AT CROSS PURPOSES
Life & Death in
the Negative World
John Daniel Davidson, Rod Dreher, Robert P. George, Carlo Lancellotti, Aaron Renn, Vesper Stamper, C. R. Wiley, R. V. Young
Trinity International University
2065 Half Day Rd, Bannockburn, Illinois 60015
September 26–28, 2024
Eight Speakers over three days.
Registration
$250 per person.
Rates increase after June 1.
Student rates available.
Join us for this year’s annual conference!
At Cross Purposes: Life & Death in the Negative World
In his new book, Life in the Negative World, Aaron Renn argues that beginning about the year 2014, and for the first time in our four-hundred-year history, Americans and our government came to see Christians as, on balance, more bad than good.
If our schools and our courts and our technology companies and our movie studios now believe that Christians are up to no good, then what does it mean to be an American Christian?
Registration Includes:
- 3 Days / 8 Lectures / Online access
- Meals / Refreshments / Evening receptions
- Free subscription to Touchstone / Full access to online archives
The Speakers
The Touchstone conference brings together Protestant, Roman Catholic, and Eastern Orthodox Christians, a tradition-bound gathering of what C. S. Lewis called "Mere Christianity."
John Daniel Davidson
John Daniel Davidson is a senior editor at The Federalist. Over a nearly twenty-year career in journalism, he has written widely for national publications including the Wall Street Journal, National Review, the Guardian, the New York Post, the Claremont Review of Books, and First Things. He has also been a regular guest on many podcasts and radio and television shows, including Tucker Carlson Tonight, The Ingraham Angle, Fox and Friends, NPR, the BBC, and the Megyn Kelly Show. A Texan for many years, he now lives with his family in Alaska.
Rod Dreher
Rod Dreher is a contributing editor at Touchstone. He is a veteran of three decades of magazine and newspaper journalism, he has also written three New York Times bestsellers—Live Not By Lies, The Benedict Option, and The Little Way of Ruthie Leming—as well as Crunchy Cons and How Dante Can Save Your Life. Dreher lives in Budapest, Hungary.
Touchstone ArticlesPrevious Conference Talks
Robert P. George
Robert P. George is a senior editor at Touchstone. He is McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence and Director of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions. He has served as chairman of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), and before that on the President's Council on Bioethics and as a presidential appointee to the United States Commission on Civil Rights.
Touchstone ArticlesPrevious Conference Talks
Carlo Lancellotti
Carlo Lancellotti is a Professor of Mathematics at the College of Staten Island of the City University of New York and a faculty in the Physics Program at the CUNY Graduate Center. His scientific interests focus on the kinetic theory of plasmas and gravitating systems, but in recent years he has branched off into political philosophy by translating three volumes of works by the late Augusto Del Noce (1910-1989), a distinguished Italian philosopher and political thinker. Dr. Lancellotti has also published several articles on Del Noce and other topics.
Touchstone Articles
Aaron Renn
Aaron Renn a writer and consultant in Indianapolis who is a Senior Fellow at American Reformer. He's the author of the book Life in the Negative World: Confronting Challenges in an Anti-Christian Culture (Zondervan Reflective, 2024). He was previously a Senior Fellow at the Manhattan Institute and Managing Director at Accenture.
Vesper Stamper
Vesper Stamper was born in Germany and raised in New York City. She writes and illustrates novels which tell, through both words and pictures, stories of history's rhymes. Nominated for the National Book Award, Vesper also hosts the Vesperisms podcast, which aims to cultivate a rehumanized worldview through artistic thinking. She is married to filmmaker Ben Stamper, and teaches illustration at School of Visual Arts, NYC.
C. R. Wiley
C. R. Wiley is a senior editor at Touchstone, a co-host of The Theology Pugcast (a podcast with listeners in 60 countries), and a Presbyterian pastor serving a church in the Pacific Northwest. Besides writing for magazines and publishing books he has also been a college professor, a commercial real estate investor, a landlord, and a building contractor. Other publications he has written for include: Modern Reformation, Sacred Architecture, World Magazine, Front Porch Republic, National Review, and First Things, among others. His most recent book is, In the House of Tom Bombadil (2021).
Touchstone ArticlesPrevious Conference Talks
R. V. Young
R. V. Young is a senior editor at Touchstone. He is Professor of English Emeritus at North Carolina State University, and a former editor of Modern Age: A Quarterly Review. His Shakespeare & the Idea of Western Civilization is forthcoming in January from Catholic University of America Press. He and his wife are parishioners at Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Dunedin, Florida. They have five grown children, 15 grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.
Touchstone ArticlesPrevious Conference Talks
Venue & Lodging
Trinity International University
2065 Half Day Road
Deerfield, Illinois 60015
Special Rates at La Quinta Inn & Suites
This hotel is a short walk from Olson Chapel. Call (847) 317-7300 and let them know that you want to book a room for the Touchstone conference.
Register before June 1 and receive a substantial discount off our regular rate.
A limited number of scholarships are available to students currently enrolled full-time. Click here to apply.
Questions? Email conference@touchstonemag.com