Below are the featured main speakers of the convocation. Panel participants and facilitators of break-out sessions also will share their expertise and insights; they will be introduced at the convocation. Please note that this list is subject to change.

EMCEE:

* Eric Metaxas - Author and Humorist

SPEAKERS:

* Stratford Caldecott - UK Director of the G.K. Chesterton Institute for Faith and Culture
* Jerry Eisley - Director, Washington Arts Group
* Dr. John Franke - Professor of Theology, Biblical Seminary
* Dr. Tom Howard - Lecturer and Author
* Tony Jones - Author and National Coordinator of Emergent Village
* Dr. Louis Markos - Author and Professor of English, Houston Baptist University
* Frederica Mathewes-Green - Author and Social Commentator
* Joseph Pearce - Writer-in-Residence and Assistant Professor of Literature.
* Norman Stone - Producer/Director
* Gregory Wolfe - Writer in Residence at Seattle Pacific University; Founder/Editor Image

Stratford Caldecott - UK Director of the G.K. Chesterton Institute for Faith and Culture
Stratford Caldecott is a Senior Research Fellow in Theology at St Benet’s Hall, Oxford, and one of the directors and founders in 2006 of ResSource (www.ressource.co.uk), an Oxford-based educational enterprise associated with the international journal of faith and culture, Second Spring (www.secondspring.co.uk), of which he is the principle editor. He is also on the editorial boards of The Chesterton Review and Communio. The author of The Power of the Ring: The Spiritual Vision Behind The Lord of the Rings and The Seven Sacraments: Entering the Mysteries of God, he has written and published widely on Christian theology, liturgy and culture in magazines and newspapers on both sides of the Atlantic. Formerly an academic publisher in both the UK and the USA with Routledge, HarperCollins and T&T Clark, he has taught at Plater College in Oxford and at the Newman Institute in Ireland. He is married to the writer and catechist Léonie Caldecott. They have three children and live in the Cotswolds near Oxford.

Jerry Eisley - Director, Washington Arts Group
Jerry Eisley (B.A. from Westmont College and M.A. from Wheaton College) is owner and director of Foxhall Gallery, established in 1976 as a commercial gallery in the heart of the nation's capital. He founded the Washington Arts Group in 1978 to encourage spirituality in the arts and to help artists discover the relationship between professionalism and discipleship. November 30, 2006 was named “Foxhall Gallery Day” by proclamation of the Mayor of Washington, D.C., in honor of the cultural contributions made by both the Gallery and the Washington Arts Group. Mr. Eisley is a founding Vice President of the Evermay Society and an Advisory Board Member of the Brewing Culture. He has served on numerous other boards and arts committees, and he writes and lectures widely on the arts and their connection to society. Eisley resides in the greater Washington, D.C. area with his wife Twila and daughters Rachel and Abigail.

Dr. John Franke - Professor of Theology, Biblical Seminary
John R. Franke is professor of theology at Biblical Seminary in Hatfield, PA. He holds the DPhil degree from the University of Oxford and is interested in engaging postmodern thought and culture from the perspective of missional Christian faith in order to explore the opportunities and challenges presented for the witness and ministry of the gospel in the contemporary setting. In addition to teaching at Biblical, John has lectured and taught on the relationships between theology, mission, and culture in the United States, Canada, England, Australia, and New Zealand. He is actively involved in research and writing and in addition to publishing numerous articles and reviews he is the coauthor of Beyond Foundationalism: Shaping Theology in a Postmodern Context and the author of The Character of Theology and Barth for Armchair Theologians as well as the editor of Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1-2 Samuel in the Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture series. His most recent book, Manifold Witness: Truth and Christian Pluralism is forthcoming from Abingdon Press.

In addition, John serves on the coordinating group for Emergent US and has been appointed as a representative of Emergent US to the Faith and Order Commission of the National Council of Churches as well as serving as chair of the Evangelical Theology and Postmodernity study group of the Evangelical Theological Society and chair of the Evangelical Theology Group of the American Academy of Religion.

Dr. Tom Howard - Lecturer and Author
Dr. Thomas Howard taught English literature for 25 years at St John’s Seminary in Brighton, Massachusetts after earning a Ph.D. from New York University. He previously has taught at St. John’s seminary in Boston, at Gordon College in Massachusetts, at St. Bernard’s School in New York, and at The Kingsmead School in England. Howard is highly acclaimed writer and scholar. Dr. Howard’s articles have appeared for the last 30 years in the New York Times Book Review, Redbook, Modern Age and many scholarly publications. He was a friend of C.S. Lewis and an expert on the work of Charles Williams, both of whom, along with Tolkien, were members of The Inklings. His books including Christ the Tiger, Chance or the Dance?, Hallowed be This House, Evangelical is Not Enough, If Your Mind Wanders at Mass, On Being Catholic, and The Secret of New York Revealed.

Tony Jones - Author and National Coordinator of Emergent Village
Tony Jones is the national coordinator of Emergent Village (www.emergentvillage.com), and a doctoral fellow and senior research fellow in practical theology at Princeton Theological Seminary. He is the author of many books, including Postmodern Youth Ministry: Exploring Cultural Shift, Cultivating Authentic Community, Creating Holistic Connections and The Sacred Way: Spiritual Practices for Everyday Life, and he is a sought after speaker and consultant in the areas of emerging church, postmodernism, and spirituality. Tony lives with his wife, Julie, and their three children in Edina, Minnesota.

