The Conference on Christianity & Literature

Southeast Region

Regional director: Paul Hesselink, Covenant College (hesselink@covenant.edu)

Southeast 2010 Regional Conference
“The Ethics of Literature”

April 8-10, 2010
Montreat College, Montreat, NC
Keynote Speaker: Don King, Ph.D.

In recent years, literary scholarship has been increasingly concerned with ethics, both as a theme in literature and as an approach to it. Where and how do ethical concerns interrelate with literature, literary scholarship, and the academy?

Papers suitable for a twenty-minute presentation [approx. 2,000-2,500 words] are invited on the following or related topics:

  • The ethics of literary pedagogy
  • The ethical nature and needs of the academy
  • Literature and socio-political ethics
  • Religious ethics in literature

We also welcome papers on other topics regarding the intersection of Christianity and literature. Send 250- to 500-word abstract AND a complete manuscript (MSWord or PDF electronic submissions only) by Dec. 15, 2009, to mdtowles@liberty.edu.

Or send hard copies to Dr. Matthew Towles, Assistant Professor of English, English Department, Liberty University, Lynchburg, VA 24502.

2009 Southeast Conference on Christianity and Literature

"Hebrew Melodies: The Old Testament as Literature;
The Old Testament in Literature"

Covenant College, Lookout Mountain, GA
Keynote Speaker: Scott C. Jones

Eighteen people presented papers at the April 2-4, 2009, conference at Covenant College in Lookout Mountain, GA. Scott C. Jones was the key-note speaker. The 2010 regional conference will be held April 8-10 at Montreat College.

Paul Hesselink, Covenant College, program chair

2008 Regional Conference

Christian Humanism in a Postmodern Age

Ralph C. Wood was the keynote speaker of the 2008 annual meeting of the Southeast Region. The conference was held April 10-12 at Wingate University, twenty-five miles east of Charlotte, NC. About 35 people attended at least one session, and approximately 50 heard the keynote address. Seven sessions were conducted in which a total of 23 academic papers were read.

John Sykes, program chair

2007 Southeast Region Conference
Literary Representations of the Politics of Religion: Christian Perspectives

The 2007 regional conference was at Loyola University New Orleans from April 12-14. Nathan Bracher of Texas A&M University was the featured guest speaker.

Peter S. Rogers, S.J., program chair

2006 Southeast Region Conference

Christian Witness in a World of Clashing Cultures

More than 30 people attended the 2006 Southeast Regional Conference at Anderson University in Anderson, South Carolina, from April 6-8. Keynote speaker was Dr. Wesley Kort, Chair of the Department of Religion at Duke University and a C.S. Lewis scholar. The theme was Christian Witness in a World of Clashing Cultures, and papers and sessions examined the literary intersection between Christianity and other cultures and traditions.

Dr. Margaret Wooten, (mwooten@ac.edu.) of Anderson University, chaired the conference.

Return to the CCL Regional Conferences page

Questions to Tammy Ditmore (tammy.ditmore@pepperdine.edu)

In the Latest Issue of Christianity & Literature:


Night Reading

Franz Wright

Lights coming on
   in windows;
windows lit all
   night long
suddenly dark --

He seems to sleep,
   head nested
in crossed arms
on the desk,
   as he listens

to the first raindrops
striking the window,
the faint roar
   of aircraft just

vanishing with
   moonlit trail
past the horizon,
the underlined phrase.

      Summer 2009