Jewell’s Center for Justice lecture focuses on ‘The Responsible Community’

[William Jewell College]

The Center for Justice and Sustainability at William Jewell College will present a free lecture by philosopher Nicholas Wolterstorff at 7:30 p.m. November 16 in John Gano Memorial Chapel on the campus in Liberty, Mo. The lecture is open to the public; tickets or reservations are not required.

Nicholas Wolterstorff received his A.B. from Calvin College in 1953, and his Ph.D. in philosophy from Harvard University in 1956. After teaching philosophy for two years at Yale, he returned to the philosophy department at his alma mater in 1959. He returned to Yale in 1989, where he was a member of the Divinity School, of the Philosophy Department and of the Religious Studies Department. He has taught, during leaves of absence, at Haverford College, the University of Michigan, Princeton University, the University of Texas, Notre Dame University and the Free University of Amsterdam. He retired from teaching at the end of 2001, and is Noah Porter Professor Emeritus of Philosophical Theology, Yale University. Currently he is a Senior Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture, at the University of Virginia. He has been President of the American Philosophical Association (Central Division), and of the Society of Christian Philosophers; he is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Among the named lectures he has given are the Wilde Lectures at Oxford University, the Gifford Lectures at St Andrews University, the Stone Lectures at Princeton Seminary and the Taylor Lectures at Yale. Among the books he has published are On Universals, Works and Worlds of Art, Art in Action, Until Justice and Peace Embrace, Reason within the Bounds of Religion, Divine Discourse and John Locke and the Ethics of Belief.

“Nicholas Wolterstorff's career in higher education at Calvin College and Yale, his scholarly work related to rights and justice, and his involvement in justice work in Honduras with the Association for A More Just Society makes him an ideal visiting lecturer for William Jewell College,” said Dr. Andy Pratt, vice president for religious ministries and dean of the chapel.   

The Center for Justice and Sustainability at William Jewell College is at the heart of the College’s mission to cultivate leadership, service and spiritual growth. The Center’s role in this mission is to raise awareness of social, economic, and ecological challenges within our world in order to invite students to spend their lives creating solutions to these complex and interconnected issues.