Hopeful Realism: Augustinian Natural Law and Liberal Democracy - Social Sciences Wolters Lecture

On November 3, 2025, the Albert M. Wolters Centre for Christian Scholarship hosted at free public lecture at Redeemer University featuring Dr. Jesse Covington, Dr. Bryan T. McGraw and Dr. Micah Watson.

Drawing on their new book, Hopeful Realism, political theorists Dr. Jesse Covington, Dr. Bryan T. McGraw and Dr. Micah Watson laid out an Augustinian and evangelical theory of the natural law and show how it can be employed within the context of a pluralistic democratic order.

Dr. Micah Watson, native of the great, golden state of California, is the Paul Henry Chair in Christianity and Politics at Calvin University, where he teaches in the politics and economics department. He is the co-author of Hopeful Realism (2025, IVP) and C.S. Lewis on Natural Law and Politics (2017, Cambridge).

Dr. Bryan T. McGraw is dean of natural and social sciences, director of the Aequitas Fellows Program, and a professor of politics and international relations at Wheaton College. He is the author of Faith in Politics: Religion and Liberal Democracy (2010, Cambridge) and co-author of Hopeful Realism (2025, IVP).

Dr. Jesse Covington is professor of political science and director of the Augustinian Scholars honors program at Westmont College in Santa Barbara, California. He has co-authored Hopeful Realism (2025, IVP), co-edited Natural Law and Evangelical Political Thought (2012, Rowman & Littlefield), and published various articles and book chapters engaging St. Augustine, political morality, democracy, the First Amendment and Christian liberal arts education.