Lecture: “The Future of Christian-democratic Politics”
by Jonathan Chaplin, director of the Kirby Laing Institute for Christian Ethics,
Tyndale House, Cambridge, England

Dr. Jonathan Chaplin is a specialist in Christian political thought and has edited or co-edited three books and several articles in this field for academic and wider audiences. Before joining the Kirby Laing Institute for Christian Ethics, he served from 1999-2006 as Associate Professor of Political Theory at the Institute for Christian Studies in Toronto, where he held the Dooyeweerd Chair in Social and Political Philosophy from 2004-06 and served as academic dean from 2005-06. From 1997-98 he was a Fellow in Christian Political Thought at Sarum College, Salisbury, and from 1990-97 he was a Tutor in Politics at Plater College in Oxford.

As a Senior Fellow of Cardus in Hamilton, Ontario, Chaplin writes regularly for its online journal, Comment. He also has served on the boards or advisory councils of several organizations working on the relationship between Christian faith and public life, including the Movement for Christian Democracy, Citizens for Public Justice (Canada), and the Civitas Program of the Center for Public Justice.
The hosts and co-sponsors

The 2008 Kuyper Lecture is sponsored by the Center for Public Justice and three organizations within Villanova University: the Center for Liberal Education, the School of Law, and the Department of Humanities.

• Villanova Center for Liberal Education has as its mission to advance interdisciplinary studies in the liberal arts and sciences in a way that enhances the participation of the entire campus community in the intellectual life that is central to an Augustinian university. Its Augustine and Culture Seminar is required of all first-year students.
• Villanova University School of Law is committed to the principles of academic freedom, which it derives from the traditions of the order of St. Augustine, emphasizing the value of critical, searching inquiry and open debate in an atmosphere of civil expression and mutual respect.
• The Department of Humanities seeks wisdom for personal and cultural renewal through the pursuit of an integrated, interdisciplinary approach to human questions. The light of faith neither compromises nor substitutes for rigorous intellectual reflection, but rather informs the work of reason even as it provokes constant wonder and promotes deeper inquiry.

Villanova University is an independent coeducational institute of higher learning founded by the Augustinian Order of the Roman Catholic Church. The university is a community of persons who in a spirit of collegiality cooperate to achieve their common goals and objectives in the transmission, pursuit, and discovery of knowledge. The university seeks to reflect the spirit of St. Augustine by the cultivation of knowledge, by respect for individual differences, and by adherence to the principle that mutual love and respect should animate every aspect of university life.