Why Institutions Matter: Religious Perspectives on Building and Sustaining Institutions in a Fractured Society

This dialogue between some of the nation’s foremost thinkers on institutions and religious pluralism will focus on the challenges and opportunities of building and sustaining civic institutions in a polarized society. Speakers include Richard Garnett, Notre Dame Law School; Shadi Hamid, Brookings Institution; Kristen Deede Johnson, Western Seminary; and Yuval Levin, American Enterprise Institute. The panel will be moderated by John Inazu, who holds a joint appointment with the John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics and the School of Law.

Richard W. Garnett is the Paul J. Schierl/Fort Howard Corporation Professor of Law at University of Notre Dame Law School. He teaches and writes about the freedoms of speech, association, and religion and constitutional law more generally. He is a leading authority on questions and debates regarding the role of religious believers and beliefs in politics and society. 

Shadi Hamid is a senior fellow in the Center for Middle East Policy at Brookings Institution. He is the author of Islamic Exceptionalism: How the Struggle Over Islam is Reshaping the World, which was shortlisted for the 2017 Lionel Gelber Prize. His first book, Temptations of Power: Islamists and Illiberal Democracy in a New Middle East, was named a Foreign Affair, Best Book of 2014.

Kristen Deede Johnson is the G.W. and Edna Haworth Professor of Educational Ministries and Leadership and the Dean and Vice President of academic affairs at Western Theological Seminary. Her teaching and scholarship engage areas of theology, discipleship and formation, justice, culture and political theory. In partnership with International Justice Mission, she and co-author Bethany Hanke Hoang recently wrote the award-winning The Justice Calling: Where Passion Meets Perseverance. In 2018, Kristen was named as one of “10 New or Lesser-Known Female Theologians Worth Knowing” by Christianity Today. 

Yuval Levin is the director of Social, Cultural, and Constitutional Studies at the American Enterprise Institute, where he also holds the Beth and Ravenel Curry Chair in Public Policy. The founder and editor of National Affairs, he is also a senior editor at The New Atlantis, a contributing editor at National Review, and a contributing opinion writer at The New York Times. Dr. Levin served as a member of the White House domestic policy staff under President George W. Bush. 

John Inazu is the Sally D. Danforth Distinguished Professor of Law and Religion and holds a joint appointment in the School of Law and the John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics. Inazu’s scholarship focuses on the first amendment freedoms of speech, assembly, and religion, and related questions of legal and political theory.