Lee University will host the “Reframing International Relations: Imago Dei” conference from April 16-17 as part of a three-conference series sponsored by the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities (CCCU). A public panel, “The Imago Dei and International Relations” will take place as part of this event on Friday, April 17, from 4-5:30 p.m. in the Humanities Center’s Johnson Lecture Hall.  
 
The panel will feature an address by Dr. Paul Miller, a professor of the practice of international affairs at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, and responses by Dr. J. Darryl Charles, a senior fellow at the Center for Religion, Culture & Democracy; Dr. Eric Patterson, a scholar-at-large in the Regent University Robertson School of Government; and Dr. Susan Haynes, an associate professor of history, politics, and philosophy at Lipscomb University.  
 
“Considering international relations through the lens of the Imago Dei, the image of God, challenges the assumption that ‘might makes right’ and calls us to take justice seriously, not only within our own political system, but all over the globe, as we endeavor to love our neighbors—wherever they be found—as we love ourselves,” said Dr. Ana Shippey, associate professor of political science at Lee and conference director.  
 
All are welcome to attend the free, no-ticket-required panel, in which Miller will discuss the nature of international relations, including a critique of its tendency to overfocus on power over justice, a call for multidisciplinary approaches to international relations, and an argument for scholars and practitioners to take claims of justice seriously.  
 
The goal of “Reframing International Relations: Imago Dei” is to discuss the tensions that exist between the Christian concept of Imago Dei—the belief that humans are created in the likeness of God—and the critical idea of the supremacy of the state as the critical actor in international relations.  
 
The conference is funded by a $30,000 grant awarded to Lee University by the CCCU to support scholarly conversations about the intersection between Christianity and international relations. 
 
Lee University acknowledges funding from the Networking Grants for Christian Scholars, a project run by the CCCU.  
 
The CCCU is an international association of more than 185 Christian higher education institutions, emphasizing public advocacy, professional development and scholarship, and experiential education while maintaining a Christ-centered outlook.  
 
For more information about the CCCU, visit cccu.org.  
 
For more information about the History, Political Science, and Humanities Department at Lee, visit leeuniversity.edu/academics/arts-sciences/hps.