Speakers
- Jeffrey GreenAffiliationProfessor; Andrea Mitchell Endowed Director of the Andrea Mitchell Center for the Study of Democracy, University of Pennsylvania
- Susan BrisonAffiliationVisiting Lecturer with Rank of Professor, Princeton University
- Robert P. GeorgeAffiliationMcCormick Professor of Jurisprudence; Director, James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions
- Michael SmithAffiliationMcCosh Professor of Philosophy, Princeton University
Details
Throughout his career, Bob Dylan has always been more than a musician. Whether as an icon of the social movements of the 1960s, a convert to evangelical Christianity publicly wrestling with his faith, or simply a poet of genius, Dylan has occupied a position of moral leadership for more than half a century. Examining these roles collectively, the award-winning political philosopher Jeffrey Edward Green offers a vision of Dylan as a modern-day prophet, providing an overarching account of the significance of Dylan's political, religious, and ethical ideas. Green suggests Dylan is not a prophet of salvation, but rather a "prophet of diremption." Dylan speaks to the ideals that have animated earlier prophets--social justice, individual freedom, and adherence to God--but breaks from past tradition by testifying to the conflicts between these ideals. By considering Dylan's work across his career, Green shows how the humble folk singer from Minnesota who went on to win the 2016 Nobel Prize in Literature has made novel contributions to the meaning of self-reliance, the quest for rapprochement between the religious and non-religious, and the problem of how ordinary people might operate in a fallen political world.
Special musical guests: Robert P. George, Susan Brison, and Michael Smith.
A limited number of books will be available for giveaway at the talk.
- Hosted by the University Center for Human Values
- Cosponsored by the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions