Religious Freedom and Human Flourishing

 LINDSLEY TO CONTRIBUTE TO TEMPLETON PROJECT ON RELIGIOUS FREEDOM

The Institute for Faith, Work & Economics (IFWE) is pleased to announce that Art Lindsley has been selected to join the “Moral Foundations of Freedom and Human Flourishing” book project, an IFWE initiative that is funded in part by the John Templeton Foundation. As one of thirteen contributing scholars, Lindsley will provide a chapter to a book that will explore the biblical roots and history of religious freedom and how Christians can become more engaged in preserving it, not just for Christians but for people of all faiths. The book will also explore the relationship between religious freedom, economic freedom, and political freedom. It is scheduled for release in the fall of 2019 by Abilene Christian University Press.

Art Lindsley is the vice president of theological initiatives at IFWE. He joined the C.S. Lewis Institute as president in 1987 and remains a senior fellow there. Lindsley is co-editor of and contributor to IFWE’s Counting the Cost: Christian Perspectives on Capitalism and For the Least of These: A Biblical Answer to Poverty. Lindsley’s key research in these books deals with two biblical passages commonly used to promote socialism, Leviticus 25 and the topic of Jubilee, and Acts 2-5. Lindsley also authored C.S. Lewis’s Case for Christ, True Truth, Love: The Ultimate Apologetic, and Free Indeed. He has been a frequent guest on radio talk shows across the country, his articles featured in publications such as The Daily Signal and The Gospel Coalition, and his op-eds published nationwide by The Washington Times, Christianity Today, The Christian Post, and others. Lindsley has also spoken at Oxford University, the United Nations in Geneva, and to parliamentarians in Uganda and elsewhere. He is on the board of the Geneva Institute for Leadership and Public Policy and leading government outreach for Transform World 2020. Lindsley earned an M.Div. from Pittsburgh Theological Seminary and a Ph.D. from the University of Pittsburgh.

Lindsley’s contribution to the IFWE book on religious freedom will target the next generation through Christian colleges and universities, as well as current thought leaders and policy makers.

IFWE executive director Hugh Whelchel indicated that more educational material and marketing will be needed to help the IFWE project reach a larger audience of Christians in schools, churches, and in the marketplace. “Please keep this religious freedom project in prayer and consider joining us in this effort financially. Our prayer is that Christians would grasp the biblical roots of religious freedom and see how religious freedom is a prerequisite for human flourishing; where it doesn’t exist or is threatened, economic and political progress and freedoms have difficulty taking root.”

Please prayerfully consider making an end-of-year contribution toward the work of IFWE and this religious freedom project today.

Why does religious freedom matter for faith, work, and flourishing?