GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (October 26, 2018) -- Brazilian Professor Lucas G. Freire will deliver the 18th annual Calihan Lecture at the Acton Institute’s headquarters in Grand Rapids on the evening of Monday, November 5. Freire was awarded the 2018 Novak Award this past spring and will be the first of the recipients to give the lecture in Grand Rapids at the Acton Building. The lecture is part of the international two-day conference, Crisis in the Public Square: A Response from the Kuyperian Tradition. Advance registration is required to attend this free lecture.
Lucas G. Freire is an assistant professor at Mackenzie Presbyterian University in São Paulo, Brazil, and a fellow at the university’s new Center for Economic Freedom. He is also a postdoctoral fellow at North-West University in Potchefstroom, South Africa. He received his PhD in politics from the University of Exeter. Previously, he also served as a research associate with the Kirby Laing Institute for Christian Ethics in Cambridge, UK.
Prof. Freire has commented on political and economic issues drawing on Christian thinking in the Reformed tradition. He has published on political theory and philosophy in journals such as Philosophia Reformata and Acta Academica. His current research focuses on the connection between religion, politics and economics in the ancient Near East and the biblical world. He lives in São Paulo with his wife and two children.
Named after distinguished American theologian Michael Novak, this $15,000 award rewards new outstanding scholarly research concerning the relationship between religion, economic freedom, and the free and virtuous society.
The Novak Award recognizes those scholars early in their academic career who demonstrate outstanding intellectual merit in advancing the understanding of theology’s connection to human dignity, the importance of the rule of law, limited government, religious liberty, and freedom in economic life. Recipients of the Novak Award make a formal presentation on such questions at an annual public forum known as the Calihan Lecture.
The Novak Award is made possible by the generosity of Joseph L. Calihan and family and forms part of a range of academic grants and awards available from the Acton Institute that support those engaged in serious reflection and research on the relationship between theology, the free market, limited government, and the rule of law. Details of these academic grants and awards may be found at acton.org/grants-awards.
Contact Charissa Reul at (616) 454-3080 or [email protected] for more information.