Cultivating Citizens:
Civic Life and Contemporary Liberal Democracy

1999 Summer Scholars' Institute
Baylor University
Waco, Texas

  1. Introduction to the Institute
  2. Institute Participants
  3. Schedule of Readings and Discussions
  4. Other Resources
  5. World Wide Web Resources
  6. Bibliography on Citizenship

Introduction to the Institute:

At the close of the twentieth century, a palpable disquiet about American democracy prevails. Indeed, recent years have seen a large body of scholarship, as well as journalistic coverage and commentary, focused on the quality of our public life and civic culture--in a word, on citizenship. The breadth and quantity of this material bear witness to a widespread anxiety about the spiritual condition of contemporary democracy. Although the nation's material state has arguably never been better, a public-spirited concern for the common good has somehow become outmoded. Complex and deviant pathologies afflict important segments of society, while cynicism and disaffection pervade the electorate. The project of self-government seems in peril. As a leading political theorist suggests, American democracy is on trial.

Prompted by Baylor's mission statement that emphasizes both an interest in the moral well-being of our students and a commitment to the vitality of the communities they inhabit, the 1999 Baylor Scholars' Institute has been organized around the question and problem of citizenship. For five weeks during May and June, a select group of faculty members from across the Baylor campus will come together for conversation and inquiry. Each of these scholars have an interest in and a research involvement with the issues of citizenship. We intend to study both classic and contemporary works on politics, ethics and citizenship. We mean to engage ancient and modern thinkers on questions about the proper order of social and political life, the moral requirements and cultural bases of such an order, and the problems associated with our modern American approach to social and political life.

This year the Summer Scholars' Institute is tied explicitly with the Fall Pruit Memorial Symposium, "Cultivating Citizens: Soulcraft & Citizenship in Contemporary America", October 28-30, 1999. Michael Sandel (Harvard University) and Jean Bethke Elshtain (University of Chicago) are the featured speakers. We hope that the members in Summer Scholars' Institute will be active participants in the Fall Symposium.

Participants

Schedule of Readings and Discussions

Please review this schedule with an eye toward which couple of sessions you would like to lead our discussion.

Week 1

May 24 -- Introduction to Institute and to Sandel
Sandel, Democracy's Discontent, chps. 1-2
WWW Resources on Michael Sandel
Discussion Leader: Dwight Allman

May 25 -- Democracy's Discontent
Sandel, chps. 3-5
Discussion Leader: Scott H. Moore

May 26 -- Democracy's Discontent
Sandel, 7-9, & Conclusion
Suggested Reading: Rorty, "Minimalist Liberalism"* --handout
Discussion Leaders: Dwight Allman and Scott Moore

May 27-29 -- Conference @ Calvin College: Political Thought After Liberalism

May 30 -- Return to Waco

Week 2

June 1 -- Aristotle
Aristotle, The Politics: Bk. I:1-7
Suggested Reading:Bk. I: 8-13, Pocock, "The Ideal of Citizenship" in Theorizing Citizenship (TC)
Discussion Leader: Peter Van Walsum

June 2 -- Aristotle
Aristotle, The Politics: Bk. III: 1-18
Suggested Reading: The Politics: Bk. IV: 1-16
Discussion Leader: Dwight Allman
Participant Presentation
--Dwight Allman, "The Soul and the Citizen: Modern Materialism and the Politics of Virtue"

June 3 -- Ancient Thought on Citizenship
Participant Presentations
--Tim Johnson, "Socrates and His Audience" and Plato's Apology
--Lynn Tatum

June 4 -- Thomas Hobbes
Hobbes: Ded., Intro., Bk. I: 1-2, 5-6, 8, 11-15
Suggested Reading: Bk. I: 3-4, 7, 9-10, 16
Discussion Leader: William F. Cooper

Week 3

June 7 -- Thomas Hobbes Review & Conclusion
Hobbes: Bk. II: 17-18, 21, 30-31
Suggested Reading:Ignatieff in TC
Discussion Leader: Donald Greco

June 8 -- John Locke
Letter Concerning Toleration, pp.23-58
Discussion Leader: Lynn Tatum

June 9 -- John Locke
Thoughts Concerning Education:
dedicatory letter, pp.7-9
#1, p.10
#31 - 35, pp. 25-27
#40 - 56, pp. 30-36
#61, pp. 38
#73 - 76, pp. 51-54
#81, p. 58
#95 - 129, pp.72-99
Discussion Leader: Bruce Watson

