Tikvah

April 13th, 2010 - 4:30PM
"Hope in a Democratic Age"
Presenter: Alan Mittleman (Jewish Theological Seminary)
Respondent: Cornel West (Princeton University)

LOCATION: Woodrow Wilson School, Bowl 2 Open to the Public

ALAN MITTLEMAN is director of the Louis Finkelstein Institute for Religious and Social Studies and the Tikvah Institute for Jewish Thought, as well as professor of Jewish Philosophy at The Jewish Theological Seminary.   He is the author of four books: Between Kant and Kabbalah (SUNY Press, 1990), The Politics of Torah (SUNY Press, 1996), The Scepter Shall Not Depart From Judah (Lexington Books, 2000) and Hope in a Democratic Age (Oxford University Press, 2009), as well as many articles, essays, and reviews.

CORNEL WEST is currently the Class of 1943 Professor at Princeton University.   He is the author of 19 books, including Race Matters (1993) and most recently, Brother West: Living and Loving Out Loud.   Dr. West has also edited 13 texts, and offers commentary weekly on The Tavis Smiley Show from PRI (Public Radio International).

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STEWART LECTURE IN RELIGION
January 20, 2010 – 4:30pm
Jon D. Levenson
Albert A. List Professor in Jewish Studies
Harvard Divinity School
 

LOCATION: Friend Center, Room 008
Open to the Public

Co-sponsored by the Council of Humanities and the Department of Religion

Jon D. Levenson (Harvard University), is the Albert A. List Professor of Jewish Studies at Harvard Divinity School. He began teaching at Harvard in 1988, having previously taught at the University of Chicago and at Wellesley College. His work concentrates on the interpretation of the Hebrew Bible, including its reinterpretations in the "rewritten Bible" of Second Temple Judaism and rabbinic midrash. He also teaches a seminar in the use of medieval Jewish commentaries for purposes of modern biblical exegesis. He has a strong interest in the philosophical and theological issues involved in biblical studies, especially the relationship of premodern modes of interpretation to modern historical criticism. Much of Professor Levenson's work centers on the relationship of Judaism and Christianity, both in antiquity and in modernity, and he has long been active in Jewish-Christian dialogue. His interests and courses in Jewish theology include the modern period. His book Resurrection and the Restoration of Israel: The Ultimate Victory of the God of Life (Yale University Press, 2006) won a National Jewish Book Award and the Biblical Archaeology Society Publication Award in the category of Best Book Relating to the Hebrew Bible published in 2005 or 2006. His most recent book is Resurrection: The Power of God for Christians and Jews (Yale University Press, 2008), which he wrote with Kevin Madigan of HDS. In all his work, Professor Levenson's emphasis falls on the close reading of texts for purposes of literary and theological understanding.

December 2, 2009, 4:30pm
ECS 392/ POL 414/REL 392: "God and Politics"
"The Politics of the New Testament"
C. Kavin Rowe
Duke University Divinity School

LOCATION: East Pyne, Room 010
Open to the Public

C. Kavin Rowe is Assistant Professor of New Testament at Duke University Divinity School.  He is the author or co-editor of over twenty scholarly publications.  His most recent book is World Upside Down: Reading Acts in the Graeco-Roman Age (Oxford University Press, 2009).  Rowe has been a Fulbright Scholar, Regional Scholar for the Society of Biblical Literature, Chair of the Society's Southeastern Region New Testament section, and was elected to the Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas.  He was awarded a Lilly Faculty Fellowship, a faculty fellowship from the Louisville Institute, and, most recently, the John Templeton Prize for Theological Promise.

October 20, 2009, 4:30pm
ECS 392/POL 414/REL 392: "God and Politics"
"Separation of Church and State in American History and Today: Facts, Fictions and Future Challenge"
John Witte
Emory University
 

John Witte, Jr. is Jonas Robitscher Professor of Law and Director of the Center for the Study of Law and Religion Center at Emory University. A specialist in legal history, marriage law, and religious liberty, he has published 180 articles, 11 journal symposia, and 23 books – including recently Religion and the American Constitutional Experiment (2000, 2d. ed. 2005); Law and Protestantism: The Legal Teachings of the Lutheran Reformation (2002); Sex, Marriage and Family Life in John Calvin’s Geneva (2005); Modern Christian Teachings on Law, Politics, and Human Nature, 2 vols. (2006); God’s Joust, God’s Justice: Law and Religion in the Western Tradition (2006); The Reformation of Rights: Law, Religion, and Human Rights in Early Modern Calvinism (2007); Christianity and Law: An Introduction (2008); and Sins of the Fathers: The Law and Theology of Illegitimacy Reconsidered (2009). His writings have appeared in ten languages, and he has lectured through North America, Western Europe, Japan, Israel, and South Africa. He has been selected ten times by the Emory law students as the Most Outstanding Professor and has won dozens of other awards and prizes for his teaching and research. 

 

October 27, 2009, 4:30PM
'This Necessity is Sweet to Me': Augusting on the Pleasures of Food and Sex
Gil Meilaender, Valparaiso University
Bowl 2, WWS
Open to the Public

November 11, 2009, 4:30PM
Maimonides and Aquinas on Human Perfection
Presenter: Kenneth Seeskin, Northwestern University
"To the Utmost of our Capacity" - Maimonides on Human Perfection
Respondent: John Bowlin, Princeton Theological Seminary
"What Aquinas Might Say"
East Pyne 010
Open to the Public

December 9, 2009, 4:30PM
How to Read Lincoln's 'Second Inaugural Address'
Steven Smith, Yale University
Ease Pyne 010
Open to the Public

Co-Sponsored by:
The Tikvah Project on Jewish Thought at Princeton
The Department of Religion
The Department of Politics
University Center for Human Values
The James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions
The Program in Judaic Studies

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