Faith and Civic Responsibility
August 9–10, 2024
Union League Club
38 East 37th Street
New York, New York 10016
Registration for the 2024 First Things Intellectual Retreat is now closed.
Please join us for two days of intellectual enrichment and good company as we explore the topic of faith and civic responsibility. The retreat will feature a keynote lecture, a panel, and seminar discussions led by instructors from Eastern University's Templeton Honors College.
Dress Code: A coat and tie (and comparable attire for women) are required during the dinners, business casual is acceptable for the seminars on Saturday. No sneakers are permitted.
Cancellation Policy: For a full tuition refund, please cancel at least three weeks in advance. We reserve the right to substitute speakers, change venues, or cancel part or all of the event due to circumstances beyond our control. In such cases, our liability is limited to a prompt refund of the registration fee, on a pro-rata basis, for the affected portions.
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Schedule and Readings:
The full retreat program will be held at the Union League Club of New York.
Friday, August 9
6:00 pm Cocktail Reception
7:00 pm Dinner & Lecture: “Citizenship and Public Architecture”
Justin Shubow will present this year's opening lecture. Shubow is president of the National Civic Art Society and served on the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts from 2018–21. He advocates for the classical aesthetic in architecture and has published architectural criticism in Forbes online, First Things, Public Discourse, The Washington Post, and The Weekly Standard.
Saturday, August 10
9:00 am–10:15 am Seminar I: Citizenship Defined
- Romans 12:9–13:7
- Aristotle, Politics (selections)
- Simone Weil, The Need for Roots
10:30 am–11:45 am Seminar II: Citizenship Refined
- Jeremiah 29:1–30:24
- Augustine of Hippo, The City of God (selections)
- Michael Lamb in Aeon, “Be What You Hope For”
12 pm Lunch (not provided)
1:30 pm–2:45 pm Seminar III: Citizenship Deformed
- Psalm 73:1–28
- Dante Alighieri, “Inferno VI” and “Inferno X” (selections)
- William Shakespeare, “Thomas More: Addition IIc” (selection)
3:00 pm–4:15 pm Seminar IV: Citizenship Performed
- Matthew 22:15–22
- Yuval Levin in First Things, “Taking the Long Way: Disciplines of the Soul are the Basis of a Liberal Society”
- Martin Luther King Jr., “Letter from Birmingham City Jail”
- Wendell Berry, “Manifesto: The Mad Farmers Liberation Front”
5:45 pm–7:30 pm Dinner
7:30 pm–8:30 pm Panel on “Faith, Civic Responsibility, and the
2024 Election” with R. R. Reno, Sohrab Ahmari,
and Mark Bauerlein
R. R. Reno is editor of First Things. His essays and opinion pieces on religion, public life, contemporary culture, and current events have appeared in the New York Times, Commentary, and the Washington Post, among other popular outlets. His most recent books include Return of the Strong Gods: Nationalism, Populism, and the Future of the West and The End of Interpretation: Reclaiming the Priority of Ecclesial Exegesis. Reno has appeared as a guest on CNN’s Crossfire, EWTN’s Faith & Culture, and numerous radio shows.
Sohrab Ahmari is a founder and editor of Compact and writes the “American Affairs” column for the New Statesman. Previously, he spent nearly a decade at News Corp., as op-ed editor of the New York Post and as a columnist and editor with the Wall Street Journal opinion pages in New York and London. Ahmari’s books include Tyranny, Inc.: How Private Power Crushed American Liberty—and What To Do About It (2023) and The Unbroken Thread: Discovering the Wisdom of Tradition in an Age of Chaos (2021), both published by Penguin Random House.
Mark Bauerlein is contributing editor at First Things, trustee of New College of Florida, and Professor of English Emeritus at Emory University, where he taught since earning his PhD in English at UCLA in 1989. For two years (2003–5) he served as Director of the Office of Research and Analysis at the National Endowment for the Arts. His books include Literary Criticism: An Autopsy (1997), The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future (2008), and The Dumbest Generation Grows Up: From Stupefied Youth to Dangerous Adults (2022).
8:30 pm–10:00 pm Cocktail Reception
