Christian Scholars' Conference 2012
Reconciliation: At the intersection of scholarship and practice.
June 7-9, 2012
Lipscomb University, Nashville, Tennessee
Welcome to the Thomas H. Olbricht Christian Scholars’ Conference whose mission is: “To create and nurture an intellectual and Christian community that joins individuals and institutions to stimulate networks of scholarly dialogue and collaboration.”
Our annual conference was created in 1981 under the direction of Thomas H. Olbricht, and is now hosted by Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tennessee. On June 7-9, 2012 the CSC theme will be “Reconciliation: At the Intersection of Scholarship and Practice.”
To encourage intellectual diversity and stimulating academic interaction, the CSC will welcome more than 500 participating scholars from over 100 different universities engaged in 100 paper, panel or performance sessions ~ all framed by four plenary speakers whose work generates heuristic interest for a variety of disciplines. In 2012 Fred D. Gray, Miroslav Volf, Immaculée Ilibagiza, and Abraham Verghese will join our “family of scholars.”
Please join us in 2012 to create fresh networks of academic engagement and responsibility. If you would like to make a gift in honor of Thomas H. Olbricht to support the Thomas H. Olbricht Christian Scholars' Conference Endowment Fund please click here.
David Fleer
Director, Christian Scholars’ Conference
The 2012 Christian Scholars’ Conference general theme will focus on the theory and praxis of reconciliation and feature these plenary speakers:
Fred D. Gray
Lipscomb University proudly announces that it will confer an Honorary Doctorate of Laws upon veteran civil rights attorney Fred D. Gray in recognition of his remarkable achievements in civil rights legislation, the defense of Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Tuskegee Airmen, and for his life long devotion to Christ and His church.
The Honorary Doctorate is the highest honor the university is privileged to bestow and expresses Lipscomb University’s proactive vision for integration at all university levels as “integral to the university’s mission.”
Miroslav Volf
Miroslav Volf, the Henry B. Wright Professor of Theology at Yale University Divinity School and director of the Yale Center for Faith and Culture.
Abraham Verghese
Abraham Verghese, MD, MACP, author, professor at the Stanford University School of Medicine and founding director of the Center for Medical Humanities & Ethics at the University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio.
Immaculée Ilibagiza
Immaculée Ilibagiza, author of Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust, recipient of the 2007 Mahatma Gandhi Reconciliation and Peace Award, and founder of the Left to Tell Charitable Fund.
We invite scholars from a wide variety of disciplines in the liberal arts and sciences to develop their own academic research and to reflect on the integration of scholarship and faith.
Watch Reverend Dr. John Polkinghorne's 2011 CSC Plenary Address: "The Quest for Truth in Science and Theology."
From the Tokens show at the 2011 CSC, you can hear Lee Camp's interview with long time head of the Human Genome Project, and director of the NIH. They discuss questions regarding scripture and science, faith and evolution.
From the same Tokens show, you can also hear Lee Camp's interview with Emmy Award winning actor, Hal Holbrook. Holbrook discusses the nature of Mark Twain's religious skepticism, and performs Twain's "The War Prayer."