WASHINGTON — The Magna Carta has served as the catalyst for liberty for many nations around the world for more than 800 years. While liberty seemed globally ascendant following the end of the Cold War, it now seems increasingly threatened.

How can we ensure future generations know the blessing of liberty? The Magna Carta may still hold the answer.

Museum of the Bible invites guests to join “Magna Carta’s Legacy of Liberty: What Are Its Implications Today?”a discussion with scholars Walter Russell Mead and Catherine Ruth Pakaluk on Thursday, Oct. 28, from 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. (ET). Mead and Pakaluk will discuss the spiritual perspective behind the Magna Carta and the subsequent tradition that limited state power and protected individual freedoms, as well as how today’s spirituality interacts with liberty. The discussion will be hosted in person in the museum’s World Stage Theater and online via Zoom.

Walter Russell Mead, Ph.D., is the Ravenel B. Curry III distinguished fellow in strategy and statesmanship at Hudson Institute, the Global View columnist at The Wall Street Journal and the James Clarke Chace professor of foreign affairs and humanities at Bard College in New York. He is also a member of Aspen Institute Italy and a board member of Aspenia. Before joining Hudson, Mead was a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations as the Henry A. Kissinger senior fellow for U.S. foreign policy. He has authored numerous books, including the widely recognized “Special Providence: American Foreign Policy and How It Changed the World.” Mead’s newest book, “The Arc of a Covenant: The United States, Israel and the Future of the Jewish People,” will be released on Jan. 25, 2022.

Catherine Ruth Pakaluk, Ph.D., is the director of social research and an assistant professor of social research and economic thought at the Busch School of Business at The Catholic University of America. Her teaching and research are devoted to questions of culture and liberty in relation to markets, institutions and the climate of business. Her areas of expertise include applied microeconomics, the economics of education and religion, family studies and demography, Catholic social thought and political economy. Pakaluk is the 2015 recipient of the Acton Institute’s Novak Award, a prize given for “significant contributions to the study of the relationship between religion and economic liberty.”

Jonathan Silver is editor of Mosaic, a magazine of Jewish ideas, history and public affairs. He is also senior director at the Tikvah Fund, co-chair of the Jewish Leadership Conference and host of the Tikvah Podcast. He was educated at Tufts University, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and holds a doctorate from the Department of Government at Georgetown University.

In-person participants will have the opportunity to tour the groundbreaking “Magna Carta: Tyranny. Justice. Liberty.” exhibit before the program. Following the discussion, there will be a short reception with Mead, Pakaluk and Silver for those at the museum. The evening’s schedule of events is as follows:

• Tour of “Magna Carta: Tyranny. Justice. Liberty.” exhibit – 5:30 p.m.-6:30 p.m. (ET)
• Panel discussion – 6:30 p.m.-7:30 p.m. (ET)
• Reception – 7:30 p.m.-8 p.m. (ET).

Tickets for in-person participants are $9.99 for adults and Museum of the Bible members and are $4.99 for students and can be purchased here. Tickets for virtual participants are $4.99 for adults and Museum of the Bible members and are $4.99 for students and can be purchased here.

More information on Museum of the Bible is available here.