Post-election, George Will assesses relationship between religion and politics in America

Pulitzer Prize-winning political journalist and author George F. Will is scheduled to deliver the fall 2012 keynote speech for the John C. Danforth Center on Religion & Politics at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 4, in Graham Chapel.

Will

In his lecture, “Religion and Politics in the First Modern Nation,” he will provide insight into America’s political process and the impact religion has on it.

This event is free and open to the public but reservations are requested by sending an email to rap@wustl.edu.

“We are delighted to host George Will as this year’s keynote speaker because he is a distinguished public intellectual and he is committed to robust and civil debate,” says Marie Griffith, PhD, the John C. Danforth Distinguished University Professor in the Humanities and director of the center.

For nearly 40 years, Will has been writing about foreign and domestic politics. In 1974, he began writing a column for the Washington Post; it became so popular that it is now carried in more than 450 newspapers. For nearly as long, Will has contributed commentary for Newsweek magazine.

He also is a longtime panelist for ABC’s This Week news program. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, he appeared on Agronsky & Company as well as Meet the Press.

He has published books on political theory as well as collections of his commentaries.

“Will is, in the late William Buckley’s words, the consummate conservative high-priest, who favors historical analogy and tasteful argumentation to partisan moralizing,” Publisher’s Weekly said of his most recent collection, One Man’s America: The Pleasures and Provocations of Our Singular Nation.

Will also writes about baseball. In the 1990s, he published two books on the subject: Men at Work: The Craft of Baseball; and Bunts: Curt Flood, Camden Yards, Pete Rose and Other Reflections on Baseball.

He earned a bachelor’s degree in religion from Trinity College, Hartford; a master’s degree in philosophy, politics and economics from the University of Oxford; and master’s and doctoral degrees from Princeton University.

Before entering the journalism profession, Will served on the staff of Sen. Gordon Allott, R-Colo., then taught political philosophy at Michigan State University, the University of Toronto and Harvard University.

For more information on this event, visit rap.wustl.edu or call (314) 935-9345.