Joe delivered a wonderful paper on Tolkien and Bioethics, reminding us that humans are not really at home in this world (or in middle earth). Thank you very much Dr. K.

And Will and his colleagues were fine hosts.

Thanks, Will!

Could someone explain to me what Dr. V. was getting at?

I get loss of faith in a post-Christian world and the search for alternatives, but it seems like he depressed himself in the process of his research.

Isn't the conservative point to call people back to faith? I guess what I am asking is how is this an ISI book?

Red,
I think your last question is a fair one, though we'd have to apply to the folks at ISI for an answer.
Dr. V's book and lecture ARE filled more with questions and observations(about the strange kinds of spiritual searching and yearning encountered in pop culture) than with answers. I also suspect you're right that it depressed him. That said, the book makes clear in a way that the lecture did not that his proposed solution is a reunion of faith and reason (the schism between the two leaves each unable to satisfy our deepest longings and ends in willful nihilism). The book is very interesting, especially the chapters on I Am Charlotte Simmons and Copenhagen. We can correspond in less public ways if you have further questions.