The Shaftesbury Journal

During the fifth week of the Shaftesbury Fellowship, we had some new adventures and interesting discussions as we began to experience that famous Texas heat. On Monday, we had what has thus far been my favorite seminar. Led by our very own Dr. Stephen Presley and guided by Yuval Levin's book, "A Time to Build," we discussed the role of institutions in building a virtuous society. We discussed the possible reasons for the general sense of despair and corruption in our institutions today, the shift from the role of institutions from formative to performative, and the things in institutions that make them worth devoting ourselves to and worth reforming. The text for this week's seminar. Later in the week, several of the Shaftesbury Fellows made a trip out to the Southern Methodist University campus and enjoyed a morning studying in the beautiful Underwood Law Library. While we were there, I made sure to check out a local coffee shop. It was a fantastic time to really foc...

 The fourth week of the Shaftesbury Fellowship was composed primarily of studying. Monday began with our weekly seminar, number four out of ten. Led by Dr. Elizabeth Kincaid of Loyola University, we discussed several texts dealing with the concept of religious liberty from a Catholic perspective. These texts included "Dignitis Humanae," a book called Law, Morality, & Religion in a Secular Society by Basil Mitchell, and "The Problem of Religious Freedom" by John Courtney Murray. Dr. Kincaid presented us with some context on the religious liberty debates that were happening in the day — specifically within the question, "How can you be a citizen in a constitutional democracy and still be a faithful Catholic?"—and we spent some time discussing the role of law, looking at the question of how much authority the state should have when it comes to issues of morality, and distinguishing between the types of liberalism. It seems that our conversation on religi...

 Week three of the Shaftesbury Fellowship was a lovely combination of academics, Dallas outings, and some moments of simply enjoying one another's company. Monday was the most eventful day. We began the morning with our third seminar, this week with Dr. Deborah O'Malley from the University of Notre Dame. She led us through a discussion of religious freedom based on Robert Lewis Wilken's Liberty in the Things of God . In the evening, we joined the First Liberty interns and a few other staff members for an exhilarating evening attending a Texas Rangers game. It was my first professional baseball game and I enjoyed it immensely, although I was quite disappointed that the Rangers lost to the Detroit Tigers. The Rangers playing the Tigers in the Globe Life Stadium. Taking a selfie with the patriotic colors of the Texas flag. The Shaftesbury Fellows, tired but exhilarated after staying up late to watch the game. A giant, concrete baseball! On Tuesday, a friend and I made a trip o...

"Thinking is itself, however, an adventure."  James V. Schall  During the second week of the Shaftesbury Fellowship, I really started digging into my research, and so the week was heavy on reading and lighter on external activities. Monday was my "Plato Day" as well as Memorial Day. I spent the majority of the day reading through the first three books of Plato's Republic in order to glean some material to use for my paper. My main interest was looking at how Socrates discusses stories in the dialogues.  Per usual, Socrates had a mixture of thought-provoking, generally provoking, and just humorous things to say. I made the following meme to document a statement that I found particularly amusing. A quote from Plato's Republic . The Shaftesbury Fellows concluded the day with a potluck to honor Memorial Day. Memorial Day Potluck with the Fellows. On Tuesday, we had the second seminar of the summer. For this seminar, we had the opportunity to learn from Adam J. ...