News from the Center for the Study of Law and Religion
at Emory University
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Volume 3 Number 2
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Spring 2010
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 Greetings!
The Pursuit of Happiness is the primary focus at the Center for the Study of Law and Religion (CSLR) this spring and summer as we prepare to host His Holiness the XIV Dalai Lama in an interfaith dialogue October 17 on the Emory University Campus. The dialogue and one-day conference that follows are the capstone of our five-year Pursuit of Happiness Project.
We're also proud to announce the expansion of the Affordable Housing and Community Development Project to the national stage as part of the Center for Community Progress, a new not-for-profit organization charged with reforming vacant and abandoned property policies throughout the country.
More about these historic events, additional Pursuit of Happiness programs, and other great work of our Center scholars is detailed below. We hope you will share this issue of our e-newsletter widely with your family, friends, and colleagues.
Sincerely,
John Witte, Jr . Frank S. Alexander
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 Dalai Lama to Lead Interfaith Dialogue on Happiness
His Holiness the XIV Dalai Lama will lead a public conversation on happiness with other world religious leaders October 17, 1:30-3:30 p.m., on the Emory University Campus. CSLR is hosting the "Interfaith Summit on Happiness: Understanding and Promoting Happiness in Today's Society" as the capstone of its multi-year research project, "The Pursuit of Happiness." READ MORE |
 Alexander's Vacant Properties Project Goes National
CSLR Founding Director Frank S. Alexander is taking his municipal and state-level affordable housing and community development work to the national stage as part of the Center for Community Progress, a new, not-for-profit organization charged with reforming vacant and abandoned property policies throughout the country. WATCH VIDEO I READ MORE |
 Pursuit of Happiness Lecture Series
to Explore Forgiveness, Love
Distinguished scholars will discuss the difficult subjects of retribution and forgiveness, political conservatism and happiness in America, and love and marital bliss in antebellum African America during the CSLR's Pursuit of Happiness Lecture Series 2010. Speakers include Patrick Allitt, Cahoon Family Professor of American History, Emory University; CSLR Senior Fellow Michael McCullough, professor of psychology, University of Miami; and CSLR Senior Fellow Frances Smith Foster, Charles Howard Candler Professor of English and Women's Studies, Emory. READ MORE |
 Coming this Fall: LLM, SJD in Law & Religion, Pursuit of Happiness Course
Emory Law will offer the LLM and the SJD in Law and Religion beginning in the 2010-2011 academic year. Both degree programs are open to American and foreign students interested in an intense course of study in law and religion. READ MORE CSLR Director John Witte, Jr. is offering a two-hour course for Emory Law students, "The Pursuit of Happiness in Interdisciplinary Perspective," during fall 2010. The compressed course is built around a series of weekly public lectures in early fall and culminates with the October 17 Interfaith Summit on Happiness featuring His Holiness the XIV Dalai Lama and October 18 one-day conference featuring other major world religious leaders. READ MORE |
 CSLR Surveys Emory Law Student, Alumni 'Pursuit of Happiness'
Emory Law students and alumni explored their level of happiness by participating in the March event, "Prevail in the Pursuit of Happiness," and taking the Happiness Survey. The program was the first of several planned for the CSLR's Pursuit of Happiness Project. Emory Report features the event and upcoming public forums in a recent edition. WATCH THE LECTURE I READ MORE |
 An-Na`im Delivers Tanner Lectures on Human Values
CSLR Senior Fellow Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na'im, Charles Howard Candler Professor of Law at Emory, delivered the Tanner Lectures on Human Values in March at the University of California-Berkeley. An-Na'im spoke on mediating the paradox of inclusive universality of human values in the permanent reality of human difference. READ MORE |
 Witte Delivers McElroy Lecture, Keynotes Elshtain Conference
CSLR Director John Witte, Jr. delivered the prestigious McElroy Lecture in Law and Religion in Detroit in March. READ MORE In February, he gave the keynote address at the first of four conferences reflecting on themes drawn from the work of social and political ethicist Jean Bethke Elshtain at the University of Chicago. READ MORE |
 CSLR Scholars Engage World Discussions of Global Dilemmas
CSLR scholars galvanized discussions around the globe during 2009 on issues of grave importance - religious liberty, international human rights, the application of Islamic law in Muslim and Western societies - to spread a deeper, richer understanding of the challenges the world is facing in the new decade. READ MORE |
 Bogle Shares Personal Pursuit of Happiness in Emory Magazine
CSLR Director of Public Relations and Information April L. Bogle discusses her exploration of Buddhism and the Emory-Tibet Science initiative in the Winter 2010 issue of Emory Magazine. "I want to be happy. Coming to the end of a terrible decade that has included two debilitating divorces, a wrenching child custody battle, and my beloved father's diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease, I've decided it's time to figure out this happiness thing."
READ MORE
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 'Til Death or Distance Do Us Part: Love and Marriage in African AmericaFrances Smith Foster
(Oxford University Press, 2010)
Emory University English and Women's Studies Professor Frances Smith Foster challenges deeply ingrained theories about slave marriages and the impact they have had on modern African American marital stability in this new book. Foster's evidence is letters, poems, sermons, essays, court cases, and articles written by slaves during or after their enslavement, and by antebellum African Americans who were free. The documents show that even though enslaved people could not legally marry, many did so anyway for life -- and even beyond. READ MORE |
 The Political Morality of Liberal Democracy
Michael J. Perry
(Cambridge University Press, 2010)
Does banning abortion violate "moral freedom" in a liberal democracy? How about banning same-sex unions? CSLR Senior Fellow Michael J. Perry says "no" and "yes," respectively, and explains the "moral freedom" test in his new book, The Political Morality of Liberal Democracy. The book is a product of the CSLR's Christian Jurisprudence Project. READ MORE
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IN THEIR
OWN WORDS
"What most intrigues me about the Pursuit of Happiness Project is the way it brings scientists, humanities scholars, and theologians around the same table. The 'dialects' that we use in our respective professional worlds are so diverse that our meetings sometimes feel like Babel, or chaos; and some members are a little troubled by that; but its an adventure. Moreover, the usual turf battles that go on within academic fields are completely irrelevant here, which is quite refreshing."
-Philip Reynolds
CSLR Senior Fellow &
Pursuit of Happiness
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CSLR BROCHURE
Request or download a CSLR brochure. It provides information on the joint degree program, research projects, senior fellows, publications, and more.
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FACULTY EXPERTS
Search CSLR's faculty to a find an expert in human rights; the pursuit of happiness; history of marriage law; Islamic, Jewish, and Christian law; religious liberty; and much more HERE. |
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