41st International Meeting of the Eric Voegelin Society

41st International Meeting of THE ERIC VOEGELIN SOCIETY

American Political Science Association Meeting

September 11-14, 2025

Vancouver, BC

Dear Friends,

Thank you for all the hard work you have put into making this program possible, especially by circulating your paper in advance to your fellow panelists and me.  We are taking off with a slightly lighter flight than might have been anticipated when it was all put together.  It was evident that travel to Vancouver was going to present unique challenges and so a number of cancellations were to be anticipated.  This was among the reasons why APSA itself announced a certain number of virtual options, even if they were severely curtailed. Having had that adventure during COVID it was evident that it could easily undermine the rationale for any in person event.  I am gratified by the number of our members we have who have stuck with the preference for a real conference.  It is testament to the bonds of community and friendship that sustain our annual gatherings. I look forward to seeing you all in beautiful Vancouver and hope you have a rich and enjoyable experience. While we could have emailed papers to one another, there is no substitute for the spontaneous unscheduled conversations we can have when we inhabit the same time and place. Thank you for your support of our convivium.  I would be remiss, however, if I did not also put in a pitch for our online presence in Voegelinview.com under our estimable editor, Paul Krause.  He has continued to grow our digital offerings and we owe him our support. Please remember that the donate button has moved with Rick Avramenko from the University of Wisconsin to Arizona State University.  You may also contact our Louisiana Treasurer, David Whitney ([email protected]). No gift is too small or too large!

Wishing you safe and smooth travels,

David

Thursday, September 11

8:00-9-30: Vancouver Convention Center (VCC) West Level 2, W219

Panel 1. Accounting for Canadian Education: A Reappraisal of Bankrupt Education: The Decline of Liberal Education in Canada

Chair: John von Heyking, [email protected], Arizona State University

John Stuart Mill and the Canadian Founding Debates

Jarrett A. Carty, [email protected], Concordia University

From “Politically Correct” to “Woke”: Bankrupt Education and the Decline of Academic Freedom

Paul Corey, [email protected], Humber College

Marshall McLuhan, George Grant, and the Ancient-Modern-Protestant Quarrel in Canada

Grant Havers, [email protected], Trinity Western University

Discussants: Jacqueline Pfeffer Merrill, [email protected]

John von Heyking, [email protected], Arizona State University

10:00-11:30: VCC, West 222

Panel 2. Using Voegelin to Understand the Present Moment

Chair: Thomas Heilke, [email protected], University of British Columbia

Perpetual Peace and Imperialism: Voegelin’s Reflections on American Hegemony

Boru Chen, [email protected], Louisiana State University

Voegelin, Schelling, and Political Theology

Chris Morrisey, [email protected], Trinity Western University,

Discussant: Thomas Heilke, [email protected], University of British Columbia

12:00-1:30: VCC, West 219

Panel 3. Action and Relation

Chair: Carol Cooper, [email protected], University of Houston

Pierre Manent on Christianity, Politics, and Virtue

Ralph C. Hancock, [email protected],  Brigham Young University

Community and Criminal Justice in Kant’s Metaphysics of Morals

Carol Cooper, [email protected], University of Houston

Discussants: Carol Cooper, [email protected], University of Houston

Thomas Holman, [email protected], Princeton University

2:00-3:30: VCC, West 221

Panel 4. Art, Music and Politics

Chair: John McNerney, [email protected], The Catholic University of America

A Who and not a Watt: Beckettian perspectives on the person

John McNerney, [email protected],  Catholic University of America

Music & Politics: An Interdisciplinary Investigation

Eugen Nagy, [email protected],  Texas A and M — San Antonio

Art as Politics and Politics as Art

Pedro Cerquiera, [email protected], The Catholic University of America

Discussant: Barry Cooper, [email protected] , University of Calgary

4:00-5:30: VCC, W219

Panel 5. Arendt and the Acting Person

Chair: Thomas Holman, [email protected], The Catholic University of America

Hannah Arendt on Totalitarianism, Action, and the Person

Thomas Holman, [email protected], Princeton University

The Notion of Personal Reality

Aistė Noreikaitė, [email protected],Vilnius University

Discussants: Martin Palous, [email protected];  Florida International University

Carol Cooper, [email protected], University of Houston

Friday, September 12

8:00-9:30: VCC, West 223

Panel 6. Religion and Statecraft in the Twentieth Century

Chair: John von Heyking, [email protected], Arizona State University

A Non-Liberal Liberalism: Abraham Kuyper Neo-Calvinism and Liberalism’s Malaise

Bryan McGraw, [email protected], Wheaton College

Islam as Liberal Cosmopolitanism: How Persuasive are Iqbal’s Reform Proposals?

Alexander Orwin, [email protected], Louisiana State University

“The Macabees Warred on Sabbath”: David Ben-Gurion on Biblical Politics

Neil Rogachevsky, [email protected], University of Florida

Democracy, Human Rights, and Legislation in the Thought of John Paul II

James Stoner, [email protected],  Louisiana State University

Discussant: John von Heyking; [email protected], Arizona State University

10:00-11:30: VCC, West 222

Panel 7. Putting Voegelin’s Categories to Work

Chair: Scott Segrest, [email protected], The Citadel

Thomas Reid’s Connection of Moral Principles and Moral Experience

Scott Segrest, [email protected],  The Citadel

The Role of Metaxy in the Political Philosophy of Eric Voegelin

Jarosław Marek Duraj, [email protected], Macau Ricci Institute and University of St. Joseph

Approaching Authority . . . the Other Way Around

William Miller, [email protected], Marymount University

Discussant: Barry Cooper, [email protected],  University of Calgary

2:00-3:30: VCC, West 223

Panel 8. Roundtable In Memoriam for Chip Hughes: The Man and the Work

Chair: Thomas McPartland; [email protected]; Kentucky state University

Chip Hughes on Inherent Human Dignity

James Greenaway, [email protected]; St. Mary’s University

Voegelin, Hughes, and the Politics of Poetry

Paul Kidder, [email protected]; Seattle University

The Tension of Existence: Chip Hughes’s Mediation and Meditation

Thomas McPartland,, [email protected] ;  Kentucky State University

What does It Mean that Dignity is ‘Inherent’? Chip Hughes’s Meditations on Dignity and Human Rights.

