Faith Angle Forum: November 2013


 

 

The Faith Angle Forum held its semi-annual Conference on Religion, Politics & Public Life from November 3-5, 2013, in South Beach, Florida. The series brings together a select group of nationally respected journalists and distinguished scholars for in-depth discussions of cutting-edge issues at the intersection of religion and public life. Under the leadership of Michael Cromartie, Vice President at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, the Faith Angle Forum provides extended discussion and the kind of deep reflection that is not always possible in today’s fast paced world of breaking news.

November 2013 Conference topics:

“Welcoming the Stranger? Religion & the Politics of Immigration”

Dr. John GreenDistinguished Professor of Political Science, University of Akron

Dr. Peter SkerryProfessor of Political Science, Boston College

audio | transcript

“Spinning Sorrow: The Uses & Abuses of Forgiveness in the Public Sphere”

Dr. L. Gregory JonesProfessor of Theology at Duke University Divinity School and Strategic Director of the Laity Lodge Leadership Initiative

audio | transcript

“Same Universe, Different Lenses: Science, Ethics, & Religion in Dialogue” 

Dr. Jennifer Wiseman, Director of the AAAS Dialogue on Science, Ethics, and Religion Program

audio | transcript

Speaker Bios:

GreenHeadshotDr. John C. Green is the director of the Ray C. Bliss Institute of Applied Politics and a Distinguished Professor of Political Science at the University of Akron. He is also a senior research adviser at the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life, specializing in religion and American politics, American evangelicals and politics, the Christian right, religion and elections, and religion and presidential politics.Dr. Green has done extensive research on American religious communities and politics. He is co-author of The Diminishing Divide: Religion’s Changing Role in American Politics (Brookings Institution Press, 2000).

In addition to publishing his most recent book The Faith Factor: How Religion Influences American Elections (2007), Dr. Green is also the co-author of The Values Campaign: The Christian Right in American Politics (Georgetown University Press, 2006), The Bully Pulpit: The Politics of Protestant Clergy (University Press of Kansas, 1997), and Religion and the Culture Wars (Rowman & Littlefield, 1996). The Los Angeles Times described Dr. Green as the nation’s “pre-eminent student of the relationship between religion and American politics.”

He received his Ph.D. in political science from Cornell University.

JonesHeadshotDr. L. Gregory Jones is a professor of theology at the Duke Divinity School. He served as the dean of the Divinity School from 1997 to 2010. He is also the Strategic Director of the Laity Lodge Leadership Initiative. Dr. Jones is widely recognized as a scholar on such issues as forgiveness and reconciliation, Christian vocation, and leadership.

He is the author or editor of 16 books, including the acclaimed Embodying Forgiveness, and, most recently, the co-author of Forgiving as We’ve Been Forgiven. He is also the author of Everyday Matters: Intersections of Life and Faith and the co-author of Resurrecting Excellence: Shaping Faithful Christian Ministry. For 10 years he was co-editor of Modern Theology, a scholarly journal published by Blackwells in Oxford, England, and he currently serves as an associate editor for the journal.

Dr. Jones has traveled extensively, often addressing issues of forgiveness and reconciliation in lectures and sermons. In recent years he has been in South Africa, Uganda, Rwanda, Cote d’Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia, Northern Ireland, Israel/Palestine, China, India, and South Korea.

He received his PhD in theology from Duke University.

Chronicle 10/22 storyDr. Peter Skerry is a professor of Political Science at Boston College and Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution, where his research focuses on social policy, racial and ethnic politics, and immigration. Professor Skerry has been a Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, DC and Legislative Director for Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan of New York.His writings on politics, racial and ethnic issues, immigration and social policy have appeared in a variety of scholarly and general interest publications, including Society, The New Republic, Slate, The Public Interest, The Wilson Quarterly, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post. His book, Mexican Americans: The Ambivalent Minority (Harvard University Press) was awarded the 1993 Los Angeles Times Book Prize. His most recent book is Counting on the Census? Race, Group Identity, and the Evasion of Politics, published by the Brookings Institution Press. His current project is a study of the social, cultural, and political integration of Muslims and Arabs in the United States.

He received his PhD in political science from Harvard University.

WisemanHeadshotDr. Jennifer J. Wiseman is the Director of the AAAS Dialogue on Science, Ethics, and Religion (DoSER) program. She is also an astrophysicist, studying the formation of stars and planetary systems using radio, optical, and infrared telescopes. Dr. Wiseman studied physics for her bachelor’s degree at MIT, discovering comet Wiseman-Skiff in 1987. After earning her Ph.D. in astronomy from Harvard University in 1995, she continued her research as a Jansky Fellow at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory and as a Hubble Fellow at the Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Wiseman also has an interest in national science policy and has served as an American Physical Society Congressional Science Fellow on Capitol Hill. She then served several years as the Program Scientist for the Hubble Space Telescope at NASA Headquarters and as the chief of the Laboratory for Exoplanets and Stellar Astrophysics at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, where she currently serves as the Hubble Senior Project Scientist. She is also a public speaker and author, and enjoys giving talks on the excitement of science and astronomy to schools, youth and church groups, and civic organizations. She is a former Councilor of the American Astronomical Society and a former President of the American Scientific Affiliation.

Participants

Sarah Pulliam Bailey, National Correspondent, Religion News Service

Molly Ball, Staff Writer, The Atlantic

Fred Barnes, Executive Editor, The Weekly Standard

Mindy Belz, Editor, WORLD Magazine

Daniel Burke, Co-editor, “Belief Blog,” CNN

Michelle Cottle, Washington Correspondent, The Daily Beast

Timothy Dalrymple, Columnist, Patheos.com

Elizabeth Dias, Writer/Reporter, TIME Magazine

Patton Dodd, Editor-in-Chief, “On Faith,” The Washington Post

Clare Duffy, Producer, NBC Nightly News

Paul Edwards, Editor, Deseret News

Andrew Ferguson, Senior Editor, The Weekly Standard

Michael Gerson, Columnist, The Washington Post

Erica Grieder, Senior Editor, Texas Monthly

Dan Harris, Co-anchor, ABC News, Nightline, Good Morning America Weekend

Mollie Ziegler Hemingway, Senior Editor, The Federalist

Kirsten Powers, Contributor, The Daily Beast and USA Today; Political Analyst, Fox News

David Rennie, Washington Bureau Chief, The Economist

William Saletan, National Correspondent, Slate

Karen Tumulty, National Political Correspondent, The Washington Post