Danilo Petranovich has taught political science at Duke and Yale Universities, where he offered courses on liberalism and conservatism in the United States, American political thought, the American presidency, ethical leadership, nationalism and patriotism, and the history of Western political philosophy. Dr. Petranovich is currently writing a book (under contract with Yale University Press) about the three-decade duel between Lincoln and Stephen Douglas, which resulted, he argues, in a transformation of American nationhood.

The topic for the discussion will be the place of religion in Lincoln’s political thought. We will explore this subject by critically scrutinizing Lincoln’s last major speech – his Second Inaugural Address (1865).