Religion of the Founding
Fathers 
(January 1-7)
Europeans who traveled to
the thirteen colonies brought numerous strains of
Christianity with them, and the freedom of the wild
frontier allowed many new sects and congregations
to flourish. How did so many forms of belief co-exist,
how did religious freedom come to be codified in
the Constitution, and how has the faith of our presidents
affected the way our country developed? David
Holmes (W&M) is
the author of The
Religion of the Founding Fathers and
studies the phenomenon of “muscular Christianity.”
Everyone’s
a Critic…or Wants to Be
(January 8-14)
When Clive Barnes wrote drama criticism for
The New York Times, it was rumored he could
shut down a Broadway show with a bad review. Knowledgeable
criticism can lure people to the movies or send
them to bookstores in search of obscure novels.
Theatre professor Rick Davis
(GMU) offers a few lessons to help all of
us look at art more selectively, to determine if
it’s good or bad or somewhere in-between.
Also: Composer-in-residence
John Hilliard (JMU),
who received an enthusiastic “two thumbs up”
for his recent work “Mozart Rounded-Off,”
the completion of an unfinished 1782 composition
by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
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The
Art of Negotiation (January
15-21)
Want a raise? The No. 1 mistake most people make
is not even trying to negotiate their salary. Negotiating
for a pay increase is a learned art and Dale
Henderson (RU), who teaches Business Strategies,
will offer some tactics to maximize your leverage.
Also: Cut-throat negotiating
may be fine in a corporate situation but it spells
disaster in a marriage. Russ
Crescimanno (Piedmont Virginia Community College)
has been teaching “Marriage and Family Relations”
for 30 years. He says most couples don’t have
a clue how to compromise.
The
French Connection (January 22-28)
Is the American friendship with France a thing of
the past, or was it never for real, just a convenient
cliché that had little basis in reality?
The two nations are presently reconsidering their
relationship, and the process of re-examination
is often accompanied by heated rhetoric from both
sides. French professor Peter
Schulman (ODU) says that both countries often
act out of self-interest, which inevitably leads
to some conflict. Also:
Religion professor Tamara Sonn
(W&M) explores the state of Islam in
the modern world.
Over the next two years,
With Good Reason
will devote several programs to Jamestown as we
count down to the 400th anniversary of its founding
in 2007.
Jamestown: The First
Americans (Jan 29-Feb
5)
At the time of the Jamestown Colony, Powhatan had
forged a complexly organized paramount chiefdom
on the coastal plain of Virginia that numbered approximately
thirty tribes. Today's descendants of these tribes
and their allies have strong opinions about the
upcoming Jamestown quadricentennial. Chiefs Stephen
Adkins (Chickahominy) and Kenneth Adams ( Upper
Mattaponi ) discuss historical and present-day issues
facing Virginia 's Indians. Also:
Kathleen Joyce-Grendahl (CNU)
will play and discuss the music of the Native American
flute, used by the indigenous peoples of the Plains
and Southwest. (Support for this program comes from the National Endowment for the Humanities "We the People" initiative.)
