Between 1820 and 1850, the U.S. contended with a set of urgent problems: how to reconcile the ideal of liberty with the reality of racial slavery; how to square Christian belief with the removal of Native tribes from homelands coveted by white people; how to interpret the principle of “equality” vis a vis women, free people of color, and Catholic immigrants; how to invent a national identity and a robust nationalism in the face of conflict, demographic diversity, and geographical immensity. Underlying these conundrums—as we see in the literature of the era—was an unresolved contradiction about citizenship: were you an “American” because you pledged allegiance to the nation and its laws or because your ancestry connected you to the first colonists, those in the vanguard of “Anglo-Saxon Civilization?” And complicating it all was the righteous (but possibly self-serving) belief that God had destined Americans to be a new “Chosen People” and America to be a “city on a hill,” a nation exempted from the historical inevitability of rise and fall.

The author of "Strange Nation" and the Boyd Professor of English at Louisiana State University, Dr. J. Gerald Kennedy has a Ph.D. & Master’s from Duke University. He has published over 14 books on American Literature, short Fiction, literary nationalism and modernism and received countless awards and honors for his works on Edgar Allen Poe. He has been a Member of the Hemingway Society, President of the Poe Studies Association, and on various English advisory Boards. At Westminster, he is even better known as “Ben’s dad.”

A three-part series with Dr. Diana Bermudez, a psychotherapist specializing in early childhood who helps young children, parents, educators and administrators to enhance emotional health and decrease challenging behaviors. In this session, Dr. Bermudez discusses the transformation of parenting from the traditional generic/authoritative style to a more responsive/nurturing style.

German pastor, theologian, and anti-Nazi dissident, Dietrich Bonhoeffer has achieved iconic status as one who epitomizes what it means to struggle and resist tyranny and fascism and how one acts in faithful witness as a religious and political commitment. Dr. Victoria Barnett, U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, will guide us through his faith journey, with an emphasis on how he engaged with the issues of his times and how that in turn led to some new theological insights. Part 4 of 4.

A three-part series with Dr. Diana Bermudez, a psychotherapist specializing in early childhood who helps young children, parents, educators and administrators to enhance emotional health and decrease challenging behaviors. In this session, Dr. Bermudez discusses how brain research has transformed our understanding of early childhood mental health and the role of parents.

Westminster members Matt Viser, Dan Judy, and John McArdle team up again to bring us up to date on the implications of the 2018 midterm elections. Matt is National Political Reporter with the Washington Post, Dan is Vice President at North Star Research, and John is Producer and Host at C-Span. Hear their insights and analysis of the midterms, just as the new Congress is getting started.

German pastor, theologian, and anti-Nazi dissident, Dietrich Bonhoeffer has achieved iconic status as one who epitomizes what it means to struggle and resist tyranny and fascism and how one acts in faithful witness as a religious and political commitment. Dr. Victoria Barnett, U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, will guide us through his faith journey, with an emphasis on how he engaged with the issues of his times and how that in turn led to some new theological insights. Part 3 of 4.

German pastor, theologian, and anti-Nazi dissident, Dietrich Bonhoeffer has achieved iconic status as one who epitomizes what it means to struggle and resist tyranny and fascism and how one acts in faithful witness as a religious and political commitment. Dr. Victoria Barnett, U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, will guide us through his faith journey, with an emphasis on how he engaged with the issues of his times and how that in turn led to some new theological insights. Part 2 of 4.

German pastor, theologian, and anti-Nazi dissident, Dietrich Bonhoeffer has achieved iconic status as one who epitomizes what it means to struggle and resist tyranny and fascism and how one acts in faithful witness as a religious and political commitment. Dr. Victoria Barnett, U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, will guide us through his faith journey, with an emphasis on how he engaged with the issues of his times and how that in turn led to some new theological insights. Part 1 of 4.

Advent is a time of hope & expectation. We celebrate the miraculous birth of a child whose life, death and resurrection is the anchor of the Christian message. How are we to understand this first century message today as we come to it with very different cultural mores and practices, ethical understanding, scientific knowledge, and philosophical and religious insights? Questions we’ll explore include how to square our current scientific outlook with the Biblical account, how to understand the nature of miracles, and how faith is to be understood in this Post-Truth era. With Dr. Jim Muyskens.

Advent is a time of hope & expectation. We celebrate the miraculous birth of a child whose life, death and resurrection is the anchor of the Christian message. How are we to understand this first century message today as we come to it with very different cultural mores and practices, ethical understanding, scientific knowledge, and philosophical and religious insights? Questions we’ll explore include how to square our current scientific outlook with the Biblical account, how to understand the nature of miracles, and how faith is to be understood in this Post-Truth era. With Dr. Jim Muyskens.