Written by Maggie Samples // Photo by Edgar Cardiel
The American Studies Institute hosted Dr. Robert George and Dr. Cornel West for a lecture this week. The pair met on the Benson Auditorium stage Feb. 20 and talked about the importance of civil discourse and loving others through it.
George is a professor at both Princeton and Harvard. He has served as a chairman of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, and he was a presidential appointee to the U.S. Division of Civil Rights and recipient of the U.S. Presidential Citizens Medal.
West is the Dietrich Bonhoeffer Chair at Union Theological Seminary and has taught at both Harvard and Princeton. He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard in three years, has written 20 books, and holds both a master’s degree and a doctorate in philosophy.
Duke introduced the speakers, and President Mike Williams conducted the interview, beginning with asking the question of how the two became friends. The speakers discussed the beginnings of their friendship and their love for one another. They also discussed seeking truth and loving others, all with a foundation in Christian tradition.
“You’ve heard about chemistry, people who have chemistry in their classroom,” George said in reference to the beginnings of his friendship with West. “This was magic, it wasn’t chemistry, it was magic.”
West and George taught together at Princeton, and their class focused on the classics and “learning how to die,” George said.
West said a part of learning how to die is acknowledging the way the people who loved him influenced him.
“We want to be true to the best that was poured into us,” West said.
West and George discussed the importance of people seeking truth and having intellectual humility to admit when they’ve been wrong.
“So much of our history as a species is the history of organized greed, institutionalized hatred and routinized indifference to the problem,” West said.
In order to combat this, West and George said people need to interact with those who have opposing beliefs with civility. West said loving friendships, like his and George’s, need to rely on something deeper than civility, trust and love.
Williams finished the lecture by thanking George and West and encouraging the audience to act on the things that they heard.
“We came here for a conversation on civil discourse, but what we heard was a sermon,” Williams said. “I call on all of us to repent.”
Harding alumna Josie Scott attended the lecture and said the presentation was insightful and relevant to issues in the world today.
“Seeing evidence of how we can have intellectual, deep conversations with those who believe differently than us and still be friends was encouraging,” Scott said. “I really appreciated how they emphasized Christian values being the center of civil discourse.”
Senior Isaac Raymond said the lecture wasn’t what he expected but found it was very convicting and something people needed to hear.
“They were both really brilliant, but also really accessible at the same time,” Raymond said. “I felt like we were talking about these transcendental ideals, but it was all about, ‘How do I interact with the people I’m around?’ So, very convicting, very simple. People should have been here.”
