This dialogue between some of the nation’s foremost thinkers on institutions and religious pluralism will focus on the challenges and opportunities of building and sustaining civic institutions in a polarized society. Speakers include Richard Garnett (Notre Dame Law School), Shadi Hamid (Brookings Institution), Kristen Deede Johnson (Western Seminary), and Yuval Levin (American Enterprise Institute). The panel will be moderated by Professor John Inazu, who holds a joint appointment with the John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics and the Washington University School of Law.

We hope you will join us in person or online for this conversation. We will host a reception for attendees with our speakers immediately following the panel discussion.

Free and open to all.

Please RSVP to rap@wustl.edu if you plan to join us in Knight Hall’s Emerson Auditorium or register to join us via Zoom: https://wustl.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_HmOojEwmSGGKb8cfG8lW6w.

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS
Richard W. Garnett is the Paul J. Schierl/Fort Howard Corporation Professor of Law at University of Notre Dame Law School. He teaches and writes about the freedoms of speech, association, and religion and constitutional law more generally. He is a leading authority on questions and debates regarding the role of religious believers and beliefs in politics and society. He is the founding director of Notre Dame Law School’s Program on Church, State, and Society, an interdisciplinary project that focuses on the role of religious institutions, communities, and authorities in the social order. Garnett clerked for the late Chief Justice of the United States, William H. Rehnquist, during the Court’s 1996 term and also for the late Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, Richard S. Arnold. He earned his J.D. from Yale Law School in 1995 and his B.A., summa cum laude, from Duke University in 1990.

Shadi Hamid is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and an assistant research professor of Islamic studies at Fuller Seminary. He is also a contributing writer at The Atlantic, where he writes a monthly essay on culture and politics. He is the author most recently of The Problem of Democracy: America, the Middle East, and the Rise and Fall of an Idea (Oxford University Press). Hamid’s previous book, Islamic Exceptionalism: How the Struggle Over Islam is Reshaping the World, was shortlisted for the 2017 Lionel Gelber Prize for best book on foreign affairs. His first book, Temptations of Power: Islamists and Illiberal Democracy in a New Middle East, was named a Foreign Affairs Best Book of 2014. Hamid is also the co-host of the Comment magazine podcast Zealots at the Gate with the Christian theologian Matthew Kaemingk. He received his BS and MA from Georgetown University and his PhD in political science from Oxford University. 

Kristen Deede Johnson is the G.W. and Edna Haworth Professor of Educational Ministries and Leadership and the Dean and Vice President of Academic Affairs at Western Theological Seminary. Her teaching and scholarship engage areas of theology, discipleship and formation, justice, culture, and political theory. In partnership with International Justice Mission, she and co-author Bethany Hanke Hoang recently wrote the award-winning The Justice Calling: Where Passion Meets Perseverance (Brazos Press, 2016). Other publications include Theology, Political Theory, and Pluralism: Beyond Tolerance and Difference (Cambridge University Press, 2007) and an array of book chapters, articles, and book reviews. In 2018, Kristen was named as one of “10 New or Lesser-Known Female Theologians Worth Knowing” by Christianity Today. Before joining the faculty of Western Theological Seminary, Kristen was the founding director of the Studies in Ministry Minor and the Center for Ministry Studies at Hope College. She earned her Ph.D. at University of St. Andrew’s and her B.A. from University of Virginia.

Yuval Levin is the director of Social, Cultural, and Constitutional Studies at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), where he also holds the Beth and Ravenel Curry Chair in Public Policy. The founder and editor of National Affairs, he is also a senior editor at The New Atlantis, a contributing editor at National Review, and a contributing opinion writer at The New York Times. Dr. Levin served as a member of the White House domestic policy staff under President George W. Bush. He was also executive director of the President’s Council on Bioethics and a congressional staffer at the member, committee, and leadership levels. He is the author of several books on political theory and public policy, most recently A Time to Build: From Family and Community to Congress and the Campus, How Recommitting to Our Institutions Can Revive the American Dream (Basic Books, 2020). He holds an M.A. and Ph.D. from the Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago.

John Inazu will moderate the conversation between the panelists. He is the Sally D. Danforth Distinguished Professor of Law and Religion and holds a joint appointment in the Washington University Law School and the John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics. Professor Inazu’s scholarship focuses on the First Amendment freedoms of speech, assembly, and religion, and related questions of legal and political theory. His first book, Liberty’s Refuge: The Forgotten Freedom of Assembly (Yale University Press, 2012), seeks to recover the role of assembly in American political and constitutional thought. His second book, Confident Pluralism: Surviving and Thriving Through Deep Difference (University of Chicago Press, 2016), looks at legal and civic practices in a pluralistic society. His most recent book, Uncommon Ground: Living Faithfully in a World of Difference (Nelson Books, 2020; with Tim Keller), seeks to help Christians engage with those around them in a way that both respects different beliefs and maintains their gospel confidence. Inazu earned his Ph.D. at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, and his J.D. and B.S.E. at Duke University. He clerked for Judge Roger L. Wollman of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit and served for four years as an associate general counsel with the Department of the Air Force at the Pentagon.