Current Event

  

 

Socrates in the City Gala!
June 26th, 2013 in New York City

Eric Metaxas Sings! (You Dine & Dance!) ...After He Interviews Christian Wiman!

For this special evening we're offering two events in one!  Eric Metaxas will interview special guest Christian Wiman on his stunning, My Bright Abyss: Meditation of a Modern Believer, and afterward we'll all giggle upstairs for dinner and dancing -- with LIVE music by "Eric Metaxas & the 7 Men!"

You really cannot miss this, can you?

Register Now

 

About Christian Wiman

Christian Wiman is an American poet and editor who has written poems, criticism, and personal essays in The New Yorker, The New York Times Book Review, The Atlantic Monthly, Harper's and various other publications. He graduated from Washington and Lee University and has taught at Northwestern University, Stanford University, Lynchburg College in Virginia, and the Prague School of Economics. In 2003, he became editor of the oldest American magazine of verse, Poetry. His first book of poetry, The Long Home, won the Nicholas Roerich Prize. His 2010 book, Every Riven Thing (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2010), was chosen by poet and critic Dan Chiasson as one of the best poetry books of 2010.

Purchase Christian Wiman's book, My Bright Abyss: Meditation of a Modern Believer

Buy It Now

Seven years ago, Christian Wiman, a well-known poet and the editor of Poetry magazine, wrote a now-famous essay about having faith in the face of death. My Bright Abyss, composed in the difficult years since and completed in the wake of a bone marrow transplant, is a moving meditation on what a viable contemporary faith—responsive not only to modern thought and science but also to religious tradition—might look like.

Joyful, sorrowful, and beautifully written, My Bright Abyss is destined to become a spiritual classic, useful not only to believers but to anyone whose experience of life and art seems at times to overbrim its boundaries. How do we answer this “burn of being”? Wiman asks. What might it mean for our lives—and for our deaths—if we acknowledge the “insistent, persistent ghost” that some of us call God? 

PRAISE FOR MY BRIGHT ABYSS

“[Christian Wiman’s] poetry and his scholarship have a purifying urgency that is rare in this world. This puts him at the very source of theology, and enables him to say new things in timeless language, so that the reader’s surprise and assent are one and the same.” 
—Marilynne Robinson, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Gilead
My Bright Abyss reveals what it can mean to experience St. Benedict’s admonition to keep death daily before your eyes . . . Wiman is relentless in his probing of how life feels when one is up against death . . . With both honesty and humility, Wiman looks deep into his doubts his suspicion of religious claims and his inadequacy at prayer . . . Wiman mounts a welcome, insightful and bracing assault on both the complacent pieties of many Christians and the thoughtless bigotry of intellectuals who regard Christian faith as suitable only for idiots or fools . . . This pithy and passionate book is not easy, but it is rewarding. Wiman’s finely honed language can be vivid and engaging . . . He exhibits a poet’s concern for precision . . . This is, above all, a book about experience, and about seeking a language that is adequate for both the fiery moments of inspiration and the ‘fireless life’ in which we spend most of our days. It is a testament to the human ability to respond to grace, even at times of great suffering, and to resolve to live and love more fully even as death draws near.”
—Kathleen Norris, The New York Times Book Review

“Like the classic mystics, [Wiman] often resorts to a language of paradox to convey things that ordinary language can’t … Wiman speaks carefully but powerfully . . . The best that can come from contemplation of mortality, perhaps, is a kind of wisdom that can give others strength—not by answering questions, like those best-sellers which claim to tell you what happens after you see the white light, but by asking questions honestly . . . My Bright Abyss is a book that will give light and strength, even to those who find themselves unable to follow its difficult path.”
—Adam Kirsch, The New Yorker
“Wiman infuses his writing with lyricism and a playfulness with language . . . He augments his own mastery of language with the liberal use of quotations from other poets and writers, spanning an impressive range of literary backgrounds. Wiman’s depth of knowledge as a reader truly undergirds this work, as he invokes everyone from George Herbert to Simone Weil, Dietrich Bonheoffer to Seamus Heaney. As the author struggles to understand God, he also struggles to comprehend the institution of Christianity, seeing in it deep flaws, an inability to fully grasp the depth of the God it proclaims, and what he sees as a childish clinging to legend and myth . . . Poignant and focused . . . Wiman’s grasp of the written word carries this unconventional faith memoir.”
Kirkus Review
 

 

Date and Times

Wednesday, June 26, 2013
Light refreshments begin at 6pm; interview with Christian Wiman starts at 6:30 sharp, followed by a booksigning, then Eric's Birthday Bash at 7:45.

NOTE: Once you register, please email SITC at info@socratesinthecity.com to request that we assign your seat(s) or table(s) for Eric's birthday bash.  Also, please print and bring your email confirmation with you, as this is your ticket.

