November 2025 Conference

The Architecture of Authority: Legitimacy, Obedience, and Contestation

James J. Londis & Family Lecturer

Dr. Ante Jerončić (Professor of Theology & Ethics, Andrews University)

Respondent: Miroslav Volf (Henry B. Wright Professor of Theology, Yale University)

Date: November 20th, 2025 | Venue: Hynes Convention Center, Room #210, Boston, MA 02115. 

8:30 am Welcome and Introductions

8:45 – 10:15 am Session 1:  In Scripture and Tradition 

Session Chair – Tammy Wiese

“Divine Subversion and Patriarchal Resistance: A Foucauldian Reading of Authority and Obedience in Genesis 18:1-15” – Arlyn Drew

“Prejudiced Against Prejudice?: Adventism and the Authority of the Great Tradition” – Zane Yi 

10:30 – 12:00 pm Session 2: In Ethics and the Social Fabric 

Session Chair – Jasper St. Bernard

“Political Authority in the Age of Hyperpolitics: An Analytic-Anarchist Perspective” – Daniël Muller 

“Public Reason and Capital Punishment” – Trevin Skoretz (Recipient of the James J. Londis & Family Fellowship)

12:00 – 1:00 pm Lunch

1:00 – 3:00 pm Session 3: In Political Imagination

Session Chair – Rebecca Barceló  

“The Emotion of Envy and the Problem of Social Authority” – Marina Garner

“Epistemic Authority and the Persistence of Conspiracy Theories in Religious Communities: A Case Study in Adventism” – Valentin Zywietz 

“The Authority of Philosophy Professors” - Ronald Osborn

3:15 – 5:15 pm Session 4: 2025 James J. Londis & Family Lecture 

Lecture: Ante Jerončić (Professor of Theology & Ethics, Andrews University)

Lecture Response: Miroslav Volf (Henry B. Wright Professor of Theology, Yale University)