The Sophia Lectures: The Declaration of Independence and Friendship

Join Ralston College for the fourth installment of The Sophia Lectures, devoted to exploring the perennial questions of human life, with Dr Larry Arnn on November 19th.

Few political documents have shaped the modern world more profoundly than the Declaration of Independence. But what kind of human relationships are required for its principles of liberty, equality, and self-government to endure?

Dr Larry P. Arnn, President of Hillsdale College and a distinguished scholar of the American Founding, joins us to explore the relationship between friendship and the principles that underlie the Declaration. Drawing on a lifetime of thinking and writing about the American experiment, Dr Arnn will consider the forms of human association that make a free republic possible—and what the Declaration can teach us about living together as free people. His scholarship is particularly well suited to the subject: his The Founders' Key examines the relationship between the Declaration and the Constitution, and his teaching and writing have long centered on the principles of American self-government.

At a time when civic trust and public life face renewed challenges, this lecture invites us to return to the moral and intellectual foundations of a free society and to consider the place of friendship within them.

Free and open to the public, these lectures require a reserved ticket.

This lecture will be recorded for subsequent release online.