Professor Explores Christianity and Democracy At FRC Lecture

Mar 11, 2004 02:59 PM EST

WASHINGTON, D.C.--Robert P. Kraynak, Professor of Political Science at Colgate University has been invited by the Family Research Council (FRC) to give a Witherspoon Fellowship Lecture tomorrow at 11 AM EST, titled "Natural Rights and the American Experiment: Some Problems for Christian Theology”.

He will discuss the role of Christians regarding politics. In particular, he will explore the theological and philosophical tensions between Christian theology and democratic political theory. He will draw upon writers such as St. Augustine and Thomas Aquinas to suggest rights theories and democratic culture may be incompatible with central Christian doctrines.

“Christians tend to blame tensions between their faith and American life--such as abortion rights, the promotion of homosexual marriage, excessive individualism and materialism, social injustices--on misunderstandings of human rights and false theories of democracy. But is it possible that such problems go much deeper than false theories or misunderstandings?,” reads the excerpt about the March 12th lecture on The Witherspoon Fellowship Web site.

Kraynak is the author of “Christian Faith and Modern Democracy”.

The lectures offered by The Witherspoon Fellowship, a professional fraternity for civic and cultural leadership development, is a step to fulfill their mission.

The Web site adamantly states, “By the year 2025, we envisage a legion of 3,000 leaders community of Christians for public station.”

The lecture will be audiocast live from www.witherspoonfellowship.org.