Baylor Hosts Christian Scholars Forum

by Jaime Bates, student newswriter, (254) 710-6805

Baylor University's department of philosophy will host the fourth annual Christian Scholars Forum from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, April 4, in the Cashion Academic Center of the Hankamer School of Business on the Baylor campus.

The Christian Scholars Forum is held each year with the goal of facilitating interdisciplinary interaction and the integration of faith and scholarship among graduate students. In the past, the forum has been held at the University of Texas and directed by Dr. Rob Coons.

"This is the first year the forum will be held at Baylor," said Dr. Michael Beaty, professor of philosophy and chair of the philosophy department. "It will be held at Baylor this year because of how active Baylor graduates have been in the past."

The program will consist of graduate students from numerous universities presenting their work on a variety of topics that reflect their thoughts on Christianity.

Following the welcoming address at 10 a.m. in room 510, the first panel discussion will begin at 10:15 a.m. Papers on the topic of "Business, Engineering and the Environment" will be presented in Hankamer 109, while papers on the topic of "Literature, Poetry and Discourse" will be presented in room 110.

The second panel discussion will begin at 11:45 a.m., with the presentation of papers on the topic of "Society and Culture" in room 109. A panel discussion on "Wolterstorff
on Justice" will be held in room 110.

Lunch will be held at 1 p.m. in room 510, followed by the third panel discussion at 2:15 p.m. Papers on "Philosophy and Theology" will be presented in room 109, while papers on "Education and Development" will be presented in room 110.

The "Top Paper Panel" will be held at 3:15 p.m. in room 510, with a presentation by University of Arkansas graduate student Lance Luttrell on "Optimizing Bible Translations: A Resource Constrained Scheduling Problem."

The forum will conclude with a keynote address by Dr. David Lyle Jeffrey, Distinguished Professor of Literature and the Humanities in the Honors College at Baylor University, at 4:45 p.m. in Hankamer 510.

Jeffrey, who has worked and taught at Baylor since 2000, holds a bachelor of arts degree from Wheaton College and a Ph.D. from Princeton. He was named Inaugural
Professor of the Year at the University of Ottawa in 1995, and was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 1996. Jeffrey also has been a guest professor at Peking University in Beijing since 1996. Jeffrey's current research interests involve the relationship of biblical humanities to literary and artistic expression.

Jeffrey's presentation on Saturday is on "Lessons from the Locker Room on Love and
Marriage: Literature, Theology and Biblical Exegesis."
For more information on the forum contact Beaty at (254) 710-4806 of visit www.baylor.edu/philosophy.