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ASJ series speaker says ‘You Are What You Love”

Dr. Robert Fornieri speaks with Dr. Mary Waalkes, associate professor of history at BPC, following the Jan. 29 lecture in the Briscoe Center on BPC’s Mount Vernon campus.

By Kelley M. Arnold

Director of News and Public Information

MOUNT VERNON – Dr. Robert Fornieri, associate professor of political science at Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, N.Y., challenged the attendees of the Jan. 29 Albert Sidney Johnson Lecture Series to consider “they are what they love”.

Dr. Robert Fornieri, a guest lecturer during BPC’s Albert Sidney Johnson Lecture Series Jan. 29, explains to the audience of community members, BPC faculty, staff and students that according to St. Augustine of Hippo “you are what you love”, which was the title of his lecture. (Photos by E’Quain Rhodes)

Dr. Fornieri’s lecture, “You Are What You Love: Christian Insights on Society and Politics”, was based heavily on the teachings of St. Augustine of Hippo, an African saint from 350 AD who lived at a time when Greco-Roman philosophy was clashing and learning to meld with Christianity. Dr. Fornieri examined how St. Augustine’s teaching on love – and the definition of love of self versus love of God – affects our daily behaviors and cultural/social interactions.

According to Dr. Fornieri, he said St. Augustine believed we, as a civilization and as individuals, choose to either become “God-centered” or “self-centered” in our love. The “God-centered” love is expressed in the four cardinal virtues of temperance, fortitude, prudence and justice, versus the “self-centered” love that expresses itself in the “seven deadly sins”.

Dr. Fornieri’s lecture was the spring 2008 semester’s contribution to the Albert Sidney Johnson Lecture Series, named for a prominent South Georgian and Brewton-Parker alumnus and faculty member. The biennial series explores trends and theories in the related studies of the Division of Social and Behavioral Sciences.

Brewton-Parker College is the only four-year accredited Christian college in south Georgia. Based in Mount Vernon, it has external learning campuses and centers in Baxley, Glennville, Liberty County, Newnan, Norman Park and Savannah.

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