“Faith and Citizenship” Topic at Yale Divinity School Gathering

On May 3-4, 2007 Yale Divinity School will host a public conversation entitled “Faith and Citizenship,” featuring E.J Dionne of the Washington Post and The Brookings Institution as the keynote speaker.

Among other well-known participants joining Yale faculty in the conversation will be Gary Hart, former senator from Colorado; James Joseph and James Laney, former ambassadors, respectively, to South Africa and South Korea; Bryan Hehir, the Parker Gilbert Montgomery Professor of the Practice of Religion and Public Life at the JFK School at Harvard University, former dean of Harvard Divinity School, and president of Catholic Charities in the Archdiocese of Boston; Congressman David Price of North Carolina; and Heidi Hadsell, president of Hartford Seminary.

Dionne, a popular speaker and syndicated columnist, has co-edited several books relevant to the issue of faith and citizenship in the past six years, including: One Electorate Under God? A Dialogue on Religion and American Politics. He is a regular political analyst for National Public Radio and a frequent guest on the Chris Matthews Show, the Tim Russert Show, and This Week with George Stephanopoulos.

The event is being held in conjunction with the YDS Board of Advisors meeting, which always includes a public conversation on a topic of contemporary significance. Harold Attridge, dean of Yale Divinity School, said, “We believe this year’s conversation has the potential to bring fresh thinking into the national discourse of faith and politics in advance of the 2008 elections.”

The keynote address will be delivered at 5:00 p.m. on May 3 in Marquand Chapel at Sterling Divinity Quadrangle, 409 Prospect St., New Haven.

On May 4, two panel discussions will be held, both in Marquand Chapel. The first, beginning at 8:30 a.m., will be on the subject “Faith and Citizenship in Global Perspective.” The second, at 10:30 a.m., will be on “Faith and Citizenship in the United States.” Moderating the first panel will be Harold Koh, dean of Yale Law School. Harlon Dalton, professor at Yale Law School and adjunct professor of law and religion at Yale Divinity School, will moderate the second panel.

Following the panel discussions will be a luncheon featuring a conversation between Hart and Dionne. Participation in the luncheon is by invitation only, but all other parts of the conference are free and open to the public.

Faith and Citizenship
A Public Conversation

May 3-4, 2007
Thursday, May 3

5:00 pm Keynote Address: Faith and Citizenship
E.J. Dionne, Washington Post Columnist and Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution
Marquand Chapel

Friday, May 4

8:00 am Morning Worship For the Healing of the Nations Marquand Chapel

8:30 am Panel One Faith and Citizenship in Global Perspective Marquand Chapel
Moderator: Harold Koh, Dean, Yale Law School

Panelists:
Jennifer Butler, Executive Director, Faith in Public Life
Heidi Hadsell, President, Hartford Seminary
James Joseph, U.S. Ambassador to South Africa, 1996-99
James Laney, U.S. Ambassador to South Korea, 1993-97
Emilie Townes, Andrew W. Mellon Professor of African American Religion and Theology, Yale Divinity School

10:00 am Coffee Break
Sarah Smith Gallery/Adams Courtyard

10:30 am Panel Two Faith and Citizenship in the United States Marquand Chapel
Moderator: Harlon Dalton, Professor, Yale Law School and Adjunct Professor of Law and Religion, Yale Divinity School

Panelists:
Randall Balmer, Ann Whitney Olin Professor of American Religion, Barnard College, Columbia University
Serene Jones, Titus Street Professor of Theology, Yale Divinity School
Michael Kieschnick, President and Co-founder, Working Assets
Peter Laarman, Executive Director, Progressive Christians Uniting
David Price, U.S. Representative, North Carolina, Fourth Congressional District
Amy Sullivan, Contributing Editor, The Washington Monthly

12:15 pm Luncheon with E. J. Dionne and Gary Hart, U.S. Senator, Colorado, 1975-87 (by invitation only)
Common Room
 

May 3, 2007