Gary Wills

Inaugural Event of the Walter H. Capps Center for the Study of Religion and Public Life
3:00 P.M. / Sunday, October 6 / Free
Victoria Hall 33 W. Victoria Street Santa Barbara
Seating is limited. Tickets will be available at the Victoria Hall Box Office
one hour prior to the event.

Lecture Description
If religious belief comes into conflict with democratically-arrive-at decisions of the community, how is that conflict to be resolved? This problem is a perennial one, repeatedly posing itself - recently, for instance, in Justice Antonin Scalia's address to the divinity school at the University of Chicago. Some proposals for resolving the problem, while claiming to strengthen religion, would actually strengthen the state.

About the Speaker
Born in Atlanta (1934), Garry Wills received the B.A. from St. Louis University (1957), M.A. from Xavier University of Cincinnati (1958), M.A. (1959) and Ph.D. (1961) from Yale. He was a Junior Fellow at the Center for Hellenic Studies (1961-1962), Associate Professor of Classics (1962-1968) and Adjunct Professor of Humanities (1969-1980) at the Johns Hopkins University, and the Henry R. Luce Professor of American Culture and Public Policy (1980-1988) and is currently Adjunct Professor of History (1988-present) at Northwestern University. He is the author of many books, including Chesterton, Politics and Catholic Freedom, Roman Culture, Jack Ruby, The Second Civil War, Nixon Agonistes, Bare Ruined Choirs, Inventing America, At Buttons, Explaining America, Confessions of a Conservative, The Kennedy Imprisonment, Lead Time, Cincinnatus, Reagan's America, Under God, Lincoln at Gettysburg, Witches and Jesuits, John Wayne's America, Saint Augustine, A Necessary Evil, Papal Sin, Venice: Lion City, Saint Augustine's Childhood, and most recently, Why I Am a Catholic.

He has received the Pulitzer Prize, the Presidential Medal of the Endowment for the Humanities, the National Book Critics Circle Award (twice), the Merle Curti Award of the Organization of American Historians, the Wilbur Cross Medal from the Yale Graduate School, the John Hope Franklin Award of the Chicago Historical Society, the Richard N. Current Award of the Lincoln Forum, and the Peabody Award for Excellence in Broadcasting for writing and narrating "The Choice" for Frontline (1988). He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Co-sponsored by the IHC Catholic Studies Research Focus Group

For questions, please contact Wade Clark Roof at (805) 893-3564.
For assistance in accommodating a disability, please call (805) 730-1038.

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