October 18, 2019 at 2 p.m.
Robertson Gymnasium 1000A
Based on a reading of key chapters from Thomas A. Carlson’s With the World at Heart: Studies in the Secular Today (University of Chicago Press, 2019), and touching on a range of thinkers from Saint Augustine through Martin Heidegger to more recent theorists of “secularization,” this seminar discussion with the author will aim to explore and elucidate 1) the different understandings of time—and especially of the future—that most decisively shape contemporary debate about the meaning of “secular” modernity; 2) the role of human affection, and of love specifically, in the human enterprise of world-building; and 3) the work of education in shaping our affective relations to the world and its futures.
The seminar will be followed by a reception.
Reading
Thomas Carlson, With the World at Heart: Studies in the Secular Today, Introduction, Ch. 5, Ch. 7 & Conclusion.
Those pressed for time should focus on Chapter 5 and the concluding “Last Look.”
For those interested, the entire book is available on reserve in the Davidson Library under the call number BD 436 .C375 2019.
