Grove City think tank plans annual conference

Staff report

grove city, pa.

Is America still exceptional? Or has this nation simply become ordinary, just one of many global competitors?

These questions will be explored at a two-day conference hosted by The Center for Vision & Values at Grove City College on April 7-8 on the Grove City College campus. Registration is required.

The conference, “America: Still the Last Best Hope?” examines the significance of American exceptionalism, and is headlined by a number of presentations, including a debate between Dinesh D’Souza, president of The King’s College in New York City, and Jim Wallis, president and CEO of Sojourners.

The annual event sponsored by The Center for Vision & Values, the campus think tank, features numerous scholars and commentators.

D’Souza, is author of many books including his latest best-seller “The Roots of Obama’s Rage.”

A former policy analyst in the Reagan White House, D’Souza also served as John M. Olin Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and the Robert and Karen Rishwain Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.

Wallis is a best-selling author and editor-in-chief of Sojourners magazine, which has a combined print and electronic media readership of more than 250,000.

Named to serve on the White House Advisory Council on Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships, Wallis serves as a public theologian, speaker and international commentator on ethics and public life.

Wallis has also taught a course at Harvard University on “Faith, Politics and Society.”

Another keynote speaker is Joseph Pearce, writer-in-residence and associate professor of literature at Ave Maria University.

Pearce previously taught at Ave Maria College in Michigan and is author of many books, including his latest, “Through Shakespeare’s Eyes.”

Pearce has published numerous books on intellectuals such as J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Hilaire Belloc, G.K. Chesterton, Oscar Wilde and Alexander Solzhenitsyn.

Several of his books have won literary awards. He lectures widely around the United States and Europe on many topics and has published several articles.

He also is the co-editor of the St. Austin Review and the editor-in-chief of Sapientia Press.

The cost for the conference is $25 per day, luncheon plus dinner lectures cost an additional $50 per day.

Those interested in registering can log on to the conference’s website at visionandvalues-events.com/conference or contact Brenda Vinton at 724-450-1541 or blvinton@gcc.edu.