Universities exist for the purposes of education and discovery, and also for the imperative of keeping alive subjects that might otherwise vanish and studies that might not be in fashion or attract large numbers but that are indispensable to preserving and interpreting the heritage of the past and its meaning in the present.

Robert E. Lerner is the Peter B. Ritzma Professor in the Humanities Emeritus at Northwestern University. He is the author or coauthor of ten books, including The Age of Adversity, The Heresy of the Free Spirit, The Powers of Prophecy, The Feast of Saint Abraham, Western Civilizations (coauthored), and, most recently, Ernst Kantorowicz: A Life.