Visiting Scholars

CSWR Senior Visiting Scholars, 2008-09

Jan Sokol

Jan Sokol was dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Professor of Philosophy at Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic, a position he held until the end of academic year 2007-08. While at Harvard Divinity School in fall 2008, as a CSWR senior visiting scholar, he and Ronald Thiemann will be co-teaching the course Religion, Ethics, and Human Rights.

A Roman Catholic layperson, his scholarly work focuses on the areas of ethics and human rights. A life-long dissident during the communist era, Professor Sokol was denied access to higher education because of his openly espoused religious beliefs. As a result, he worked as a clockmaker, mechanic, and software developer in prerevolutionary Czechoslovakia. He later obtained his doctorate in philosophy in 1995 at age 59.

Professor Sokol was one of the first signers of Charter 77, the human rights declaration that served as the basis for the Czech Velvet Revolution. He later held various positions of political and educational leadership within the emerging Czech democracy. In 2003 he was the presidential candidate of the Social Democratic party. His candidacy forced issues of human rights, immigration, and social justice to the center of national political debate.

In 1998 Professor Sokol was appointed minister of education for the Czech Republic, which allowed him to introduce needed reforms into Czech higher education. He is the author of eight books on topics in philosophical and religious anthropology and human rights. Among them are Man and Religion (Portal, 2004) and Time and Rhythm (2nd ed., Oikumene, 2004).

To contact Jan Sokol via his faculty assistant, please refer to the faculty directory. For media inquiries or requests, please contact Jonathan Beasley.