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2024 Speakers


Meet the Speakers

The 2024 CSC will feature 5 diverse and stimulating plenary events, all under the theme which will be announced soon.

Plenary Events

Frank and Della Pack Plenary Speaker

Dr. David French, New York Times columnist and distinguished visiting professor of public policy at Lipscomb University, will deliver the 2024 Frank and Della Pack Plenary Lecture. Prior to beginning his work as an opinion columnist with the New York Times in January, Dr. French was a senior editor at The Dispatch, which he helped launch, and a contributing writer at The Atlantic. He also served as a senior writer for National Review and as a senior fellow at the National Review Institute. The majority of his career was devoted to practicing law, working in both commercial and constitutional litigation. In 2006, he joined the United States Army Reserve as a judge advocate general. He deployed to Iraq in 2007 and served in Diyala Province, where he was awarded a Bronze Star. During his legal career, he litigated in federal courts and served as a lecturer at Cornell Law School. Dr. French is also a New York Times bestselling author. His most recent book is Divided We Fall: America’s Secession Threat and How to Restore Our Nation. Dr. French is a graduate of Harvard Law School and Lipscomb University.

Fred D. Gray Plenary in Human and Civil Rights Speaker

Dr. Esau McCaulley, author and associate professor of New Testament at Wheaton College, will deliver the eighth annual Fred D. Gray Plenary in Human and Civil Rights

Dr. McCaulley’s research and writing focus on New Testament theology. He completed his doctoral studies at the University of St. Andrews where he studied under the direction of scholar N.T. Wright. His doctoral dissertation, entitled Sharing in the Son’s Inheritance, looks at the role Jewish messianism played in Paul’s argument in Galatians that Jesus has made believers heirs in the Messiah to the Abrahamic promises. 

In 2019 he published the award-winning book Reading While Black, the timing of which happened to coincide with a widespread national conversation on race. Since then, his work has continued to expand into more public theology, including a children’s book entitled Josey Johnson’s Hair and the Holy Spirit. He is a contributing opinion writer for the New York Times. His writings have also appeared in places such as The Atlantic, Washington Post and Christianity Today. 

Plenary Speaker

Prof. N.T. (Tom) Wright is Senior Research Fellow at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford University. He is one of the world's leading Bible scholars, with expertise in Ancient Judaism and Early Christianity, the New Testament, and Biblical Studies. He is also Emeritus Professor at the University of St. Andrews and the former Bishop of Durham. He has published over 85 books including: The Case for the Psalms; How God Became King; Simply Jesus; After You Believe; Surprised by Hope; Simply Christian; The New Testament and the People of God; Jesus and the Victory of God; The Resurrection of the Son of God; and most recently, Paul and the Faithfulness of God. He is co-founder of N.T. Wright Online which features over 40 online courses.

Click here to read more about Wright on our news page.

John T. Willis Plenary Speaker

The 2024 John T. Willis Plenary speaker will be announced soon.

 

Robert E. and Bonnie Cone Hooper Plenary Event

The 2024 Robert E. and Bonnie Cone Hooper plenary event will be announced soon.

Lectures

Landon Saunders' Lecturer on the Human Being: the Nexus of World and Faith

Information about the 2024 Landon Saunders Lecture will be announced soon.

 

Gailyn Van Rheenen Lecturer in Mission and World Christianity

Information about the 2024 Gailyn Van Rheenen Lecture will be announced soon.

 

Everett Ferguson Lecturer in Early Christian Studies

Information about the 2024 Everett Ferguson Lecture will be announced soon.

 

Join us in 2024!

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James Cone with conferee at the CSC in 2017

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Pulitzer Prize winner Marilynne Robinson delivering the CSC plenary address

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Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), delivering the CSC plenary address.

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US Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith delivering the CSC plenary address

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David Brooks engaging conferees during breakfast at the CSC

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