New College of Florida Will Host First Things Magazine’s Inaugural “Neuhaus Lecture” Featuring Renowned Political Theorist Patrick J. Deneen
SARASOTA, Fla. — New College is thrilled to host First Things magazine’s inaugural Neuhaus Lecture, Thursday February 13, 2025, 6:00 p.m., at Sainer Auditorium. Professor Patrick J. Deneen, author of Why Liberalism Failed, will present a lecture entitled “We Are All Postliberals Now.” The event is open to the general public as well as the New College campus community.
“We are proud that a thinker of the worldwide prominence of Professor Deneen will be speaking at New College at this transitional point in American history,” said New College President Richard Corcoran. “As the catalyst for American higher education’s return to freedom of thought and civil discourse,” he added, “we are honored to have been asked to host the inaugural Neuhaus Lecture.”
A critique of classical liberalism, Why Liberalism Failed, widely considered the most impactful work of political analysis of the 21st century, has been praised by readers as diverse as Barack Obama, Cornel West and JD Vance, and reviewed, among others, by The New York Times, The Economist, National Review, Newsweek and The Washington Times.
The Neuhaus Lecture is named in memory of Fr. Richard John Neuhaus, the founder Institute on Religion and Public Life, who launched First Things as its journal in 1990. A leader among anti-Vietnam war protestors and a Lutheran pastor, he later converted, becoming both a Catholic priest and perhaps the most important spiritual advisor to the highest echelon of political leaders of the conservative movement in America.
The Neuhaus Lecture series will be patterned after the famed Erasmus Lecture, held yearly in New York City, which has attracted speakers from the future Pope Benedict XVI, the University of Toronto’s David Novak, Harvard’s Mary Ann Glendon, Chief Rabbi of England Jonathan Sacks, Ross Douthat of the New York Times, and so many others. Extremely well attended by leaders of all denominations interested in the confluence of religion and public life, it is recognized as the most important annual gathering of its type in the English-speaking world.
Patrick Deneen studied English literature and Political Science (Ph.D.) at Rutgers University. He was Assistant Professor of Government at Princeton 1997-2005, an endowed Associate Professor of Government at Georgetown 2005-2012 and joined the faculty of Notre Dame in 2012. His doctoral dissertation received the American Political Science’s Association’s highest recognition for Political Theory, the Leo Strauss Award.
First Things magazine’s founding editorial, “Putting First Things First,” can be found here. New College Trustee Mark Bauerlein is a senior editor of First Things and the host of its podcast.
Event tickets and sponsorship opportunities are available now. Space is limited, so reserving seats in advance is highly recommended. Tickets and sponsorship opportunities can be reserved by visiting https://www.firstthings.com/events/we-are-all-postliberals-now.
For more information about New College of Florida, visit NCF.edu.