The year 2013 marks the 1,700th anniversary since Roman Emperor Constantine issued the Edict of Milan, freeing Christians from persecution and paving the way for future Church-State relations.

Nevertheless, the relationship between Christianity and democracy over the centuries has vacillated. Christian theologians continue to contend whether liberal democracy, with its emphasis on individualism, is compatible with the Christian conception of the human being.

Next week, Fordham University’s Orthodox Christian Studies Center will dedicate its third Solon and Marianna Patterson Triennial Conference on Orthodox/Catholic Relations to exploring the modern relationship between Christianity and democracy.

“Christianity, Democracy, and the Shadow of Constantine”
Tuesday, June 11 to Thursday, June 13
2 p.m.
O’Keefe Commons | Rose Hill Campus
Flom Auditorium, William D. Walsh Family Library | Rose Hill Campus

Keynote speakers include Stanley Hauerwas, Ph.D., the Gilbert T. Rowe Professor of Theological Ethics at the Divinity School of Duke University; the Rev. J. Bryan Hehir, Ph.D., the Parker Gilbert Montgomery Professor of the Practice of Religion and Public Life at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government; and Father Emmanuel Clapsis, Ph.D., the Archbishop Iakovos Professor of Orthodox Theology at Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology.

For more information about the conference, click here.

The conference is co-sponsored by the Interdisciplinary Program of Hellenic Studies at the Richard Stockton School of New Jersey and the Cantonis Chair of Byzantine Studies at Hellenic College and Holy Cross, and is funded by grants received from the Patterson Triennial Conference Endowed Fund, the Archbishop Demetrios Chair in Orthodox Theology and Culture at Fordham University, the Kallinikeion Foundation, The Virginia H. Farah Foundation, and members of the Orthodox Christian Studies Center Advisory Council.