January 7, 2009, Fine Arts Center

"Separation of Church and State - Calvin Style:
A 500th Anniversary Celebration"

The opening speaker for the 2009 January Series will be John Witte Jr., Jonas Robitscher Professor of Law and Ethics and Director of the Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory University.

John Calvin called for the separation of church and state but not the division of religion and politics. He advocated human rights but always with corresponding religious duties. He accepted democracy and rule of law but within the confines of a refined and rigorous Christian republicanism. In this lecture celebrating the 500th anniversary of Calvin's birth, one of the world's leading scholars of law and religion assesses Calvin's political legacy and its enduring lessons for us still today.

A select bibliography of John Witte Jr.'s works include:

Witte, John. Christianity and Democracy in Global Context. Boulder: Westview Press, 1993. (BR115.P7 C3814 1993)

-----. Covenant Marriage in Comparative Perspective. Grand Rapids: W.B. Eerdmans Pub. Co., 2005. (BL462 .C68 2005)

-----. From Sacrament to Contract: Marriage, Religion, and Law in the Western Tradition. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1997. (K675 .W57 1997)

-----. God's Joust, God's Justice: Law and Religion in the Western Tradition. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Pub., 2006. (BL65 .L33 W58)

-----. Law and Protestantism: The Legal Teachings of the Lutheran Reformation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002. (KK381 .W58 2002)

-----. Proselytism and Orthodoxy in Russia: The New War for Souls. Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 1999. (BX493 .P76 1999)

-----. Religion and the American Constitutional Experiment. Boulder: Westview Press, 2005. (KF4783 .Z9 W58 2005)

-----. Religious Human Rights in Global Perspective: Religious Perspectives. The Hague: M. Nijhoff Publishers, 1996. (K3258 .R45 1996)

-----. Sex, Marriage, and Family in John Calvin's Geneva. Grand Rapids: W.B. Eerdmans Pub. Co., 2005. (BX9423 .M37 W58 2005 V.1)

-----. Sharing the Book: Religious Perspectives on the Rights and Wrongs of Proselytism. Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 1999. (BL637 .S53 1999)

-----. The Teachings of Modern Christianity on Law, Politics, and Human Nature. New York: Columbia University Press, 2006. (BT738 .T33 2006 V.1)

-----. The Weightier Matters of the Law: Essays on Law and Religion; A Tribute to Harold J. Berman. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1988. (BL65.L33 W45 1988)