Ryan Anderson to join Franciscan University of Steubenville as visiting fellow

Steubenville, Ohio, Sep 14, 2017 / 06:08 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Marriage scholar Ryan Anderson will be the first visiting fellow at the Veritas Center for Ethics in Public Life at the Franciscan University of Steubenville, the school announced Wednesday.

“As a young – and very courageous – Catholic scholar who is willing to defend Catholic teachings on life and the sacred meaning of marriage, Ryan Anderson provides an inspiring role model for our students, and a tremendous resource for our faculty,” Dr. Anne Hendershott, director of the Veritas Center at Franciscan University, stated Sept. 13.

Anderson is the William E. Simon senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C., and has worked at the organization since 2012.

He has written and talked extensively about marriage, bioethics, and religious freedom from a natural law perspective, having made television appearances on CNN, MSNBC, ABC, and Fox News, and having been published in the New York Times, Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal. He received a Ph.D. in political philosophy from the University of Notre Dame.

Anderson founded and edited Public Discourse, the online journal of the Witherspoon Institute in Princeton, N.J., and has authored Truth Overruled: The Future of Marriage and Religious Freedom, and co-authored What Is Marriage? Man and Woman: A Defense with Robert George and Sherif Girgis.

He is currently writing When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Moment.

“Franciscan University is forming some of the best and brightest students working to bring both faith and reason to American public life. I’m greatly honored to be able to do what I can to help in this effort,” Anderson stated.

The school explained that he would have the opportunity to give lectures and have discussions with students on current issues.

Anderson “will advance the mission of the Veritas Center by utilizing the teachings of the Catholic Church to address the political, social, and economic issues of the day,” the school announced.

Anderson also delivered the commencement address at Franciscan University’s arts commencement ceremony in May 2017, telling the graduates that “we must be prepared to defend truth as never before.”

“When faced with secularist ideologies, we have the responsibility to show the world the harmony of faith and reason,” he said, reported by the Daily Signal. “And this only intensifies as you graduate today and enter a world that is simultaneously hungry for and resistant to your message.”