2023-2024 Yearbook

294Organizations Based solely on the socio-political positions held by Dr. Robert George and Dr. Cornel West, one might not expect the two of them to get along, let alone be close friends. The leading public intellectuals’ visit as part of ASI’s Distinguished Lecture Series surprised many in this regard; Dr. George and Dr. West demonstrated a profound friendship built on love, trust, shared faith and pursuit of truth that enables the civil discourse and loving disagreement that they skillfully embody. During a classroom session in the early afternoon, Dr. West answered the first of the Big Questions – “Who is God?” – describing God as love mediated through Jesus on the cross, love as a need, a deed, and a seed: we need the blood of Christ on the cross, we perform the deed of loving our neighbor and we plant seeds, leaving the world a little better than we found it. We ought to leave a little heaven behind, as Dr. West’s grandmother said. Dr. George also turned to Christ as the answer to this question, saying that Christ is the means by which we transcend the god of the philosophers and come into contact with the personal and parental being that Christ points to in His prayer: “Our Father, who art in heaven….” We cry out for the help we need; as Dr. West said, “Womb to tomb without a call for help is impossible.” Acknowledging our need for help is an exercise in humility, a becoming-servant in relation to God rather than asserting ourselves as masters of our own fates. This vertical piety shapes the spiritual experience, while horizontal piety dictates how we interact with our communities. Dr. West defined this kind of piety as “virtuous acknowledgment of the sources of good in your life that you are willing to put on your back (as Aeneas carried Anchises out of Troy) and show your respect to.” Asking parents, family, peers, teachers, pastors, and others for help goes against the tendencies of the culture we inhabit, but in the eyes of the world, the faith and piety that we talk about makes no sense at all. The wisdom of God is folly to the world, as Paul writes in 1 Corinthians. We ought to become holy fools like Father Zosima in Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov, pursuing the thick blood of Christ at the foot of the cross rather than the thin and acceptable “Kool-Aid” that we find when things start to make sense to the world. Dr. George turned to a discussion of the session’s assigned reading: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail.” Questions of the appropriateness of public protest become questions of eternal, natural, and human law. Do we have an obligation to disobey unjust laws, that is, human laws that go against the eternal and natural laws? St. Augustine, St. Aquinas, and King say yes; a just law elevates, upholds, and uplifts the human personality and spirit, while the unjust opposite hurts everyone. How do we disobey? Do we fight fire with fire, as Malcolm X argued for in his “Message to the Grassroots” speech? Dr. West referenced John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme; King’s Gandhian method of nonviolent protest, his Dream, and the Love Supreme that he preached were in line with humanity’s status as created beings, as incomparably valuable children of God. The vulnerability that we assume when asking for help cultivates in us the capacity to love, to imitate our Creator. Civility on its own is too thin, while deep relationships of love keep us in the thick blood of Christ. Civility is not just being nice or being polite, but also recognizing that while you might have something to teach your conversation partner, you have something to learn from them as well. No one holds all true beliefs, and to assume that one does is to close the door to learning and civility. Civil discourse thickens our faith through intellectually rigorous examination, building on the riches of our traditions while also recognizing that those traditions may fall short. Deep spirituality enables the survival of society. We have to think about what really matters. Does that characteristic or skill go on your resume or on your tombstone? Resume virtues matter, but are not of ultimate value. Tombstone virtues are intrinsically valuable: ends in themselves, as Immanuel Kant would say. Faith. Friendship. Family. Knowledge. Beauty. Holiness. Integrity. Honor. We mix up these virtues just as we mix up the thick blood of Christ at the foot of the cross with the thin Kool-Aid of the world. We have to pursue and wholeheartedly embody those tombstone virtues in all circumstances. We ought not treat people who we disagree with as enemies. We are all brothers and sisters, children of one Father. Dr. Williams moderated the panel in the evening, and by the end was on the verge of tears. “What we just heard was a sermon.” I, for one, was cut to the heart by what Dr. George and Dr. West not only said but also demonstrated in their interactions with each other: a profoundly beautiful expression of the truest sort of friendship, one that has moved far beyond utility and pleasure and into the realm of Aristotle’s perfect friendship, one between “good people similar in virtue” who love each other for their own sake and who wish good things for each other. Dr. Carpenter commented a few days after the lecture, “[Dr. George and Dr. West] model for us that we have to be unapologetically unafraid of free people exchanging the biggest ideas and stay in fellowship as we do it.” The American Studies Institute was founded in 1952 with the goal of promoting a better understanding of the constitution, of capitalism and free enterprise, and of the intersections of faith and civic life. The bar for the quality of the Distinguished Lecture Series continues to be set extremely high; the Harding community has much to look forward to as stewards of this tradition. Written by Isaac Raymond UNLIKELY ALLIANCE Harding hosts Dr. Cornel West and Dr. Robert George for the American Studies Distinguished Lecture Series

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