Keynote Speaker
FRANCIS J. BECKWITH, PH.D.
Beckwith is associate professor of philosophy and church-state studies at Baylor University, where he teaches courses in the departments of philosophy and political science and the J. M. Dawson Institute for Church-State Studies. He holds five earned degrees, including the Ph.D. in philosophy from Fordham University and the Master of Juridical Studies from the Washington University School of Law, St. Louis.
Beckwith is the author or editor of more than 15 books, including Relativism: Feet Firmly Planted in Mid-Air (Baker, 1998), To Everyone An Answer: A Case for the Christian Worldview (InterVarsity, 2004), Law, Darwinism, and Public Education (Rowman & Littlefield, 2003), and Defending Life: A Moral and Legal Case Against Abortion Choice (Cambridge University Press, 2007).
He has published in a variety of academic journals, including Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy, Ethics & Public Policy, International Philosophical Quarterly, Public Affairs Quarterly, Journal of Social Philosophy, Hastings Constitutional Law Quarterly, San Diego Law Review, Journal of Law & Religion, Social Theory & Practice, Catholic Social Science Review, Nevada Law Journal, Philosophia Christi, Journal of Medical Ethics, Journal of Medicine & Philosophy, and Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society.
A former president of the Evangelical Theological Society (2007) and board member of both the Society of Christian Philosophers (2000-2002) and the Evangelical Philosophical Society (1998-2001), Inside the Vatican magazine selected Beckwith as one of the top ten people of 2007. He has been quoted in a wide range of media, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Dallas Morning News, Christianity Today, The Deseret News, National Catholic Register, America, and The Las Vegas Review-Journal.
Beckwith has been a full-time faculty member at a variety of different academic institutions, including the University of Nevada at Las Vegas, Whittier College, Trinity International University, and Princeton University, where he served as a 2002-2003 Madison Research Fellow in the Department of Politics. He and his wife, Frankie, live in Woodway, Texas. His website is www.francisbeckwith.com
