Robinson Professors

Hugh Heclo

Formerly a professor of government at Harvard University and Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution, Hugh Heclo is a recognized expert on American democratic institutions as well as the international development of modern welfare states. He has received national awards for his books including Comparative Public Policy, A Government of Strangers, and Modern Social Politics in Britain and Sweden. Professor Heclo is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship. He chaired the Ford Foundation research advisory committee, which published The Common Good: Social Welfare and the American Future, and is co-author of the 1998 Urban Institute volume, The Government We Deserve. Hugh Heclo is senior editor and contributor to the 2003 volume, Religion Returns to the Public Square: Faith and Policy in America and a member of the Scholar's Council advising the Librarian of Congress. In 2002 he received the American Political Science Association's John Gaus lifetime achievement award honoring exemplary scholarship in the joint tradition of political science and public administration. Prof. Heclo teaches courses on the Philosophy of History, Religion and Politics in America, and Faith and Reason in the Making of the Modern Mind. His most recent books are Christianity and American Democracy, published by Harvard University Press and Thinking Institutionally, published in 2008 by Paradigm Publishers. With his wife Beverley, he operates a tree farm in the Shenandoah Valley. Prof.

Fall Courses 2009

HNRS 131: Contemporary Society in Multiple Perspectives

Our seminar will focus on the interlocking claims of religious faith and human reason in Western culture. In a light-hearted romp across the centuries, we will first clarify the meanings attached to faith and reason and make our first stop at the medieval synthesis. We then consider the breakdown of that synthesis at the beginning of the modern era, the impact of the Enlighenment and Romantic movements and the search for a "reasonable" natural religion. With the nineteenth century we will encounter the intellectual mainstreaming of atheistic reason for the first time in human history and consider the alleged confrontation between modern science and religion. Through scandalously brief reading selections, we will listen to the tension between faith and reason discussed by, among others, Augustine, Acquinas, Descartes, Pascal, Locke, Hume, Kant, Kierkegaard, Dostoevsky, Freud, C.S. Lewis and Charles Taylor. We will also discuss Pope John Paul II's recent treatise on the subject (Fides et Ratio). Must we ultimately choose between making Athens or Jerusalem our home? Have we already chosen? (MW 1:30-2:45 p.m.)

GOVT 471: Millennialism and Philosophies of History in Western Culture

Is there purpose in human history? Are we really going anywhere as humanity moves through time? This seminar will study major patterns by which thinkers in the West have discerned meaning in humanity's temporal existence. The survey will extend from the Jewish roots of historical understanding, through Christian millennialism, to contemporary naturalism. Also listed as HIST 389 and SOCI 395 (MW 12:00-1:15 p.m.)

Spring Courses 2010

GOVT 470: Faith and Reason in the Making of the Modern Mind.

In this seminar we will investigate the interlocking claims of religious faith and human reason in Western culture, from Biblical times to the present. The first portion of the course covers tightly focused reading assignments in theology and philosophy and the second portion deals with particular case studies, from Galileo to the Intelligent Design debate. Also listed as HIST 389. (MW 1:30-2:45 p.m.)

GOVT 472: Christianity, Secularism, and American Democracy.

This seminar examines, from the Reformation to George W. Bush, the evolving relationship between religion and the American political order. Also listed as HIST 386, PHIL 391, and RELI 376. (MW 12:00-1:15 p.m.)