THE RIVENDELL CENTER
the Mission
The Rivendell Center is a Christian academic center, to be based in New York City, dedicated to exploring and promoting the classical-Christian inheritance of Western civilization. It is inspired by J.R.R. Tolkien’s vision of Rivendell, the land of the Elves, in The Lord of the Rings, a haven of creativity, beauty, wisdom, and friendship.
Hosting dinners, salons, receptions, lectures, film screenings, and other initiatives, the Rivendell Center introduces the story of our civilization to college students and young professionals in New York and to audiences around the world. Through vigorous hospitality, it seeks to become a welcoming place to gather, build relationships, and explore life’s most important questions.
The place
Why New York City? History reveals to us that cities can shape the mind of a civilization: think of Athens, Rome, Jerusalem, London—and New York. Gotham remains one of the most culturally important cities in the world.
Nevertheless, despite its immense cultural resources, New York City lacks the one thing necessary to become a source of genuine human flourishing: academic institutions rooted in the historic Christian faith. With help from Sagamore Institute, Joseph Loconte, an educator, author, and filmmaker, is launching the Rivendell Center to help fill this intellectual and spiritual vacuum.
The Need
The Rivendell Center needs a permanent home in New York City.
We are looking to partner with investors to purchase a rowhouse in Manhattan to serve as the headquarters for the center.
It must have the physical space to accommodate lecture events drawing 50 people or more, as well as the ability to host more intimate gatherings of young professionals. Ideally, the center will also consist of a library/reading room to help accommodate the lecture events and other social gatherings. The rowhouse will serve as the permanent residence for the Rivendell Center director.
the initiatives
Like his Oxford friend, C.S. Lewis, Mr. Tolkien knew—at a deep, personal level—the bitter truths about the human predicament. Living through some of the darkest moments in human history, they both understood the reality of the Fall and every evil thing it has brought about in our world. They conceived their most popular works in the shadow of the Second World War, when the survival of Great Britain—and of Western civilization—was an open question. Through the power of their imagination, they gave us a vision of life as it was meant to be.
Indeed, the aim of their storytelling was to re-enchant the world: to recover the concepts of courage, sacrifice, humility, friendship, and faith. This same objective defines the initiatives of The Rivendell Center: to reintroduce these ideas—uniquely embedded in the story of our civilization—to audiences in New York and around the world.
film Initiative:
HISTORY AND THE HUMAN STORY
Not unlike Mr. Tolkien—one of the greatest storytellers of modern times—the Rivendell Center believes that compelling stories have the power to shape the mind and heart of a civilization. As philosopher Russell Kirk once observed: “Imagination, given time, does rule the world.”
The signature storytelling initiative of the Rivendell Center is its YouTube history channel, History and the Human Story. Through this initiative, the center will produce documentary and narrative films that will help to tell the story of our civilization: most importantly, the impact of the Judeo-Christian tradition on Western civilization and the American political order. Several short films already have been released and can be found here.
Post-production work is underway for a major documentary film about the life and legacy of Doctor Benjamin Rush.
lecture Initiative:
cicero in the citY
Anticipating the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, the Cicero in the City lecture series will explore the ideals, institutions, and individuals who built Western civilization and the American republic.
Not unlike in our own day, the Roman statesman Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC) lived during a season of cultural turmoil: political extremism, paralyzing partisanship, a breakdown in law and order, and a deficit of civic virtue. Renowned for his oratory, Cicero warned that Rome was squandering its inheritance in republican government. The path to renewal, he argued, involved the recovery of Rome’s political and civic ideals, “the bond which holds together a community of citizens.”
Cicero in the City will feature authors, educators, artists, filmmakers, and other voices to engage in an honest and lively conversation about how Americans can contribute to the renewal of our civic and political life.
lecture Initiative:
The Lincoln Lectures
A deficit of intelligent and persuasive speech is one of the signs of cultural decline. Inspired by the eloquence and statesmanship of Abraham Lincoln, the Lincoln Lectures will re-introduce young people to the great speeches of Western civilization: from The Apology of Socrates to Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address to Winston Churchill’s “We Will Never Surrender” speech at the start of the Second World War.
It was in 1860 in New York City, at the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, that Abraham Lincoln delivered the political speech that won him the Republican nomination for president. In his “Cooper Union Speech,” Lincoln exposed the intent of pro-slavery lawmakers: “Your purpose, then, plainly stated, is that you will destroy the Government, unless you be allowed to construe and enforce the Constitution as you please, on all points in dispute between you and us.”
Great speeches embody the highest ideals and aspirations of the human spirit. Yet the moral and religious ideals that lay at the heart of these speeches are often neglected. They need to be recovered.
hospitality Initiative:
A Glimpse of Rivendell in New York City
J.R.R. Tolkien captured in fantasy a dimension of the human story that was felt more vividly in his day than perhaps in any other period of history. For a time, it really did seem that the forces of barbarism would prevail, that the eclipse of Western civilization was at hand. Nevertheless, in The Lord of the Rings, he confronted the moral cynicism of his age by creating a vision of moral beauty.
Yet Mr. Tolkien could not have achieved this without the encouragement of others: individuals devoted to the quest for beauty, virtue, and truth. With Mr. Lewis and a group of like-minded authors—the Inklings—they created a refuge of moral sanity, intense creativity, and deep friendship.
New Yorkers crave places of refuge like this. The Rivendell Center will make its future townhouse location a gathering place for college students and young professionals: a safe place to pursue truth and beauty, to explore life’s most important questions, and to build rich friendships along the way. Partnering with like-minded organizations, the Rivendell Center will host lectures, receptions, salons, workshops, book events, film-screenings, and other initiatives aimed at building relationships and giving people a glimpse of life as it was meant to be. Warm and generous hospitality—with a deeply Christian purpose—will be the keynote.
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Joseph Loconte
Director
Joseph Loconte, PhD, serves as the Director of the Rivendell Center and as a Sagamore Senior Fellow. An educator, author, and filmmaker, Mr. Loconte is a scholar in the history of Western civilization. He has published widely in both academic and popular journals, including: The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, National Affairs, and The New Criterion. He is the author of the New York Times bestseller, A Hobbit, a Wardrobe, and a Great War and God, Locke, and Liberty: The Struggle for Religious Freedom in the West. His forthcoming book, The War for Middle-earth: J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis Confront the Gathering Storm, 1933-1945, will be released in June 2025 by Harper Collins. A complete bio and sample of Mr. Loconte’s publications can be found at: www.josephloconte.com.
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Jay Hein
Senior Advisor
Jay Hein is the Chief Executive Officer of Sagamore Institute, a think tank he co-founded in 2004 with former U.S. Senator Dan Coats. Mr. Hein oversees the Citizenship initiative at Sagamore Institute, which serves as the institutional home for The Rivendell Center. As part of his Sagamore duties, Jay also serves as managing director of an impact investing platform called Commonwealth. Together, Sagamore and Commonwealth advance game-changing ideas through innovations and investments.
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Pete Peterson
Senior Advisor
Pete Peterson is Dean of the School of Public Policy at Pepperdine University. He is a national speaker and writer focused on civic participation and using technology to enhance government transparency and responsiveness. He was the first executive director of Common Sense California, which merged in 2010 with the Davenport Institute at the School of Public Policy to become the Davenport Institute for Public Engagement and Civic Leadership. Peterson has co-created and co-facilitates the seminar, “Public Engagement: The Vital Leadership Skill in Difficult Times” seminar, attended by over 4,500 municipal officials.