The following event was canceled due to coronavirus concerns in accordance with UNC’s recent policy.

Arthur C. Brooks is the past president of the American Enterprise Institute and, starting in July 2019, a professor of the practice at Harvard’s Kennedy School and a senior fellow at Harvard Business School.   In Harvard’s announcement of his appointment, David Gergen observed that Brooks has “developed his own, fresh voice on compassionate leadership, the importance of respectful dialogue, the role of the arts in human behavior, human flourishing, and more.” Brooks’ public lecture will pursue the theme of his most recent New York Times Best Seller: Love Your Enemies.

Brooks is the author of eleven other books including The Road to Freedom: How to Win the Fight for Free Enterprise (2012) and The Conservative Heart: How to Build a Fairer, Happier, and More Prosperous America (2015).

The problem in American public life today isn’t excessive anger; it’s a culture of contempt. Across the political spectrum, we hear that those who disagree with us are not just wrong, but our enemies—worthless and morally defective. This is warping political discourse, tearing us apart as people, and even wrecking our health. But there is a way forward. Drawing on ancient wisdom, the latest findings in behavioral science, and examples from history’s greatest leaders, Arthur Brooks reveals how we can rebuild America’s moral consensus, restore a vibrant competition of ideas, reject divisive leadership, and find love in our hearts, not just civility and tolerance, for those with whom we disagree.

This event is a public lecture organized and hosted by the UNC PPE Program and for which the North Carolina Study Center is serving as a partner.

Join us on Thursday, Feb. 20 to hear from with Christian thought leader and award-winning author Dr. James KA Smith!

• 6 - 6:45 pm: Reception with desserts, hot drinks + roaring fires at Graham Memorial

• 7 -8:30 pm: James KA Smith on Sanctified Ambition: ‘What does God think of our Drive for Achievement'?’

Smith is Professor of Philosophy at Calvin College where he holds the Gary & Henrietta Byker Chair in Applied Reformed Theology & Worldview.

He'll speak on the topic of ambition from his newly released and much celebrated book, On the Road with Saint Augustine. As our guide, Smith will show how “Augustine’s timeless wisdom speaks to the worries and struggles of contemporary life,” particularly our worries and struggles over whether our ambitions are vain or virtuous.

About the Speaker

James KA Smith is professor of philosophy at Calvin University where he holds the Gary & Henrietta Byker Chair in Applied Reformed Theology & Worldview. Smith also serves as editor in chief of Image journal, a quarterly devoted to “art, mystery, and faith.” He is the award-winning author of a number of books, including: Who’s Afraid of Postmodernism?, Desiring the Kingdom, and How (Not) To Be Secular: Reading Charles Taylor (2014), You Are What You Love: The Spiritual Power of Habit (2016) and Awaiting the King: Reforming Public Theology (2017). His latest book is On the Road with Saint Augustine: A Real-World Spirituality for Restless Hearts (October 2019). His popular writing has appeared in magazines such as Christianity Today, First Things, and the Los Angeles Review of Books, as well as the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and USA Today. Jamie and his wife, Deanna, have four children , and live in the Heritage Hill neighborhood of Grand Rapids where attend Sherman Street Christian Reformed Church.