The C.S. Lewis Foundation Faculty Forum presents
the Faculty Forum Western Regional Spring Conference

The Christian Scholar in the Contemporary University:
A Place to Stand

Featured speakers and participants to include:

Paul Gooch, Ph.D.
Professor of Philosophy, Vice-Provost, University of Toronto; Research interests - Ancient philosophy, especially Plato, philosophy of religion, and biblical and theological studies; author of Reflections on Jesus and Socrates: Word and Silence, and Partial Knowledge: Philosophical Studies in Paul.

Kenneth G. Elzinga, Ph.D.
Professor of Economics, University of Virginia; Major research interest - antitrust economics; recipient of the Cavaliers' Distinguished Teaching Professorship and of the Commonwealth of Virginia's Outstanding Faculty Award; author of more than seventy academic publications and co-author of three mystery novels.

J. Stanley Mattson, Ph.D.
American Social and Intellectual Historian; Lecturer on C.S. Lewis, Christianity and Contemporary Culture and Higher Education, Founder and President, C.S. Lewis Foundation.

Rev. Ben Patterson
Campus Pastor, Westmont College; former Dean of the Chapel, Hope College, Holland, MI; author of Serving God: The Grand Essentials of Work & Worship; Waiting: Finding Hope When God Seems Silent; and Deepening Your Conversation with God.

Mary Poplin, Ph.D.
Professor of Education, Director of Teacher Education Internship/ Masters Program and The Institute for Education in Transformation, Claremont Graduate University; teaching interests include spirituality in education; primary author of "Voices from Inside: A Report on Schooling from Inside the Classroom."

"The Legitimacy of the Religious Voice Within the Mainstream University"
A Fred Friendly-style Seminar moderated by Hugh Hewitt:

A favorite of PBS viewers for over twenty years, these seminars employ a distinctive Socratic dialogue format. Through role playing, hypothetical scenarios and a skillful moderator, a diverse panel is compelled to confront complicated dilemmas, consider their own positions more fully and put themselves in another's shoes. The fascination for the audience comes, in part, from seeing panelists struggle to find their way through a thicket of wrenching decisions that compel them to confront knotty but essential issues in their own minds. The purpose of these seminars, as the late distinguished journalist and educator, Fred Friendly, saw it is: " . . . not to make up anybody's mind, but to open minds and to make the agony of decision making so intense that you can escape only by thinking."

Hugh Hewitt, J.D.
Professor at Chapman University Law School; partner in the law firm of Hewitt & McGuire, LLP; co-host, Life & Times, a weeknight television news and public affairs program of PBS Los Angeles affiliate, KCET-TV; host of award-winning PBS Series Searching for God in America; author of First Principles and The Embarrassed Believer: Resurrecting Christian Witness in the Age of Mockery.

Special Entertainment will include:

C.S. Lewis - My Life's Journey
a stage play starring David Payne

British actor and head of Rising Image Productions, Nashville, TN; performing 'C.S. Lewis - My Life's Journey,' a one-man dramatic presentation in two acts. Drawing its inspiration from the letters and biographical writings of Lewis, it is set in The Kilns in 1963 where Lewis is meeting with a group of visiting American writers. Recalling events that shaped his life, he not only explores the challenge that flows from his Christian commitment but strongly affirms the Christian faith to his successors in the world of academia.

Jessica Rivera, Soprano

A graduate of Pepperdine University and the USC Thornton School of Music, named the 1999 Young Artist of the Year first place winner by the National Association of Teachers of Singing - Los Angeles Chapter. In May 2001, she will make her Los Angeles Phiharmonic debut .

A Letter of Invitation:

Dear Colleague,

On behalf of the C.S. Lewis Foundation Faculty Forum initiative, I would like to invite you to join us for our first Western Regional Spring Conference, meeting on the campus of UCLA on the weekend of March 30-April 1, 2001.

Following the lead of C.S. Lewis, our theological orientation is one of "Mere Christianity." We are pleased, therefore, to bring together, for worship and work within the academic world, Christians of many traditions, including those of Orthodox, Roman and Anglo-Catholic, and all Protestant persuasions.

As our conference theme suggests, the weekend gathering will focus on defining the legitimate place of the Christian scholar - as teacher, mentor, artist, researcher, and/or administrator - within the contemporary university world. Clearly, any such claim to legitimacy cuts across the grain of the prevailing secular bias against religion in the public square and raises a number of important issues: