Join David Westphal, CCLP senior fellow and USC Annenberg executive in residence, Geoffrey Cowan, USC University Professor and director of the Center on Communication Leadership & Policy and Varun Soni, USC Dean of Religious Life, for a discussion on media, politics and religion.
Special guest: Peter Steinfels, “Beliefs” columnist for the New York Times and co-director of the Fordham Center on Religion and Culture. His topic: A Catholic Approach to American Public Life. He writes “A review of different understandings of secularization suggests that the U.S., in fact, can be called a ‘post-secular’ society, preeminently and irreversibly secular in some respects, intensely religious in others. But what does this in turn mean for American public life and specifically for its politics? How should religious traditions, organizations, and leaders speak to questions with profound moral implications, from war and economic security to health care and abortion. Should they be politically “bilingual”–addressing the faithful with one language and the general citizenry with another? What is needed is a new ethic of “post-secular citizenship” involving both religious literacy and enlarged sensibilities on the part of believers and non-believers.” He is the author of A People Adrift : The Crisis of the Roman Catholic Church in America. Book signing follows discussion. This program is co-sponsored by the USC Office of Religious Life, USC Annenberg’s Knight Chair in Media and Religion and USC’s Center for Religion and Civic Culture. Lunch will be served. RSVP requested. To RSVP, click here.
12 noon. Annenberg Research Park’s Kerckhoff Hall, 734 W. Adams Blvd., Los Angeles, CA.