Thursday, March 10th, 2011, 8:30-9:30 pm
P.S. 20 Anna Silver Auditorium (map)
166 Essex St. (near Houston St.)
Lower East Side, Manhattan, New York
Admission FREE, however reservations are required.
Please call (212) 380-8153 to reserve your seats.
In a multi-media presentation, Jeffersonian expert Eric Petersen discusses Thomas Jefferson's profoundly spiritual reflections on the 'pursuit of happiness' and religious freedom.
Thomas Jefferson's essential qualities were vastness, clarity and luminosity, and he offered the world the essential message of faith, dignity and the rights of man, rights given by the hand of nature and beyond the just reach of any government.
In this presentation, learn about the little known spiritual life of Thomas Jefferson, his private faith and life philosophy, his lifelong advocacy of religious freedom as our most important freedom, his love of nature, his views on the Bible and Jesus Christ, and the significance of virtue in Thomas Jefferson's vision of the pursuit of happiness.
Eric S. Petersen is a managing partner at the New York law firm of Hawkins Delafield & Wood LLP, and was educated at Brown University and the University of Chicago Law School. Since 1993 he has been an avid scholar of Jefferson’s life and works, and in this capacity has appeared on several major news networks including CNN, CNBC, and FOX. Petersen has also lectured at universities worldwide, and has been invited to speak at the United Nations in New York, The Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C. and The Jimmy Carter Presidential Library in Atlanta, Georgia.
Inspiration for the title of this presentation is drawn from Petersen's book Light and Liberty: Reflections on the Pursuit of Happiness which is a collection of 34 pieces by Thomas Jefferson, mostly letters, edited by Petersen. The book serves as a rich compendium of Jefferson's philosophical and political thought. The book has been well received since its 2004 release and is part of the Modern Library Classic series.
Praise for the book Light and Liberty:
“Eric Petersen has intricately and persuasively assembled a thoroughly enjoyable mosaic of Thomas Jefferson’s often inspiring, sometimes scathing, always illuminating prose. This delightful sampler of Jefferson’s wise words is certainly welcome after recent years of trashing our most idealistic and complicated Founding Father.”
- Willard Sterne Randall, Author of Thomas Jefferson: A Life
"...I admire the huge work undertaken by the author, Eric S. Petersen, who has examined countless letters and papers written by Thomas Jefferson over more than half a century. The outcome of Petersen’s painstaking research is this extraordinary book, Light and Liberty, which contains a wealth of opinions and pronouncements from the third President of the United States on such universal values as liberty, faith and the pursuit of happiness. The book is indeed very interesting and extremely enlightening, and I am convinced that it will have a lasting effect. Today, at this critical juncture in history, when a global world is being shaped and when people are learning how to live in concert and strengthen relations with one another, Thomas Jefferson’s lessons can greatly benefit us all.
The pursuit of happiness is part and parcel of human nature. Every people in every era have the opportunity to attain this lofty goal. But nowhere is this possible unless it is consonant with the basic principles of liberty. I believe that humanity might have avoided many tragedies and calamities if we had always borne this in mind."
March 15, 2004
-Mikhail Gorbachev, Former president of the Soviet Union, 1990 Nobel Peace Prize recipient, head of the Gorbachev Foundation and Green Cross International.
“In Light and Liberty, Eric Petersen has gathered together a volume of Thomas Jefferson's writings which are at once deeply spiritual and practical. This inspirational book has the potential to capture the imagination and energize the present-day world to dream great dreams and to do good deeds.”
-Archbishop Desmond Tutu, 1984 Nobel Peace Prize recipient.
Light and Liberty is part of an evening program that also features The Poetry of Illumination. Both presentations are part of the Festival of Meditation and Spirituality taking place in New York City in the month of March, sponsored by the Sri Chinmoy Centre.
