politics“If we wrap our emotions too tightly around our convictions, then we become dogmatists. Then we become unwilling to consider the possibility that we might be wrong and that a critic might be right”Infallibility and disagreement, how the other becomes a ‘bad person’The virtue of genuine humility“It takes humility to recognize that I might be wrong, even about the most important things”The difference between politeness and civility Honoring the other person as a rational creature like oneself“You can’t have an open mind unless you have intellectual humility”Miroslav  Volf – “We must have porous boundaries of the self – having enough of an identity to have something to offer other people, but being flexible enough to let others in to shape you. That’s the gift of rationality”How does one properly approach debate? Is there a light in which the most opposing view to your own makes sense?Plato -“The point of arguing is for truth, not for victory”“Ideally you become your own best critic. But it takes courage” “We base our communities around our convictions. If you are an honest, independent thinker, it’s very likely your thinking will take you out of step with your communities. You can become a heretic very fast”We don’t want to be excommunicated! If you’re a truth seeker, you will sometimes be out of step with the communities that are important to you“Humility, open-mindedness, and courage. That’s what’s going to be needed”How Christian Americans feel in tension with tradition when they try to seek a life that is both public and faithful“Political cleavages don’t seem to run between religions, but rather run across them”“The left and the right are hard categories in the age of Trump, but roughly, the hostility between these wings is ferocious”Each views the other side as having betrayed their religious communities’ The concept of tribe Gustave La Bon - “We are in the age of the crowd”Gustave La Bon - “Isolated, he may be a cultivated individual. In a crowd, he is a barbarian that is a creature acting by instinct"‘Group think’“Truth seeking is all about being challenged and unsettled, you can’t do it without that”He tells students, “discover, learn, what are the best writings against the positions you hold?”Rethinking and revising ones beliefs “Do you have any good friends who really see things differently? And if you don’t, go find them”The first question must be, where do you come from? What were your parents like?Humanizing the other “Where are the limits? Would you befriend Hitler? IT’s a fool’s errand to try to befriend Hitler, but we don’t need to agree with someone to respect someone” “The ability of friendship to survive profound differences is there, if we let it happen” About Robert P. GeorgeRobert P. George is McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence and Director of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University. He has served as chairman of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), and before that on the President’s Council on Bioethics and as a presidential appointee to the United States Commission on Civil Rights. He has also served as the U.S. member of UNESCO’s World Commission on the Ethics of Scientific Knowledge and Technology (COMEST). He is a former Judicial Fellow at the Supreme Court of the United States, where he received the Justice Tom C. Clark Award. A graduate of Swarthmore College, he holds J.D. and M.T.S. degrees from Harvard University and the degrees of D.Phil., B.C.L., D.C.L., and D.Litt. from Oxford University. He has been a visiting professor at Harvard Law School and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.Professor George is a recipient of many honors and awards, including the U.S. Presidential Citizens Medal, the Honorific Medal for the Defense of Human Rights of the Republic of Poland, the Canterbury Medal of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, the Sidney Hook Memorial Award of the National Association of Scholars, the Philip Merrill Award of the American Council of Trustees and Alumni, the Bradley Prize for Intellectual and Civic Achievement, the Irving Kristol Award of the American Enterprise Institute, the James Q. Wilson Award of the Association for the Study of Free Institutions, Princeton University’s President’s Award for Distinguished Teaching, and the Stanley N. Kelley, Jr. Teaching Award of the Department of Politics at Princeton.He has given honorific lectures at Harvard, Yale, the University of St. Andrews, Oxford University, and Cornell University. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and holds twenty-one honorary degrees, including honorary doctorates of law, ethics, science, letters, divinity, humanities, law and moral values, civil law, humane letters, and juridical science.