John Witherspoon in Historical Context

A panel of scholarly experts will explore John Witherspoon’s life in Scotland and America, his theological and political formation, his contributions to Princeton and the US, and his complex relationship to slavery and abolitionism.

Panel Speakers

• Peter Wirzbicki, Assistant Professor of History, Class of 1942 Preceptor in History, Princeton University | “John Witherspoon, the Scottish Common Sense School, and Early American Political Philosophy”
• Rev. Kevin DeYoung, Senior Pastor, Christ Covenant Church, Associate Professor of Systematic Theology, Reformed Theological Seminary | “John Witherspoon: The Man Behind the Granite”
• Emmanuel C. Bourbouhakis, Associate Professor of Classics and the Stanley J. Seeger ’52 Center for Hellenic Studies, Princeton University | “Teaching Witherspoon’s Pedagogical Legacy at Princeton”
• Lesa Redmond ’17, Ph.D. candidate, History and African & African American Studies, Duke University | “John Witherspoon and Slavery: Ideology versus Praxis”
• Sean Wilentz, George Henry Davis 1886 Professor of American History, Princeton University | “John Witherspoon and the Abolitionist Travail”
• Tera Hunter, Edwards Professor of American History and Professor of African-American Studies, Princeton University | “Slavery in American Life and History”
• Rev. Gordon Mikoski, Associate Professor of Christian Education, Princeton Theological Seminary | “Partial Iconoclasm: Witherspoon’s Presbyterian Political Theology and Slavery”
• Moderated by Angela N. H. Creager, Chair of the CPUC Committee on Naming; Thomas M. Siebel Professor in the History of Science and Chair, Department of History