"Still Questing...Hundreds Gather to Discuss Community and Life of Robert Nisbet"
ISI's Spring 2005 Indianapolis Leadership Conference

On April 16, 2005 over 200 students, faculty, donors, and community leaders attended the ISI's annual Leadership Conference, "The Quest for Community: Robert Nisbet and the Search for American Order." Participants represented over 70 colleges and universities, including 30 from the state of Indiana. The event, held at the historic Columbia Club in downtown Indianapolis, marked the ten-year anniversary of this national conference.

The conference included one of the strongest gatherings of scholars and authors in recent memory. In fact, at the conclusion of the day-long session, an ISI Faculty Associate from Christendom College declared, "This is quite simply the best conference I have attended in over a decade. The quality of speakers and level of depth to this program is exactly the sort of thing I expect from ISI."

Brad Lowell Stone

The conference began with Brad Lowell Stone's in-depth exposition of the life of Robert Nisbet and his place in the conservative intellectual tradition. Stone, author of Nisbet's biography, delivered a much needed framework and provided a strong foundation for the program. In his presentation, Stone reasoned, "As Nisbet saw it, the contemporary search for community, itself caused by the state, often combines with existing political power to pernicious effect. Isolated or alienated individuals seek a 'national community,' whose vehicle is the state itself, to satisfy their communal aspirations." Copies of Stone's book were provided to students and faculty. One student from Asbury College noted, "I am grateful to ISI for Stone's book, especially after listening to his presentation. His [Stone's] description of Nisbet's analysis of the decay of intermediate institutions has inspired me to go home and read more."

The afternoon session began with the presentation of the Dick Wells Leadership Award. Nine Campus Representatives received the award which honors the late philanthropist, ISI board of trustee chairman, and long time friend of the Institute. Each recipient was honored for their service to the ISI mission on their campus. An award recipient from Harvard University said, "I am very grateful for this honor...I had no idea I was receiving such an award. I feel like giving ISI an award for all the wonderful things they do for me and my campus."

Allan Carlson

The luncheon address entitled, "A Radical Economics?: Capitalism and State in Quest for Community," was delivered by Allan Carlson, author of The "American Way". Carlson reasoned: "Perhaps the strictly instrumental values of equality and economic and cultural liberty are all that are really needed to hold this vast nation and its varied people together...While one might imagine other ways to gain a sense of affinity and common citizenship among a divided people, the powerful structures surrounding the family and related natural communities are uniquely American."

The afternoon session featured two authors: Christopher Blum, editor of Critics of the Enlightenment: Readings in the French Counter-Revolutionary Tradition (ISI Books 2004), and Bruce Frohnen, author of The New Communitarians and the Crisis of Modern Liberalism. Frohnen brought the conference to a close when he pronounced, "Like the old liberals, the new communitarians continue to distort liberalism's original enterprise of freeing individuals from the constraints of tyrannical government. Instead, they advocate increasing government constraints to protect us from poverty and other material conditions that prevent us from leading our own version of the good life. Unfortunately, this attempt undermines the soul of self-reliance that provides the virtuous foundation of liberal economics, and, indeed, any good life lived in common."

The annual Indianapolis conference not only serves as our flagship campus education and membership program, but also serves as a reunion for the current group of Honors Fellows.

On Friday evening the Honors Fellows, mentors, and invited guests were treated to a lecture by Patrick Deneen on the topic, "Vocation as Citizenship." Deneen's lecture sought to instruct the Honors Fellows on the meaning of vocation and the proper rule of citizenship and the individual in community. Drawing on the humility of Saint Catherine of Sienna, and the wisdom of Plato, Deneen concluded with a robust call for historical consciousness, duty, and the need for a renewed sense of national service.

David Brooks and Margaret Mosher

The recognition of the William E. Simon Prize for Noble Purpose, followed by remarks from New York Times columnist David Brooks, provided a memorable conclusion to the conference. David Brooks closed the evening with remarks on his recent book, On Paradise: How We Live Now (And Always Have) in the Future Tense. Lauding the recently recognized Simon recipients Brooks noted, "I have always known ISI as an organization concerned with the mind, but now I know ISI as an organization concerned with the whole individual. Many organizations narrowly focus on intellect or the accumulation of knowledge; it is extremely rare to find an organization, like ISI, that invests in the complete person." Brooks answered numerous questions and signed copies of his book. The ISI sponsored hospitality lasted long into the evening as participants continued to discuss and question together.

See the 2005 Indianapolis Leadership Conference online brochure.