For anyone living in New York. Street Prophets will also be streaming this event live and taking question from the online audience!
Professor Harvey Cox and E. J. Dionne to Headline Discussion on Faith and the Progressive Movement
Event is second in series presented by the Progressive Book Club and the Center for American Progress
New York, NY: The Progressive Book Club (PBC) and the Center for American Progress (CAP) today announced that Harvard divinity professor Harvey Cox and syndicated columnist and author E. J. Dionne will headline the second installment of the monthly series Moving Forward: Foundations of a New Progressive Era. Launched last month, the Moving Forward series brings together leading progressive authors and policy experts in unique in-person and online forums designed to help Americans learn, connect, debate, and mobilize around ideas.
The evening’s discussion will explore the issues raised in Harvey Cox’s new book, The Future of Faith. Cox posits that Christianity is undergoing a third period of transformation marked by a disregard of dogma in favor of a more open “spirituality,” and a collapse of barriers between different religions. One of the casualties of this transformation is an historically influential actor in American politics: religious fundamentalism.
Joining Professor Cox will be E.J. Dionne, whose most recent book – Souled Out: Reclaiming Faith and Politics After the Religious Right – announced the end of the Religious Right’s narrow social agenda, and the rise of more open-minded, social-justice oriented faith movements on both sides of the political aisle. The two will engage in a lively discussion on the current and historical role of religion in American politics, and what this ongoing transformation means as current and future administrations struggle with a wide range of foreign and domestic policy challenges.
Author and Progressive Book Club Editorial Board member Todd Gitlin will moderate the discussion, which will be streamed live on the Progressive Book Club blog and feature a Q&A that engages both the live and online audience. There will be a reception following the discussion.
Beginning on November 9th, seats can be reserved by RSVPing online at http://progressivebookclub.com/cap.
WHAT: Discussion with Professor Harvey Cox and E. J. Dionne
WHERE: WNYC’s Greene Space
44 Charlton Street (at Varick Street)
New York, NY 10014
WHEN: November 18, 6:00 – 8:00 p.m.
FOR PRESS INQUIRIES:
PBC – Dina Owobu, 212.871.8219, dowobu@progressivebookclub.com
CAP – Anna Soellner, 202.492.296, asoellner@americanprogress.org
ABOUT THE PROGRAM PARTICIPANTS
E. J. Dionne Jr. is a syndicated columnist for the Washington Post, a regular political analyst on National Public Radio, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, and a professor at Georgetown University. His books include the best-selling Why Americans Hate Politics (Simon & Schuster), which won the Los Angeles Times book prize and was nominated for the National Book Award. His latest book is Souled Out: Reclaiming Faith and Politics After the Religious Right.
Harvey Cox is Hollis Research Professor of Divinity at Harvard, where he began teaching in 1965, both at HDS and in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. An American Baptist minister, he was the Protestant chaplain at Temple University and the director of religious activities at Oberlin College; an ecumenical fraternal worker in Berlin; and a professor at Andover Newton Theological School. His research and teaching interests focus on the interaction of religion, culture, and politics. His most recent book is The Future of Faith.
Todd Gitlin is a professor of journalism and sociology and chair of the Ph. D. program in Communications at Columbia University. He is the author of twelve books, including, most recently, The Bulldozer and the Big Tent: Blind Republicans, Lame Democrats, and the Recovery of American Ideals. He was the third president of Students for a Democratic Society, in 1963-64, and later helped organize the first national demonstration against the Vietnam War
ABOUT PROGRESSIVE BOOK CLUB
Progressive Book Club finds and promotes important authors, ideas, and new voices. Part e-bookseller and part online magazine, the club offers a unique opportunity to buy new books and support important causes with every purchase. PBC has created a 21st-century platform that enables people to learn, connect, and engage on the issues they care about most—while keeping progressive ideas at the center of the national debate.
ABOUT THE CENTER FOR AMERICAN PROGRESS
The Center for American Progress is a think tank dedicated to improving the lives of Americans through ideas and action. CAP combines bold policy ideas with a modern communications platform to help shape the national debate, expose the hollowness of conservative governing philosophy, and challenge the media to cover the issues that truly matter. Founded in 2003, CAP is headed by John D. Podesta, former chief of staff to President Bill Clinton and professor at the Georgetown University Law Center. CAP is designed to provide long-term leadership and support to the progressive movement. CAP’s ability to develop thoughtful policy proposals and engage in the war of ideas with conservatives is unique and effective. CAP policy experts cover a wide range of issue areas, and often work across disciplines to tackle complex, interrelated issues such as national security, energy, and climate change.
ABOUT THE PROGRESSIVE STUDIES PROGRAM
The Progressive Studies Program, co-directed by John Halpin and Ruy Teixeira, is a unique interdisciplinary project that explores the history, intellectual foundations, and public understanding of progressivism in America. The program seeks to increase public awareness of progressive ideas and values, and educate public officials and policymakers through lectures, seminars, articles, public events, book discussions, new media tools, and training seminars with activists and young people. It also seeks to develop thoughtful and honest debates about modern progressivism and its relationship to the earlier progressive era and other political and social movements throughout American history. The program’s public research component will complement these discussions by documenting and tracking American ideological attitudes and demographic trends across the country.