YALE ETHICS PROFESSOR HEADLINES 40TH KEOUGH LECTURES
Takoma Park, MD. (October 11, 2018)—“Why the Pursuit of Happiness is a Bad Idea” will be the opening talk when Washington Adventist University (WAU) presents the 40th annual G. Arthur Keough Lectureship next Friday and Saturday, October 19-20 on the WAU campus in Takoma Park. The featured keynote speaker, Jennifer A. Herdt, is the Gilbert L. Stark Professor of Christian Ethics and Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at the Yale University Divinity School. Dr. Herdt is the author of Putting on Virtue: The Legacy of the Splendid Vices The lectures are free and open to the public.
The first lecture will be presented on Friday, October 19 at 7:00 p.m. It is entitled “Why the Pursuit of Happiness is a Bad Idea.” “It may seem self-evident that we are always in search of happiness,” says Professor Herdt. “In fact, though, the pursuit of happiness is self-defeating and therefore wrong-headed. We confuse happiness with our proper end: living well or worthily.”
Dr. Herdt’s second lecture follows on Saturday, October 20 at 3:30 p.m. “The Promise of Natural Law for a Secular Age” explores moral languages. “For what moral language should Christians reach in deeply divided and pluralistic social contexts? While the longstanding tradition of natural law has at times been invoked in deeply problematic ways, it offers a promising framework within which Christians can with integrity engage with others in the task of ordering well our common lives—and of ordering these lives to God.”
In addition, professor Herdt will address the ‘Faith and Reason’ Sabbath School Class at the Sligo Seventh-day Adventist Church, Fellowship Hall A, located on Washington Adventist university campus Saturday morning at 10:00.
40th Annual Arthur G. Keough Lectureship
Friday and Saturday, October 19-20
H.M.S. Richards Hall Chapel (building #10)
Washington Adventist University
7600 Flower Avenue, Takoma Park, MD 20912
For more information about the 40th G. Arthur Keough Lectureship, please contact Lectureship Coordinator Mikhail Kulakov, D.Phil., Department of Religion, at 301-576-0108 or mkulakov@wau.edu.
Washington Adventist University is Montgomery County’s only four-year private college. Part of the Seventh-day Adventist system of higher education, Washington Adventist University has been educating college students since 1904 on a 19-acre campus in suburban Takoma Park, close to the nation’s capital. Approximately 1,100 students of all faiths participate in the university’s eight graduate and 42 undergraduate programs. The 2018 edition of U.S. News & World Report ranked Washington Adventist University among the best regional colleges in the north.
Media Contact:
Doug Walker
301-891-4134
dkwalker@wau.edu