Marian Miner Cook
Athenaeum

A distinctive
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The Estrangement of Being Without a Name: Critical Race Theory, Constitutional Fidelity, and the Politics of Bad Faith

Tue, October 26, 2021
Dinner Program
Terrence L. Johnson

When the House of Representatives began its impeachment inquiry into President Trump’s abuse of presidential power, political commentators decried the country was in a “genuine” constitutional crisis. The claim emerged, in part, from a problem of constitutional interpretation and competing views of presidential power, abuse, and congressional oversight. By exploring Critical Race Theory, African American biblical hermeneutics, and uses of the Constitution in Black political struggles, Terrence L. Johnson, associate professor of religion and politics at Georgetown University, frames recent debates on the impending "constitutional crisis" as a failure of political imagination and a reminder of bad faith among political elites.

Terrence L. Johnson is an associate professor of religion and politics in the department of government and Chair of political theory. He is an affiliate faculty member of the department of African American Studies and a senior faculty fellow at the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs.

Johnson is the author of "We Testify with Our Lives: How Religion Transformed Radical Thought from Black Power to Black Lives Matter" (Columbia University Press, 2021) and co-author of the forthcoming "Blacks and Jews: An Invitation to Dialogue" (Georgetown University Press, 2022). His first book, "Tragic Soul-Life: W.E.B. Du Bois and the Moral Crisis Facing American Democracy," was published in 2012 by Oxford University Press.

A graduate of Morehouse College, Johnson received his M.Div. from Harvard Divinity School and Ph.D. in Religious Studies from Brown University.

Professor Johnson's Athenaeum presentation is co-sponsored by the Salvatori Center at CMC.

Marian Miner Cook Athenaeum

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