Dr. David Paul Deavel, who is editor of “Logos: A Journal of Catholic Thought and Culture” and a visiting professor at the University of St. Thomas, will present “Taking Advantage of Freedom: What to Do with Liberty When You Have It” on Monday, Feb. 17, at 7 p.m. at Hope College in Winants Auditorium of Graves Hall.
The public is invited. Admission is free.
The presentation’s overview considers that although political, economic and intellectual freedom is a precious gift, history has shown that humans are ready to give it away. One reason why, it continues, might be given from the Nobel-Prize-winning Russian writer, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (1918-2008): When people don’t understand and use the freedom they have, they will throw it away to the detriment of themselves and their loved ones. Deavel will first provide a brief introduction to the life and career of Solzhenitsyn and then outline four ways to rightly understand and take advantage of freedom in order to preserve it and also to flourish.
The 2013 winner of the Novak Prize, Deavel is co-editor, with Jessica Hooten Wilson, of the book “Solzhenitsyn and American Culture: The Russian Soul in the West,” forthcoming this fall. He is also a senior contributor at The Imaginative Conservative, and has written more than 300 articles and reviews in a wide variety of books and popular and scholarly journals, including America, First Things, Journal of Markets & Morality, Library of Law and Liberty, National Review, Nova et Vetera and the Wall Street Journal. His Ph.D. is in historical theology from Fordham University.
The lecture is hosted by the Saint Benedict Institute and the college’s Markets & Morality student organization, and co-sponsored by the departments of history, political science and religion; and the Tocqueville Forum student organization.
The Markets & Morality student organization aims to support and celebrate freedom of expression in the context of the liberal arts by hosting speakers and films on topics spanning the economic, political and cultural aspects of human civilization, with a special concern for human flourishing as understood in Christian perspective.
The Saint Benedict Institute is a ministry of St. Francis de Sales Catholic Church in Holland. It seeks to promote and nurture intellectual work done from the heart of the Catholic Church, to foster an ecumenical community of Catholic Christians and friends committed to the renewal of culture, and to aid in the formation of intellectually and spiritually mature Christians by making available the riches of the Catholic tradition to Hope College and the wider community. More information can be found at saintbenedictinstitute.org.
Audience members who need assistance to fully enjoy any event at Hope are encouraged to contact the college’s Events and Conferences Office by emailing events@hope.edu or calling 616-395-7222 on weekdays between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.
Graves Hall is located at 263 College Ave., between 10th and 12th streets.