Dr. Louis Markos - Author and Professor of English, Houston Baptist University
Louis Markos is a Professor in English at Houston Baptist University, where he teaches courses on British Romantic Poetry, Literary Theory, the Classics, Victorian Poetry and Prose, C. S. Lewis, Lord of the Rings, Epic, and Film. He holds an M.A. and Ph.D. in English from the University of Michigan.

Dr. Markos is the author of Lewis Agonistes: How C. S. Lewis can Train us to Wrestle with the Modern and Postmodern World, and of two new books due out in 2007: From Achilles to Christ: Why Christians Should Read the Pagan Classics and Pressing Forward: Alfred, Lord Tennyson and the Victorian Age. He has also produced two lecture series with the Teaching Company, and has had articles published in such journals as Christianity Today, Touchstone, Theology Today, Christian Research Journal, Mythlore, Christian Scholar’s Review, Saint Austin Review, and American Arts Quarterly. He has spoken on such topics as C. S. Lewis, ancient Greece, ancient Rome, and Dante in over a dozen states and in Oxford. He is committed to the concept of the Professor as Public Educator and believes that knowledge must not be walled up in the Academy but must be disseminated to all who have ears to hear.

Frederica Mathewes-Green - Author and Social Commentator
Frederica Mathewes-Green is from Charleston, S.C. and received an M.A. in Theological Studies from Virginia Episcopal Seminary. Her work has appeared in such diverse publications as the Washington Post, Christianity Today, Smithsonian, the Los Angeles Times, First Things, Books & Culture, Sojourners, Touchstone, and the Wall Street Journal. She is a regular columnist for Beliefnet.com, and she writes movie reviews for National Review Online. In the past, her commentaries have been heard on National Public Radio’s All Things Considered and Morning Edition. Her essays were selected for Best Christian Writing in 2000, 2002, 2004, and 2006. She has published 7 books and over 600 articles.

She has been interviewed on PrimeTime Live, the Diane Rehm Show, the 700 Club, PBS, CNN, NBC, Fox News, and by Time, Newsweek, the New Republic, USA Today, the Chicago Tribune, the Philadelphia Inquirer, and the New York Times. She has also appeared as a speaker over 400 times, at places like Yale, Harvard, Princeton, Wellesley, and Cornell; at the Smithsonian Institute, the Aspen Institute, Washington National Cathedral, the Los Angeles Times Book Festival, the American Academy of Religion, the Veritas Forum, the Family Research Council, and the National Right to Life Committee.

Joseph Pearce - Writer-in-Residence and Assistant Professor of Literature, Ave Maria University
The internationally acclaimed author of 14 books, which include bestsellers such as G.K. Chesterton: Wisdom and Innocence, Literary Converts, Tolkien: Man and Myth, Solzhenitsyn: A Soul in Exile, and Old Thunder: A Life of Hilaire Belloc, Joseph Pearce is a world-recognized biographer of modern Christian literary figures. Pearce’s books have been published and translated into over eight languages. As Writer in Residence and professor of literature at Ave Maria University in Naples, Florida since September 2001, Pearce also serves as Editor of the Saint Austin Review, a trans-Atlantic monthly cultural review. He is also contributing writer to a number of newspapers and magazines in the United Kingdom, U.S. and Canada. He is also a regular guest on national and international television and radio programs, and he has served as consultant for film documentaries on J.R.R. Tolkien and Alexander Solzhenitsyn.

Norman Stone - Producer/Director
An experienced, award-winning director, Stone has directed and produced TV and film since 1975. Employed as the BBC’s youngest producer/director, he initially worked in the "Everyman" documentary strand and established his career in 1984 when he invented, developed and directed Shadowlands for BBC1. This gained him two Bafta awards, an International Emmy, and the Prague D’Or for Best Director. Stone has directed a number of top TV dramas including two "Miss Marples" and two "Catherine Cooksons", winning another International Emmy for "The Black Velvet Gown" starring Bob Peck and Janet McTeer. Other awards include a Bafta for the Omnibus special on the life of Dudley Moore, "After the Laughter", an Andrew Cross Award for best documentary of the year for "The Tartan Pimpernel" and a Golden Remi for his first feature film "Man Dancin' ", which he created and directed in his home town of Glasgow.

Gregory Wolfe - Writer in Residence at Seattle Pacific University; Founder and Editor of Image
Gregory Wolfe is Writer in Residence at Seattle Pacific University and the founder and editor of Image, one of America’s leading literary quarterlies. He also directs the Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing at SPU. He received his M.A. in English literature from Oxford University. Recently, he served as a judge for the National Book Awards. Wolfe has published essays, reviews, and articles in numerous journals. His essays have been anthologized in collections such as The Best Christian Writing and The Best Catholic Writing. Among his books are Intruding Upon the Timeless: Meditations on Art, Faith, and Mystery, Malcolm Muggeridge: A Biography and Sacred Passion: The Art of William Schickel. Wolfe is also the editor of The New Religious Humanists: A Reader and the co-author of several more books. A collection of essays, Beauty Will Save the World, will be published by ISI Books in 2008. Wolfe is currently writing a book entitled The Company of Good Letters: How Erasmus and His Circle of Renaissance Christian Humanists Shaped the Modern World.