Philip Clayton, provost of Claremont Lincoln University and dean of Claremont School of Theology came to the Chautauqua Institution to convert Chautauquans into radicals.

“I’m going to encourage you to be radical, to find your own radical voice. Everything I say has the goal of helping you to find the form of radical optimism that you have to offer,” Clayton said Thursday in the Hall of Philosophy.

During Week Eight’s fourth Interfaith Lecture on the theme “Radicalism: Burden or Blessing?,” Clayton discussed the two main facets of modern day religious radicalism in a lecture titled “Suicide Bombers and Barefoot Prophets: The Faces of Radical Religion in the Early 21st Century.”