Carl Truman, our lecturer tonight, is a person who, I think, brings two important qualities to commentary on contemporary public life.

The first is a deep immersion in the Word of God.

And the scriptures not only provide us with saving truths,

they also provide us with wisdom about human affairs. And his

fundamental, his deep grounding in the Word of God, I think, has made Carl a reliable theological

commentator on the affairs of our time.

And the second is that Carl Truman is a trained historian.

He got his Ph.D. in Reformation History from Cambridge University, and he is a man who understands that our ideals, our hopes, and our aspirations are always worked out in the concrete flow of human affairs.

And that we have to approach the issues of our time, the contested ideas of our time with a rich sense of the

historical reality of the human condition. And I think these are qualities that make

Carl Truman one of the most trusted, certainly in the stable of first things writers, one of the

most trusted theological voices in our

magazine and on our website. And so it's really with great pleasure that I introduce him today

to deliver this annual Washington, D.C. lecture, the hour for a new humanism. So please join me in welcoming

Carl Truman.

What is a great pleasure to be here this evening to give this lecture. I want to thank Rusty for inviting me

to do so and also to thank all of you for coming along. It always amazes me that anyone

will ever show up to hear me speak, but a particular pleasure to see some former students,

a former research assistant, a number of friends, the Dominican sisters,

an unexpected delight to reconnect with you all.

And to say, I'm great looking forward to speaking and to the seminar tomorrow.

You may not recognize me from the portrait of me on the First

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