The 2009 Pruit Symposium examined the impact of Baptists on 400 years of history. Through plenary sessions, panel discussions, and presented papers, we sought a scholarly examination of Baptist tradition while commemorating this heritage. An outstanding array of academics and theologians offered insight and invited discussion on the mark Baptists have left upon both past and present.

Christian movements continue to exert significant influence in North America and increasingly in Latin America, Africa, Eastern Europe, and Asia. The growth of world Christianity since the eighteenth century confounds conventional expectations of modernity and secularization, challenged the centrality of the "West" in traditional narratives of Christianity, and presented an intriguing religious aspect of the postmodern condition.

Slavery, Oppression, and Prejudice: Ancient Roots and Modern Implications will assemble an interdisciplinary group of scholars for an international conference addressing the nature, origins, and implications of the practice of slavery from antiquity through modernity, with special attention to the wide-ranging moral and theological responses the phenomenon has prompted among Christians.

American higher education, by some measures, has never been in better shape. More students are devoting more time and resources to gain more education than ever before. Yet more does not mean better. Measured by other criteria, American higher education faces significant challenges, not the least of which is a loss of the moral direction once part and parcel of the educative process. Scholars across the political spectrum disagree about the causes and possible remedies for this loss. However, they by and large agree that the failure of higher education to provide any kind of coherent moral vision for life constitutes a critical problem for contemporary culture.

Baylor's Department of Economics in conjunction with the Institute for Faith and Learning will host "Christianity and Economics: Integrating Faith and Learning in Economic Scholarship" November 7-9, 2002. Jointly sponsored by Baylor's Pruit Memorial Endowment and the Lilly Fellows Program in Humanities and the Arts, the event will bring together the annual Pruit Memorial Symposium and the second annual Lilly National Research Conference. The Pruit Memorial Symposium will be organized around a keynote address and several plenary sessions. The keynote speaker will address the general conference theme and the plenary speakers will cover the various aspects of the role of the Christian economist.

Augustine's Confessions is an autobiographical account of his journey from a modest childhood in North Africa, through his conversion in a garden in Milan, to a lengthy and distinguished career as the Bishop of Hippo. Using enormous literary and rhetorical skill, Augustine chronicles a story of education and miseducation and narrates a spiritual quest from the wasteland of sin to the liberation of salvation. The freedom that emerges permits him to move from faith to understanding and to understand the ultimate underpinnings of the relationship between God and the soul. The impact of the Confessions on subsequent Christian theology, literature, history, and philosophy, in both the Catholic and Protestant traditions, is unparalleled.

Since the iconoclastic controversies of the eighth and ninth centuries, the visual arts have been the subject of much ecclesiastical discussion and contention. In particular, since the mid-1960s Protestant scholars and clergy have been paying more attention to the potential role of the visual arts in the theology and liturgy of the Christian church. As a result, numerous programs were begun under a variety of nomenclature, e.g., Religion and the Arts, Theology and the Arts, etc. Despite the success of these endeavors, two basic problems have persisted that this symposium hopes to address.

America's material state has arguably never been better, but many contemporary observers express deep concern for our democracy. Some point to complex pathologies that afflict important segments of society. Others note that disaffection and even cynicism pervade the electorate at large. Still others contend that a public spirited concern for the common good is on the wane. In response to such troubling observations, calls for revitalizing our sense of citizenship and those conditions that nurture it have become increasingly frequent. Some scholars argue, however, that revitalizing citizenship is not possible within the parameters of America's prevailing public philosophy--political liberalism. Others insist that only by drawing from the deep wells of our liberal tradition can we hope to reinvigorate democracy. Baylor University invites you to join us as we discuss these important concerns through plenary sessions, panel discussions, and presented papers.

This symposium explores a topic of both scholarly and practical interest, for its analysis of how religion has shaped Southern culture is not just an ivory-tower matter for artists and intellectuals; it is a topic that has relevance to the world in which we conduct our lives each day. It is our hope that the symposium this year will not only raise pertinent questions about the role of religion in Southern life, but actually will help to clarify the long-lasting and ongoing interplay of Christianity and culture in our region.