Francis J. Beckwith - Education and Career

Education and Career

Beckwith was born in New York City and now resides with his wife in Texas. Beckwith is a graduate of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (B.A. in Philosophy), Simon Greenleaf School of Law, Anaheim (MA in apologetics), Fordham University (Ph.D. and M.A. in philosophy) and the Washington University School of Law, St. Louis (Master of Juridical Studies).

A condensed version of Beckwith's 1984 MA thesis on the Bahá'í Faith was published by Bethany House in 1985.

Other social ethics questions to which he has contributed include the influence of relativism on public culture, affirmative action and discrimination, same-sex marriage, bioethics generally (including cloning), and interpreting constitutional issues as they touch on religious liberty and practices, such as the inclusion of intelligent design in public school science curricula.

Beckwith has held academic appointments at Whittier College (1996–1997) and Trinity International University (1997–2002).

In November 2005, Professor Beckwith became the President-elect of the Evangelical Theological Society, a professional organization of theologians. He is also a member of the American Philosophical Association's Committee on Philosophy and Law.

In May 2007 Professor Beckwith made public his conversion to the Roman Catholic Church, which took place in late April 2007, and resigned as both President of the Evangelical Theological Society and member of the society, effective May 7, 2007.