Francis J. Beckwith

rdf:langString Francis J. Beckwith

rdf:langString Francis J. Beckwith

rdf:langString Francis J. Beckwith

rdf:langString Francis J. "Frank" Beckwith (born November 3, 1960) is an American philosopher, professor, scholar, speaker, writer, and lecturer. He is currently Professor of Philosophy & Church-State Studies, Affiliate Professor of Political Science and Associate Director of the Graduate Program in Philosophy, at Baylor University, where he first served as Associate Director of Baylor's J. M. Dawson Institute of Church-State Studies. Beckwith works in the areas of ethics, legal and political philosophy, philosophy of religion, and church-state jurisprudence. Beckwith is well known for his legal and philosophical work on abortion, arguing in defense of the sanctity of life in several academic publications including his 2007 book Defending Life, published by Cambridge University Press, and his 1993 book, Politically Correct Death, published by Baker Publishing Group. He has also published multiple books examining current philosophical questions regarding religion, law and politics. His 2015 book, Taking Rites Seriously: Law, Politics and the Reasonableness of Faith, (Cambridge University Press), was the winner of the prestigious American Academy of Religion's 2016 Book Award for Excellence in the Study of Religion in the category of Constructive-Reflective Studies. In May 2007, he returned to the Catholicism of his youth, after decades as an Evangelical Protestant. This inspired him to write a book describing his faith journey, titled Return to Rome: Confessions of an Evangelical Catholic published by Brazos Press. It is compared with Scott Hahn's Rome Sweet Home, as a significant work of Catholic Apologetics.