News Highlights
Author:
Rima Cortbawi,
Office of Communications,
rgc01@aub.edu.lb
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History of US Constitution featured in CASAR lecture
Sharpes presenting |
The age-old conflict between civil law and religion was evoked in a lecture presented by Donald Sharpes, PhD on November 26 in West Hall. Entitled "The History of US Constitutional Principles: Civil Law versus Religious Imperatives," the lecture shed light on the cornerstone of the US constitution, which represents "nothing more than the establishment of the federal government" based on the rule of the people and not on religion.
Sponsored by the Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Bin Abdulaziz Alsaud Center for American Studies and Research and the Office of Institutional Research and Assessment, Sharpes explored the historical background. Quoting from the first amendment, "Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion, nor prohibiting the free exercise thereof," Sharpes cited ancient Greek mythology's public trial of Orestes for his mother's murder as a manifestation of the need for "humans, not just deities, to decide the fate of other humans." |
Professor Sharpes traced the historical sequence from the code of Hammurabi, the Ten Commandments of Moses, the establishment of the Senate by Lycurgus, the moderating influence of religion during the reign of Numa Pompilius, the basis for Solon's democratic government, the code of Justinian, the 1463 fall of Constantinople, down to the ratification of the US constitution in 1791. The monarchy and religious influence during colonial times gave way to democracy and the sovereignty of the people. Sharpes pointed out that "pluralistic societies need to be religiously neutral so individuals can practice their religion without government interference."
Sharpes is a professor in the Emeritus College at Arizona State University and a former director in the US Department of Education. He has taught at several universities in the United States and has lived and worked in the far East. Sharpes was Distinguished Visiting Professor at Qinghai Normal University in China from 1988 to 1994 and was the first American inducted as a Fellow into the China Senior Professors Association. The author of 18 books and 240 articles, Sharpes has been published in the United States, England, Finland, Norway, Germany (in German), India, Malaysia, China (in Chinese), Hong Kong, and Denmark (in Danish). |
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