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ALLAN CARLSON TO DELIVER WITHERSPOON FELLOWSHIP LECTURE,
EUROPE AND THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY MOVEMENT: A ONCE AND FUTURE HOPE?
Washington, DC – On Wednesday, July 20, Dr. Allan C. Carlson,
President of the Howard Center for Family Religion and Society and
Distinguished Fellow for Family Policy Studies at the Family
Research Council will present a Witherspoon Lecture entitled,
“Europe and The Christian Democracy Movement: A Once and Future
Hope.” This lecture will start at 11:00 a.m. in Washington, DC at
the Family Research Council. The presentation will also be video and
audiocast live via the internet at
www.frc.org (click
on "Events").
The
future of Europe and European Democracy is clouded. Challenges
confronting the continent include conflicting political visions, the
role of the European Union, plummeting birth rates and the
corresponding threat of population implosion, and accelerated
non-European immigration. While in many ways novel, these challenges
themselves reflect Europe's failure to answer adequately the social
and political questions raised by modernity.
In
this lecture, Allan Carlson examines the emergence of the European
Christian democratic movement in the 19th-Century as a response to
modernity. He considers its expression as a Catholic social justice
movement, its failure to halt the triumph of fascism in the early
20th Century, and the vital role it played in rebuilding
Europe--politically and morally--after World War II. He will
describe the movement's distinctively Christian worldview, and its
articulation of an authentic family policy. Carlson explores
Europe's 'values revolution' of the 1960s and the devolution of
Christian Democracy in Germany, Italy, Holland, and France from a
faith-driven effort to renew Christendom into broad mass parties of
the Center-Right. He will also describe more recent expressions of
Christian Democracy in unexpected places, including Norway, Sweden,
Croatia, Poland, and the Baltic States. Carlson's remarks conclude
with lessons from the Christian Democracy experiment for American
politics and policy-making.
Allan Carlson is Distinguished Fellow in Family Policy Studies at
the Family Research Council and President of the Howard Center for
Family, Religion & Society. He holds his Ph.D. in Modern European
History from Ohio University and is the author of 8 books on the
history of the family and family policy including, The 'American
Way': Family And Community In The Shaping Of The American Identity;
The Swedish Experiment In Family Politics; and Family Questions:
Reflections On The American Social Crisis.
A
full bio of Allan Carlson is available at:
http://www.profam.org/people/xthc_acc.htm.
Event Details:
When: Wednesday,
July 20, 2005, 11:00 a.m
Where: Family
Research Council, 801 G St. NW, Washington, D.C., Phone:
202/393-2100
Complimentary Lunch
Served
Please click here to watch and listen live via the internet to Dr.
Carlson’s lecture:
https://www.frc.org/get.cfm?i=EV05G01&track=0. |