Lipscomb University is pleased to host the 29th annual Christian Scholars’ Conference, June 25-27, 2009, under the theme, “The Power of Narrative.” Plenary speakers Billy Collins (US Poet Laureate, 2001-2003), Marilynne Robinson (Pulitzer Prize Winner, 2005), Hubert G. Locke, and Barbara Brown Taylor will stimulate dialogue on the intersection of faith, academics, and narrative's captivating quality. Paper and Panel sessions highlight the conference, bringing together fellow academics for collaboration and dialogue.

We invite you to participate!

To register for the three-day conference click here.

Hubert Locke
Thursday, June 25, Free
Noon, Collins Alumni Auditorium
Lipscomb University campus

Locke, a moral leader, author, Holocaust scholar, and authority on police and urban affairs, is the retired professor and Dean Emeritus of the Daniel J. Evans School of Public Affairs at the University of Washington. His research and publications on the role of the churches during the Holocaust have earned him national as well as international acclaim. His writings on the criminal justice system have been published widely, and his essays have appeared in The New York Times.

Barbara Brown Taylor
Thursday, June 25, Free
4 p.m., Collins Alumni Auditorium
Lipscomb University campus

Taylor, an acclaimed memoirist, teaches religion at Piedmont College in northeast Georgia. In recent years, she has lectured on preaching at Yale, Princeton and Duke Universities. A columnist for The Christian Century and commentator on Georgia Public Broadcasting, she is the author of eleven books, including When God is Silent and Home By Another Way.

Billy Collins
Friday, June 26, Free
7:30 p.m., Collins Alumni Auditorium
Lipscomb University campus

Collins was selected as United States Poet Laureate, 2001-2003. His work has appeared in a variety of periodicals including The New Yorker, The Paris Review, and The American Scholar. His poems have been read on National Public Radio and his poetry readings are often standing-room-only events. Billy Collins has published eight collections of poetry, including Questions About Angels, The Art of Drowning, Picnic, Lightning and The Trouble With Poetry and Other Poems.

Marilynne Robinson
Saturday, June 27, Free
10:45 a.m., Collins Alumni Auditorium
Lipscomb University Campus

Robinson was awarded this week with the Orange Prize for fiction, a British award for female writers around the world, for her latest work Home. In 2005 she won the Pulitzer Prize for Gilead. Gilead is the fictional story of three generations of Congregationalist pastors in the small town of Gilead. The story is told through the 1956 diary entries of Rev. John Ames, the third generation pastor. In Home, the prodigal son of another pastor in Gilead, Jack, returns home after 20 years to make peace with his past.