The King’s College Announces Interregnum XIII

Interregnum is a three-day series of artistic and academic competitions that takes place each spring while classes are canceled.

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The King’s College is pleased to announce that the theme for Interregnum XIII, which students and faculty will engage throughout the 2016-2017 academic year, is Equality. Interregnum is a three-day series of artistic and academic competitions that takes place each spring while classes are canceled. Its theme, which is drawn from readings assigned over the summer, is discussed in various events throughout the year. (If you missed our story this spring about how this unique tradition came into practice at King’s, you can catch up here with “A Brief History of Interregnum.”)

This year’s theme is framed by Colossians 3:11: “Here [among those who “have been raised with Christ”] there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all.” (ESV) The required reading selections for this year are The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, an autobiography written before the Civil War, and “Harrison Bergeron,” a short story by Kurt Vonnegut.

Students are asked to reflect on the following questions as they read: In what sense is equality a natural condition? In what sense is it a goal to be achieved by human action? To what degree does being equal require being the same? How has our modern love of equality influenced, for better and for worse, the family, the arts, the church, politics, and work life? If, as Aristotle argues, justice is equality for equals and inequality for unequals, how do we distinguish the equal from the unequal?

Megan Ristine, a rising junior and chair of the Interregnum committee for 2016-2017, said, “This year, we wanted to take Interregnum to the next level by choosing a theme that reflects current events. Equality is a hot topic today. As a committee, we believe it is important to spend time thinking through tough subjects as a school because it expands horizons, highlights different opinions, and forces each of us to defend our convictions. Equality is something we are already privately discussing but this year we hope to have honest public conversations, flowing out of the truths of Christianity and a biblical worldview, that will challenge and grow us all.”


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