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Archbishop’s Lecture Series to open with author-scholar Francis Beckwith

By Julie Filby

Philosopher and scholar Francis J. Beckwith will kick-off the 2011-2012 Archbishop’s Lecture Series Sept. 29 with his talk: “Socrates and The New York Times: Religion in the Public Square.”

Here, Beckwith will address recent attention given to the religious beliefs of presidential candidates in publications such as The New Yorker (“Leap of Faith,” Aug. 15) and The New York Times Magazine (“Asking Candidates Tougher Questions About Faith,” Aug. 25).

“The thing that really struck me about these pieces was how superficial they were,” Beckwith told the Denver Catholic Register. “I don’t know if it’s (mainstream media’s) willful ignorance or a kind of prejudice about how religious people think through things.”

Beckwith—professor of philosophy and church-state studies and Resident Scholar in the Institute for Studies of Religion at Baylor University—grew up Catholic, became an evangelical Protestant, then returned to the Catholic Church four years ago.

“When Christians talk about their faith being true, it means it’s something that should encompass all their life,” he said, “It should influence their family life, their profession … their ethics.

“The writers in both cases interpreted that (to say) ‘Christianity should take over everything.’”

He described it as a conceptual problem comparable to an episode of the science fiction TV series “Star Trek.”

“The (starship) Enterprise will visit a primitive planet and try to explain technology to people and they just won’t understand,” he said. “And I think that’s the way the mainstream media looks at religion sometimes…it’s not that they’re dumb people, it’s just that they have a particular kind of posture, so they reinterpret it in light of that.”

Beckwith will also discuss the relationship of faith and reason in the larger academic world.

“That is something the media has ignored as well,” he said referring to a renaissance in Christian philosophy.

Beckwith has authored or edited 15 books including “Politics for Christians: Statecraft as Soulcraft,” “Defending Life: A Moral and Legal Case Against Abortion Choice,” and “Return to Rome: Confessions of An Evangelical Catholic.”

UPDATE: The Dec. 1 installment of the Bishop's Lecture Series has since been cancelled, due to unforeseen conflicts in Rodney Stark's schedule. The second speaker in the series will be sociologist of religion Rodney Stark on Nov. 1. Stark is a professor of social sciences at Baylor University, co-director of the Institute for Studies of Religion at Baylor, and founding editor of the “Interdisciplinary Journal of Research on Religion.” Stark, a former agnostic and self-described “independent Christian,” has published 30 books including “The Rise of Christianity.”

On Dec. 1, Thomas F. Madden, Ph.D., one of the country’s foremost historians on the Crusades, will speak on that topic. Madden is a professor of history and director of the Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies at St. Louis University. His recent books include the “New Concise History of the Crusades, Empires of Trust” and the award-winning “Enrico Dandolo and the Rise of Venice.”

On Feb. 23, author, blogger and New York Times columnist Ross Douthat will take the podium. Douthat, a Catholic convert, is the author of “Privilege: Harvard and the Education of the Ruling Class.” He is a film critic for National Review and previously served as senior editor of The Atlantic.

The final lecture of the series will be delivered March 6 by political scientist Timothy S. Shah, Ph. D. Shah—associate director of the Religious Freedom Project at the Berkley Center For Religion, Peace and World Affairs; and visiting assistant professor in the government department of Georgetown University—specializes in the relationship between religion and political freedom in theory, history and contemporary practice. He is co-author of “God’s Century: Resurgent Religion and Global Politics.”

All lectures begin at 7 p.m. in Bonfils Hall on the John Paul II Center campus at 1300 Steele St. in south Denver. The lectures are free, open to the public and do not require advance registration.