June 10 -- Institute welcomes Nathan Tarcov
AM: Nathan Tarcov, "John Locke & the Foundations of Toleration" (Handout)
PM: Locke: Thoughts Concerning Education:
#130 - 143, pp. 99-109
#157 - 159, pp. 117-119
#185 - 187, pp. 139-140
#200 - 205, pp. 152-155
#210 - 211, pp. 157-158
#216, p. 161

Week 4

June 14 -- Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Social Contract, Bks. I-II, IV: 8-9
Suggested Reading:Social Contract, Bks. III, IV: 1-7
Discussion Leaders: Richard Littlefield and Anabel Reeser

June 15 -- Participant Presentations:
Participant Presentations
--Clinton Bennett
--Don Greco

June 16 -- Immanuel Kant & John Rawls
Kant, "What is Enlightenment?" (pp. 573-77)
Rawls, "Justice as Fairness: Political not Metaphysical" --handout
Portrait: John Rawls by Ben Rogers (Prospect, June 1999)
Participant Presentations
--Scott H. Moore, "Sapere Aude! Kant's Ironic Englightenment"
Discussion Leaders: Scott Moore and Clinton Bennett

June 17 -- Alasdair MacIntyre
"The Virtues, the Unity of a Human Life, and the Concept of a Tradition" --handout
Discussion Leader: Gordon Grant

Week 5

June 21 Institute welcomes Stanley Hauerwas
AM: "On Being a Christian and an American"
PM: "The Kingship of Christ: Why Freedom of 'Belief' is not Enough," and "The Democratic Policing of Christianity"
Suggested Reading:After Christendom? How the Church is to Behave if Freedom, Justice, and a Christian nation are bad ideas

June 22 -- Participant Presentations
--William F. Cooper
--Peter Van Walsum

June 23 -- Participant Presentations
--Don Greco
--Bruce Watson
--Anabel Reeser

June 24 -- Participant Presentations
--Marc Ellis
--Richard Littlefield
--Gordon Grant

June 25 -- Conclusion and Evaluation

* Cf. Richard Rorty, "Defense of Minimalist Liberalism" in Debating Democracy's Discontent, eds. Anita L. Allen & Milton C. Regan, Jr. (Oxford U. Press, 1998).

** Nathan Tarcov, "John Locke & the Foundations of Toleration" (Handout)

Other Resources

Several books may prove to be especially useful for our conversations and for your research. These books may be ordered directly from Amazon.com by selecting the item. These and many other useful texts can be found on the Bibliography on Citizenship.

  • Anita L. Allen & Milton C. Regan, Jr., Eds. Debating Democracy's Discontent. New York: Oxford U. Press, 1998.

  • Hauerwas, Stanley. After Christendom? How the Church is to Behave if Freedom, Justice, and a Christian nation are bad ideas. Nashville: Abingdon, 1991.

  • Hauerwas, Stanley. Wilderness Wanderings: Probing Twentieth Century Theology and Philosophy. New York: Westview Press, 1997.

  • Orwin, Clifford and Nathan Tarcov, Eds. The Legacy of Rousseau. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1997.

  • Tarcov, Nathan. Locke's Education for Liberty. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984.

    • World Wide Web Resources

    Journals and Magazines

  • The American Prospect
  • The American Spectator
  • Atlantic Monthly
  • Basileus: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Philosophy of Law
  • Books and Culture
  • BostonReview
  • Commentary
  • Dissent
  • The Economist
  • First Things
  • Le Monde Monthly [English edition]
  • Mother Jones
  • The Nation
  • National Review
  • New Criterion
  • New Republic
  • New York Review of Books
  • Other Voices
  • Wilson Quarterly

    • Newspapers

  • Boston Globe
  • Chicago Tribune
  • Financial Times
  • Globe & Mail
  • Guardian/Observer
  • The Independent
  • Jerusalem Post
  • London Telegraph
  • London Times
  • Los Angeles Times
  • Le Monde
  • New York Times
  • The Times of India
  • USA Today
  • Washington Post

    • Web Sites and Other Resources

  • CSPAN Network On-line
  • The Alexis de Tocqueville Tour: Exploring Democracy in America
  • Yahoo! France
  • Liberty Library of Constitutional Classics