The Shaftesbury Journal

The ninth week of the Fellowship is our last full week and I decided to make the most of it with some sightseeing. On Monday, we had our ninth weekly seminar with Dr. David Deveal from the University of St. Thomas. With Dr. Deveal, we discussed Solzhenitzyn's Havard Address and his novella, A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich . It was the first seminar that we had together on a work of fiction, and it was fascinating to hear people's insight and to explore the various themes within the text. On Tuesday, we had the privilege to be hosted by some friends of First Liberty for a lovely luncheon at their home in Dallas. Following the meal, we enjoyed a tour of the Meadows Museum, a Spanish art museum on the Southern Methodist University campus. Always a fan of art museums, I thoroughly enjoyed the tour and was excited to see some pieces by an artist I studied in college, Diego Rodriguez de Silva y Velazquez. Some photos from the Meadows Museum. For the next few days, I continued to...

 Th eighth week of the Shaftesbury Fellowship was mainly focused on completing our research projects, but we also had some time for some fun outings. On Monday, we had the opportunity to engage with Rev. Dr. John Arthur Nunes, senior fellow at CRCD and president of California Lutheran University. We discussed culture, religious liberty, and what it looks like to cultivate the life of the mind in a post-liberal age. For the seminar, we read After Nationalism  by Samuel Goldberg and A World After Liberalism  by Matthew Rose. Later in the week, I had the opportunity to visit a fun local coffee shop called La La Land with some of the other Fellows as we continued to work on our research projects. For the sake of spontaneity, I decided to try their house latte, which included a shot of vanilla syrup and something called "cloud fluff." During that time, I finished the rough draft of my paper. Some photos from our visit to La La Land. On Thursday, we had our third seminar on rig...

During week seven of the Shaftesbury Fellowship, the First Liberty Institute took the Fellows to Boston, Massachusetts for a historic and cultural tour of this city which has played so intimate a roll in our country's history. Although we were only in the city for a little over three full days, we had the opportunity to experience much of what Boston has to offer. On Sunday, we visited the historic Park Street Church, just off the Boston Common, where we worshipped together. Park Street Church was founded in 1804 and is one of the longest standing churches in America which has consistently taught sound, evangelical doctrine. Along with having welcomed some pivotal speakers throughout its history, the church is the location of the first performance of the song "My Country 'Tis of Thee" on July 4th, 1831. The service was beautiful, but I particularly enjoyed singing some of the grand old hymns out of physical hymnals, a treat that I do not often encounter. Some photos f...