Location

The Union League Club**
(38 East 37th Street)

**Club requires appropriate attire for all persons; coat and tie for gentlemen. Remember to dress fancy on accounta it's Eric's birthday -- and the ULC enforces the dress code. No joke.

Admission Price

$250 - “Irving Berlin” Individual Ticket

$500 - “Ella Fitzgerald” Individual Ticket

$2,500 - “Bobby Darin” Table for 10

$5,000 - “Dean Martin" Table for 10

$10,000 - “Frank Sinatra" Table for 10

 Donations to SITC

If you are unable to be with us on June 26th for this special evening with Christian Wiman and Eric Metaxas but would like to contribute to the work of Socrates in the City by making a tax-deductible donation at this time, we would be very grateful to you. To make a tax-deductible donation to Socrates in the City please click here.

For information on how to sponsor a Socrates in the City event please contact us at info@socratesinthecity.com.

** Socrates in the City is made possible by Patrons and Friends of Socrates in the City. **

Featured Video: Eric Metaxas Interviews Rod Dreher

In this poignant and at times heart-rending conversation, Eric Metaxas talks with Rod Dreher about his book, The Little Way of Ruthie Leming: A Southern Girl, a Small Town, and the Secret of a Good Life. We've made the full-length video available RIGHT HERE for you to view and enjoy!

Featured Video: Dr. John Lennox

Dr. John Lennox spoke on the topic, "Seven Days That Divide the World" at our January 31 event.  Afterward Eric Metaxas was heard asking, "Why didn't I ever have any math teachers like this?"  Watch the lecture in its entirety here!

Featured Video: Dr. Os Guinness

Dr. Os Guinness spoke on the topic, "A Free People's Suicide: Sustainable Freedom and the American Future," at our September 13 event.  His talk was profoundly important–watch it in its entirety here!

Dr. Os Guinness: "A Free People's Suicide" from Socrates in the City on Vimeo.

Philosophy

SocratesThe Greek philosopher Socrates famously said that "the unexamined life is not worth living." Taking this as a starting point, Eric Metaxas thought it would be valuable to create a forum that might encourage busy and successful professionals in thinking about the bigger questions in life. Thus Socrates In The City: Conversations on the Examined Life was born.

Every month or so Socrates In The City sponsors an event in which people can begin a dialogue on "Life, God, and other small topics" by hearing a notable thinker and writer such as Dr. Francis Collins, Sir John Polkinghorne, Rabbi Sir Jonathan Sacks, N.T. WrightOs GuinnessPeter Kreeft, or George Weigel.  Topics have included "Making Sense Out of Suffering," "The Concept of Evil after 9-11," and "Can a Scientist Pray?"  No question is too big—in fact, the bigger the better.  These events are meant to be both thought-provoking and entertaining, because nowhere is it written that finding answers to life's biggest questions shouldn't be exciting and even, perhaps, fun.

Past Speakers

Our Host

Eric MetaxasEric Metaxas is the author of two critically acclaimed New York Times bestselling biographies, Bonhoeffer:  Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy and Amazing Grace:  William Wilberforce and the Heroic Campaign to End Slavery.  

He is also the author of the Everything You Always Wanted to Know About God (but were afraid to ask) apologetics trilogy, which has been praised by pastor Tim Keller ("The difficulty is not to gush."); Dick Cavett ("Stylish and entertaining... Metaxas deserves a prize); and the actress Ann B. Davis (Alice of the Brady Bunch), ("I'm absolutely smitten with this book!").

Metaxas is Founder and host of Socrates in the City, a Manhattan speakers series on "life, God, and other small topics" featuring such speakers as Dinesh D'Souza, Os Guinness, Sir John Polkinghorne, Baroness Caroline Cox, and Francis Collins.

Eric has worked for VeggieTales, where he co-wrote Lyle the Kindly Viking and was featured as the voice of the narrator on the Esther video.  He has authored over 30 children's books, including Squanto and the Miracle of Thankgiving.  His work for Rabbit Ears radio has won three Grammy nominations for Best Children's Recording.

Woody Allen has called Eric's humor writing “quite funny”, and the musician Moby has called Eric “one of the funniest people I know.” Metaxas edited the Yale humor magazine and his humorous essays and cultural commentary have appeared in The New York Times and The Washington Post, among other places. 

Eric has debated Christopher Hitchens about Jerry Falwell on CNN and has debated at the Oxford Union on the subject of American Christianity.  He has been featured on Huckabee, Hannity & Colmes, NPR’s Morning Edition and Talk of the Nation, and many other programs.   

Eric lives in Manhattan with his wife and daughter, and may be found at www.ericmetaxas.com.