Hillsdale College Hosts Dominic Green as Spring 2023 Pulliam Fellow
Author and Historian Dominic Green speaks on “The Birth of Modern Spirituality”
HILLSDALE, Mich. — Hillsdale College hosted Washington Examiner columnist Dominic Green, as the college’s spring 2023 Eugene C. Pulliam distinguished visiting fellow in journalism from Feb. 13 to 22. Green is the author of four books. His most recent book is “The Religious Revolution: The Birth of Modern Spirituality, 1848-1898.”
On Feb. 16, Green presented a public lecture titled “The Birth of Modern Spirituality,” which highlighted the 19th-century shift from structured religion to individualistic spirituality. He suggested that the modern phenomenon of the rising group of spiritual — but not religious — individuals and the rising numbers who identify as “none” on religious surveys is not a new phenomenon. “I don’t think we can understand how we got here today or even what’s going on today without understanding the role that spirituality has played in modern history,” said Green. “And I think when you look at them, these changes are so big that it’s worth using the word revolution.”
Green stated that the rise of Hegelian philosophy with technological advancement was the perfect recipe for spirituality. “Hegel’s idea of progress is a spiritual idea that takes material form, and while he was writing, the 19th century saw the fastest material development in our history…progress was, perhaps, the most important export of all the things that Western Europeans sent around the world in those years,” explained Green.
Green is a graduate of the University of Oxford, Harvard University, and Brandeis University. He is a fellow of the Royal Historical Society and the Royal Society of Arts. In addition to his work at the Washington Examiner, Green writes for the New Criterion and Wall Street Journal.
As a Pulliam fellow, Green joins a list of notable journalists who have lent their skills to Hillsdale College, including Alexandra DeSanctis, Andrew Klavan, and Kimberley Strassel. Pulliam fellows enjoy a two-week residency on Hillsdale’s campus and teach a weeklong, one-credit course in the Journalism Department. This semester, ten students took the course, titled “What Journalism Is.” Fellows also consult with students who work on the college’s student-run newspaper, The Collegian.
For photos of the lecture, click here.
For a high-resolution copy of the Hillsdale College clocktower logo, click here.