Henrik Syse, [email protected];  Peace Research Institute Oslo

Martin Palous, [email protected];  Florida International University

4:00-5:30: VCC, West 223

Panel 9. Roundtable on David Walsh’s The Growth of the Liberal Soul (1997 and 2025)

Chair: Barry Cooper, [email protected]; University of Calgary

Joe Fornieri, [email protected];   Rochester Institute of Technology

Barry Cooper, [email protected]; University of Calgary

John von Heyking, [email protected],  Arizona State University

David Walsh, [email protected], The Catholic University of America

Saturday, September 13, 2025

8:00-9:30: VCC, West 222

Panel 10. The Nation and the Cosmos: George Grant’s Lament for a Nation at 60

Chair: Jeremy Geddert, [email protected], Assumption University

The Influence of Simone Weil on George Grant

George Dunn, [email protected],

Ontology, Democracy, and Totalitarianism in George Grant

Tyler Chamberlain, [email protected], Trinity Western University

A Love of One’s Own: How the Good Touches Ground in National Belonging

Toivo Koivukoski, [email protected],  Nipissing University

Is Conservatism Pessimistic? George Grant and W.L. Morton

Jeremy Geddert, [email protected], Assumption University

Discussants: Jeremy Geddert, [email protected], Assumption University

Grant Havers,  [email protected]; Trinity Western University

10:00-11:30: VCC, West 222

Panel 11. Thinking About the Political

Chair: Michael Promisel, [email protected], The Catholic University of America

Education and Leisure in Aristotle’s Politics

Michael Promisel, [email protected], The Catholic University of America

AI, Immortality and the Politics of Reality: A Voegelinian Perspective

Zhen Han, [email protected],  University of Florida

The Wound of Modernity: A Voegelinian

Interpretation of the 1789 French Revolution

Felipe Mosquera Blanco, [email protected],  The Catholic University of America

Toward the Definition of a Social Group

Luke Sheahan, [email protected], Duquesne University

Discussant: Harald Bergbauer, [email protected],  University of Applied Sciences, Munich

12:00-1:30: VCC, West 221

Panel 12. Martin Luther King Jr. and Non-Violence

Chair: Thomas Heilke, [email protected], University of British Columbia

Martin Luther King’s Theory of Justice

Micah Harris, [email protected], Duke University

Understanding Martin Luther King’s Strategy of Nonviolence

Isak Tranvik, [email protected], Metropolitan State University

Douglass’s Moral Reading of the Constitution

Joe Fornieri, [email protected], Rochester Institute of Technology

Discussant: Thomas Heilke, [email protected], University of British Columbia

2:00-3:30: VCC, West 221

Panel 13. Origins and Symbols

Chair: James Greenaway, [email protected], St. Mary’s University

Recent Work on Neolithic Political Symbols

Barry Cooper, [email protected], University of Calgary

Mythos and Metaxy: Belonging Between the Height and the Depth

James Greenaway, [email protected], St. Mary’s University

Discussant: John McNerney, [email protected], The Catholic University of America

4:00-5:30: VCC, West 218

Panel 14. Early Voegelin

Chair: Thomas Holman, [email protected], Princeton University

Science of Order, Young Voegelin’s Engagement with the Geistkreis

Muen Liu, [email protected], Tsinghua University

Universalism in the Philosophy of Othmar Spann

Harald Bergbauer, [email protected],  University of Applied Sciences, Munich

Voegelin’s State Theory Against the Background of Kelsen’s Pure Legal Theory

Jan Okoński, [email protected], University of Lodz

Discussant: Thomas Heilke, [email protected], University of British Columbia

Saturday 6:30                                                           

Business Meeting: VCC, West Level 1, 120

7:30-8:00

Casual Gathering, Coal Harbour Bar, Pan Pacific Hotel

(Hosted by Eric Voegelin Institute, LSU)

Sunday, September 14, 2025

8:00-9:30: VCC, West 218

Panel 15. Author Meets Critics: Eamonn O’Higgins, Person Centered Politics

Chair: David Walsh, [email protected], The Catholic University of America

John McNerney, [email protected]; Catholic University of America

Aistė Noreikaitė, [email protected], Vilnius University

Thomas Holman, [email protected], Princeton University

Eamonn O’ Higgins, [email protected],  Pontifical Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum

10:00-11:30: VCC, West 217

Panel 16. Defending Democracy: Ancient Lessons for Global Politics

Chair: John von Heyking; [email protected], Arizona State University

Mosaic Democracy? Harrington and Spinoza on the Biblical Origin of the Democratic Regime

Ronald Beiner, [email protected], University of Toronto-Missauga

Our City is an Education to Greece

David Tabachnick, [email protected], Nipissing University

Aristotle’s Corrective to Democracy and Our Technological Fate

John von Heyking, [email protected], University of Lethbridge

Discussants: Jacqueline Pfeffer-Merrill, [email protected]

Toivo Koivukoski, [email protected], Nipissing University

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