The Witherspoon Institute - The 2016 Summer Seminar Series

The 2016 Summer Seminar Series
Source: winst.org

The Witherspoon Institute is pleased to announce that the application process for our 2016 summer seminar series is now open! Below, please find a list of all of our seminars, along with links to a full description of each one on our website.

Most of the seminar pages include printable fliers. If you're a teacher, student, or professor, please consider posting these fliers in your department or passing them along to students who might benefit from our programs.

From all of us at Witherspoon, thank you for your continued support!

Medical Ethics: A Natural Law Perspective

(June 12-18, 2016) is a seminar for students of medicine that will examine the most important ethical questions that arise in the everyday practice of medicine, including freedom of conscience, proportionality, human dignity, sexuality and reproduction, and life issues.

Moral Life and the Classical Tradition

(Women: June 19-25, 2016 Men: June 26-July 2, 2016) is a seminar for rising high school juniors and seniors interested in the ancient philosophical tradition and its influence in the Christian moral life. Topics will include the nature of the philosophy, the relationship of faith and reason, the Judeo-Christian tradition and scientific inquiry, sexual ethics, marriage and family, and biomedical ethics.

Natural Law and Public Affairs  

(July 13–17, 2016) is a seminar for advanced undergraduate and graduate students. It will consider natural law moral reasoning and its application to a variety of moral and political issues, including religious liberty, economic justice, just war and capital punishment, abortion, euthanasia, and marriage and sexuality.

First Principles: Natural Law and the Theologico-political Question

(July 17–30, 2016) is a seminar for advanced undergraduate and pre-dissertation graduate students, focusing on the relation between natural law and the theologico-political question, that is, the question of the best way of life, enshrined in the best laws, supported by the best form of political regime. Readings will be drawn from Thomas Aquinas, Thomas More, Eric Voegelin, and Pierre Manent.

Church and State Seminar: Religion and Liberty in the American Founding Era  

(July 24–30, 2016) is open to untenured faculty and post-doctoral scholars in history, political theory, law, and religion. It will examine the relationship between religion and politics in the period of the American Revolution, founding, and early republic by exploring primary sources including charters, constitutions, and legal texts, sermons, pamphlets, essays, speeches, debates, and religious texts.

Moral Foundations of Law (July 31–August 6, 2016) is a seminar for students of law. It will consider the relationship between morality and civil law, covering the history and development of legal theory, the positivism-natural law debate, constitutionalism and the judiciary, the nature of punishment, and contemporary social moral debates in the law.









The Thomistic Seminar: Aquinas and the Philosophy of Nature(August 7–13, 2016) is open to graduate students in philosophy and related disciplines. This year’s seminar will examine the study of nature, unity and diversity, substance and causality, time and creation, physics, and biology in the works of Thomas Aquinas.