Lecture at Duke Chapel to Address ‘Confident Pluralism’
A distinguished law professor and author, John Inazu, will speak on “Pluralism, Particularity, and Possibility” at Duke University Chapel on Thursday, March 27, at 6:00 p.m. The combined lecture and public conversation is the inaugural address in Duke Chapel’s Pluralism Lecture series and is also part of the Provost’s Initiative on Pluralism, Free Inquiry, and Belonging.
A free ticket is required to attend the event. Click here to register via the Duke Box Office.
Or, click here to register to watch the livestream.
Inazu is the Sally D. Danforth Distinguished Professor of Law and Religion at Washington University in St. Louis. A graduate of Duke’s Law School and Pratt School of Engineering, he is an expert on the First Amendment who writes about how to navigate the complex legal, ethical, and social aspects of contentious issues that divide Americans. Inazu is the author of, among other books, Learning to Disagree: The Surprising Path to Navigating Differences with Empathy and Respect, Liberty’s Refuge: The Forgotten Freedom of Assembly, and Confident Pluralism: Surviving and Thriving Through Deep Difference.
In the event at the Chapel, Inazu will deliver his lecture and then engage in a discussion with Duke Chapel Dean Luke A. Powery, which will include responding to questions submitted by audience members.
“John’s ‘confident’ approach to pluralism recognizes our real, and sometimes challenging, differences while still seeing possibilities for understanding and cooperation,” Dean Powery said. “This approach promises to be valuable and timely given our current divisions along so many social, cultural, and political dividing lines.”
In addition to his work in the academy, Inazu served for four years as an associate general counsel with the Department of the Air Force at the Pentagon. He is the founder of The Carver Project and the Legal Vocation Fellowship and is a senior fellow at Interfaith America and the Trinity Forum. He writes a Substack newsletter called “*Some Assembly Required,” and has provided commentary for NPR, ABC News, Christianity Today, The Dispatch, and Good Morning America, among other media outlets.
Duke Chapel’s Pluralism Lecture was founded to further Duke University’s aim of “foster[ing] a lively relationship between knowledge and faith” as well as its commitment “to creating a rigorous scholarly community characterized by generous hospitality toward diverse religious and cultural traditions.” This lectureship takes as its premise a “confident” approach to pluralism that embraces the reality of diverse faith traditions and beliefs while also recognizing the need for competing truth claims to be acknowledged, discussed, and debated.
The Provost’s Initiative on Pluralism, Free Inquiry, and Belonging creates new opportunities for student, faculty, and staff learning across the university, including programs to help students conduct constructive conversations across diverse perspectives and faculty to support student skill development. In addition, the initiative provides opportunities for faculty to develop new curricular offerings, conduct research connected to the themes of pluralism, free inquiry, and belonging, and bring speakers and visiting scholars with different perspectives to campus.
Co-sponsors of the lecture include the Office of the Provost, Duke Law School, the Kenan Institute for Ethics, the Center for Christianity and Scholarship, Trinity College’s Transformative Ideas program, and the Sanford School of Public Policy’s Polis: Center for Politics.