Hosted by the Center for Public Justice, co-hosted by the Council for Christian Colleges & Universities and the University of Notre Dame Law School.

During a time when political conversations are marked by deep division, polarization, and challenging moral questions, what resources do evangelicals have to think and act critically, coherently, and theologically about public life?

Evangelical Christians have long struggled with discerning how to think about politics. In their new book, Hopeful Realism: Evangelical Natural Law and Democratic Politics, political theorists Jesse Covington, Bryan T. McGraw, and Micah Watson lay out an evangelical theory of the natural law and show how it can be employed within the context of our pluralist democratic order. 

Event Schedule

• Reception: 5:30 PM ET
• Program: 6:00 PM – 7:00 PM ET
• Post-Event Reception: 7:00 PM – 7:30 PM ET

Thank you for joining us at the University of Notre Dame Washington Office for an engaging conversation with the authors, and Fr. John Paul Kimes, preceded and followed by a festive reception.

Moderator:

Fr. John Paul Kimes is an Associate Professor of the Practice at Notre Dame Law School and the Raymond of Peñafort Fellow in Canon Law at the de Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture.

Prior to joining the Notre Dame Law School faculty, he served for 11 years as a canon lawyer at the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. He was ordained in 2000 as a priest of the Maronite Catholic Eparchy of Our Lady of Lebanon of Los Angeles after having completed his first course of studies at the Pontifical Gregorian University. He is a native of Birmingham, Alabama.

Speakers:

Jesse Covington is Professor of Political Science and Director of the Augustinian Scholars honors program at Westmont College in Santa Barbara, California. He teaches and writes in the fields of political theory and constitutional law, with particular interest in the interrelation of religion and government. His publications include Hopeful Realism: Evangelical Natural Law and Democratic Politics (2025, with Bryan McGraw and Micah Watson), co-editing Evangelical Political Theory and Natural Law (2012), and articles and book chapters on St. Augustine of Hippo, political morality, democracy, the First Amendment, and Christian liberal arts education Dr. Covington has taught at Westmont since 2007 and has also held appointments at Wheaton College and Princeton University.

Bryan T. McGraw is Dean of Natural and Social Sciences, Director of the Aequitas Fellows Program, and a Professor of Politics and International Relations at Wheaton College. His first book, Faith in Politics: Religion and Liberal Democracy, was published in 2010 by Cambridge University Press.  He is the co-editor of Natural Law and Evangelical Political Thought and has published work in Perspectives on Political Science, Critical Review of Social and Political Philosophy, Political Studies, and several other places. He teaches classes on classical and medieval political thought, modern political thought, church and state, and political ethics. His co-authored book Hopeful Realism: Evangelical Natural Law and Democratic Politics was published in early 2025. 

Micah Watson is a native of the great golden state of California where he completed his undergraduate degree at U.C. Davis. He earned his M.A. degree in Church-State Studies at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, and holds M.A. and doctorate degrees in Politics from Princeton University. Professor Watson joined the faculty at Calvin College in the fall of 2015.  He directs the Politics, Philosophy, and Economics program (PPE) and is the executive director of the  Henry Institute for the Study of Christianity and Politics. He holds the Paul B. Henry Chair in Political Science. Professor Watson is the author of several articles and book chapters, the co-author of C.S. Lewis on Politics and the Natural Law (Cambridge), and more recently the co-authored Hopeful Realism: Evangelical Natural Law and Democratic Politics (IVP Academic). He and his wife Julie and their five children and one son-in-law make their home in Grand Rapids, Michigan.