On Monday, November 7th, Dr. Caleb Henry of Seattle Pacific University spoke to Dr. Casey Wheatland’s Basic Political Ideas class on the subject of religion and politics. Dr. Henry’s presentation focused on the questions of power and sovereignty in the context of the rise of the modern state, and how American constitutional law addresses these issues.
Additionally, Dr. Henry also explored the relevance of the thought of several of the thinkers the class has been studying (including Aristotle, Plato, Hobbes, and Montesquieu) to modern American politics and the ongoing debates over the free exercise clause of the First Amendment. The talk was followed by a wide-ranging question and answer session on the relationship between religion and politics, both in the American experience and in the history of political philosophy.
