Member of Tony Blair Faith Foundation to deliver lecture at OSU

Friday, March 21, 2008

April 3 talk will focus on morality and military conflict.
 
(March 20, 2008  STILLWATER, Okla.) – Harry A. Stout, a member of the newly launched Tony Blair Faith Foundation, will deliver a lecture on the moral history of the Civil War at 7 p.m. on April 3 at Oklahoma State University.
 
Stout’s lecture will complement his most recent work, “Upon the Alter of the Nation: A Moral History of the Civil War.” He writes that patriotism trumped morality on both sides of the Civil War thus producing a society dangerously out of control.
 
“Professor Stout is recognized as one of the foremost historians of our times,” said James Cooper, professor of history at OSU who is overseeing Stout’s visit. “His lecture promises to shatter romanticized illusions about the Civil War.
 
“Stout’s arguments are especially timely in light of current events, as our nation once again struggles with issues of morality and military conflict.”
 
Stout is the Jonathan Edwards Professor of American Religious History at Yale University and chair of its Department of Religious Studies. He is part of an interfaith organization that works with Britain’s former prime minister in hopes of stemming worldwide violence done in the name of religion.
 
Stout, an internationally known lecturer, is the recipient of many honors including a research fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities. He is the author of numerous books including the Pulitzer Prize nominated “The New England Soul: Preaching and Religious Culture in Colonial New England.”
 
The event is free and open to the public in Room 313 of the Classroom Building at OSU. The presentation is funded by the OSU Arts and Sciences Arts and Humanities Lecture Series. To learn more, phone (405) 744-5680 or visit http://history.okstate.edu .