About Keston

Baylor University established the Keston Center for Religion, Politics and Society to receive, maintain, preserve, expand and make available to scholars the Keston Archives and Library, the world’s most comprehensive artificially assembled collection of materials on religious persecution under communist and other totalitarian regimes. Originally located at Keston College in Oxford, the Keston collection arrived in Waco in 2007. The Keston Center became part of the Baylor Libraries in 2012.

Keston Institute Council of Management Chair Xenia Dennen states, "The archive contains many examples of heroism, texts which will one day become spiritual classics. By collecting material on all religions and Christian denominations during the communist period, Keston created a source of exceptional value for all those who recognize the importance of the 20th century religious witnesses in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union: they defended freedom of mind and spirit in the face of a political system which claimed total control over all aspects of human life. They and their message must not be forgotten."