Bi-annual Whitworth-Muldrow lecture to feature Baylor University professor

March 2, 2011 - Baylor University professor Dr. Ralph Wood will be the featured speaker at Shorter University’s Whitworth-Muldrow Lecture on Thursday, March 10.

The lecture is open to the public and will begin at 4 p.m. inside the university’s Austin Moses Room.

Dr. Wood, who is also the 2010 Randall Chair of Christian Culture at Rhode Island’s Providence College, will deliver his lecture titled, “Branding with the Cross: Flannery O’Connor and the Comedy of Christian Formation.”

He is a board member of the Conference on Christianity and Literature, editor-at-large for The Christian Century, book review editor for Perspectives in Religious Studies, and an editorial board member of the Flannery O'Connor Review. Dr. Wood has also published more than 60 essays in these journals and others, including Modern Theology, Theology Today, Pro Ecclesia, Image, Mars Hill Review, First Things, Christianity and Literature, Anglican Theological Review, Religion and Literature, Literature and Belief, Books and Culture, as well as Literature and Theology.

Dr. Wood's most recent books include Contending for the Faith: The Church's Engagement with Culture (Baylor University, 2003), The Gospel According to Tolkien: Visions of the Kingdom in Middle-earth (Westminster John Knox, 2004), and Flannery O'Connor and the Christ-Haunted South (Eerdmans, 2004).

Shorter University’s Whitworth-Muldrow Lecture is given in memory of Sara Whitworth, daughter of former dean Charles Whitworth, and Frances Muldrow, Sara’s major professor at Shorter where she majored in French. Past lecturers have included a number of renowned scholars. The lectures explore themes in the humanities from within the context of the Judeo-Christian tradition.

Founded in 1873, Shorter University is a Christian college committed to excellence in education. Since 2003, U.S. News & World Report has ranked Shorter among the South’s best baccalaureate colleges, and the Princeton Review annually includes Shorter on its lists of best value and best Southeastern colleges. The university offers traditional bachelor’s degrees in 48 major areas as well as undergraduate degree programs for working adults, the Master of Business Administration, the Master of Education and the Master of Arts in Leadership. General education and calculus courses are offered in an online format, and Shorter recently launched online programs that lead toward the Associate of Science, the Bachelor of Business Administration, and the Master of Accountancy degrees. For more information, visit www.shorter.edu.

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