“Brightly Sizing Up the World” ft. Valparaiso University’s Thomas Albert Howard I Saturdays at Seven Ep. 17

In the seventeenth episode of the “Saturdays at Seven” conversation series, Todd Ream talks with Thomas Albert Howard, Professor of Humanities and the Phyllis and Richard Duesenberg Chair in Christian Ethics, Valparaiso University. Tal, as he is known to his friends, also serves as a Senior Fellow with the Lilly Network of Church-Related Colleges and Universities (until recently, the Lilly Fellows Program).  Howard begins by talking about the role theology played in the research university and the ways the German research university and, more recently, the American research university influenced one another.  Howard then builds upon those observations concerning theology and the research university as ways of framing his observations about the challenges and opportunities faced by scholars grappling with the relationship shared by faith and learning. Howard’s critically acclaimed writing related to ecumenical and interfaith relations forms the middle of the conversation. Ream and Howard then close their conversation by exploring the virtues that prove most critical to the exercise of the Christian academic vocation.