Dr. Matthew Petrusek (Word on Fire): "The Common Good Tradition"

The Valor Institute is pleased to present a lecture by distinguished scholar and author, Dr. Matthew Petrusek (Director, Word on Fire Institute), titled “The Common Good Tradition as an Antidote to Ideology.” In an age marked by ideological frameworks that flatten the human person to categories or functions, Dr. Petrusek offers a compelling alternative grounded in the rich intellectual tradition of the common good.

The lecture will explore how the concept of the common good—and its attendant virtues of solidarity, subsidiarity, and human dignity—can recover the fullness of the person in community, resist the ideological temptation to fragment or instrumentalize human life, and serve as a foundation for authentic civic renewal.

Dr. Matthew R. Petrusek holds an MA in Religious Ethics from Yale University and a PhD in Religious Ethics from University of Chicago. He serves as Senior Director of the Word on Fire Institute and as Professor of Catholic Ethics. In addition, he is host of the Word on Fire Show with Bishop Robert Barron as well as the author and editor of titles including Evangelization and Ideology: How to Understand and Respond to the Political Culture, Jordan Peterson, God, and Christianity: The Search for a Meaningful Life, Ethics and Advocacy: Bridges and Boundaries, and Value and Vulnerability: An Interfaith Dialogue on Human Dignity. He lectures widely in English and Spanish on topics such as moral philosophy, theology, politics, social issues, and the Catholic intellectual tradition. Committed to integrating faith, reason, and culture, Dr. Petrusek brings a rigorous yet accessible voice to the urgent questions of contemporary life.

The Valor Institute for Studies in Person and Community is a creative response to the unique challenges of our time: reductive ideologies, mechanized views of the natural world, and communities fractured through impoverished public discourse. At stake is the meaning of human life in community. Responding to these trends that flatten our culture, the Institute seeks to deepen our engagement with reality by cultivating wisdom, gratitude, and friendship.

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