While September 11, 2001 profoundly changed the way we view the world, the enduring influences of religion reach beyond terrorism. Americans continue to be deeply divided about what our culture should look like, frequently battling these questions in court. The fault lines of cultural conflict are usually found to lie close to questions of religion and its proper place. These questions have deep historical roots that this conference explored on two fronts—American culture and U.S. foreign policy.

At the Key West meeting, three eminent scholars analyzed the religious, historical, ideological, and political forces currently in play:

MAIN SPEAKERS

Mark Noll is McManis Professor of Christian Thought in the History Department at Wheaton College, Illinois. Professor Noll is the author and editor of many books, including America’s God: From Jonathan Edwards to Abraham Lincoln (Oxford, 2002); The Old Religion in a New World: The History of North American Christianity (Eerdmans, 2002); God and Mammon: Protestants, Money, and the Market (Oxford, 2001); American Evangelical Christianity (Blackwell, 2000); The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind (Eerdmans, 1995); Religion and American Politics (Oxford, 1989); A History of Christianity in the United States and Canada (Eerdmans, 1992); and Princeton and the Republic, 1798-1822 (Princeton, 1989). In a recent issue of The New Republic, Eugene Genovese spoke of him as "the wonderfully prolific Noll—as fine a historian as America now boasts."

Walter Russell Mead is Senior Fellow for U.S. Foreign Policy at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. His books include Special Providence: American Foreign Policy and How It Changed the World (Knopf, 2001), which was named as one of ten notable non-fiction books of 2001 by the Economist and nominated for the 2002 Arthur Ross Book Award; and Mortal Splendor: The American Empire in Transition (Houghton Mifflin, 1987). His articles have been featured in Esquire, the New York Times, the International Herald Tribune, the Wall Street Journal, and The New Yorker. Currently, Mr. Mead is completing a new book, Is God on Our Side?, a major study of 400 years of conflict between liberal Anglophone powers and their illiberal rivals, ranging from absolute monarchies like Spain and France through Communist and Fascist enemies in the twentieth century to al-Qaeda today.

James Davison Hunter is William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of Sociology and Religious Studies at the University of Virginia. He currently serves as the Department Chair of Sociology and is the Director of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture. He has written widely on the problem of meaning and moral order in a time of political and cultural change in American life. His books include The Death of Character (Basic Books, 2000); Before the Shooting Begins: Searching for Democracy in America's Culture War (Free Press, 1994); Culture Wars: The Struggle to Define America (Basic Books, 1991); and Evangelicalism: The Coming Generation (Chicago, 1987).

CONFERENCE AGENDA

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2003

• 5:00 - 7:15  --  Reception (Havana Docks Sunset Deck)
• 7:30  --  Dinner (Harbor View Room)

(All meeting sessions will take place in the Cayman Room, in the Caribbean Spa Building.)

MONDAY, DECEMBER 8, 2003

• 7:45 - 8:45  --  Breakfast (One Duval Dining Room)
• 9:00 - 9:40  --  "Understanding American Evangelicals"  - Mark Noll, Wheaton College
• 9:40 - 10:05  --  Response - Jay Tolson, U.S. News & World Report
• 10:05 - 10:45  --  Q & A/ Discussion
• 10:45 - 11:00  --  Break
• 11:00 - 12:15  --  Q & A/ Discussion
• 12:30 - 2:00  --  Lunch (One Duval Deck)
• 2:00 - 2:40   --  "Religion and U.S. Foreign Policy"  - Walter Russell Mead, Council on Foreign Relations
• 2:40 - 3:05  --  Response  - Christopher Hitchens, Vanity Fair
• 3:05 - 3:45  --  Q & A / Discussion
• 3:45 - 4:00  --  Break
• 4:00 - 5:00  --  Q & A/ Discussion
• 5:00 - 7:00  --  Free Time
• 7:00 - 8:00  --  Cocktail Reception (Havana Docks Sunset Deck)
• 8:00   --  Dinner (Havana Docks Sunset Deck)

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 9, 2003

• 7:45 - 8:45  --  Breakfast (One Duval Dining Room)
• 9:00 - 9:45  --  "Religion, Law, and the Culture Wars"  - James Davison Hunter, University of Virginia
• 9:45 - 10:15  --  Response - Jeffrey Rosen, The New Republic
• 10:15 - 11:45  --  Q & A / Discussion
• 11:45 - 12:30  --  Break (Please checkout before noon if departing today)
• 12:30 - 2:00  --  Lunch (One Duval Deck)