Please forward me the news...

If you have an event upcoming, especially a conference, please email me at Mark_W_Osler@baylor.edu. I hate it when I get one of those folded cards announcing a great conference... three days before it is scheduled to begin.

What about our fellow travelers in secular institutions?

Yesterday I was in Washington for the arguments in Claiborne and Rita, two sentencing cases before the Supreme Court. Waiting for the session to begin, I fell into conversation with a professor from the University of Virginia Law School. He struck me as a scholar who integrates his faith with his thinking about the law, despite working within a secular institution (UVA).

It would seem that our group has something to offer such fellow-travelers, many of whom might welcome an open discussion of faith issues in a law school context.

The Sacred and The Secular

One of the challenges of teaching law in a religiously-affiliated school is the inherent tension in providing faith-grounded professional training for a thoroughly secular profession. The courtroom contains a flag, but no cross, star, or crescent, and in nearly all contexts within the practice of law faith issues lie hidden.

Thus, we face a troubling challenge. On the one hand, we can err by conforming to the norm and de-contenting our curriculums of the very mention of faith. On the other, we may err by rooting our practices in an overt faith which will then be banned once our students enter the practice of law.

What we struggle to create is something between these two; competence as a professional within a vocation, consistent with and driven by faith. How do we get there?

If you're in L.A., and free on Friday...

Dean Kevin Worthen of BYU tipped me off to this conference sponsored by the J. Rueben Clark Society on Friday and Saturday (February 16 & 17) at Pepperdine. It sounds like a great opportunity-- which apparently others have noticed, since 500 participants have already signed up.

Question Two: Should we have a formal membership?

Up to this point, the Religiously Affiliated Law Schools have put together a conference every other year, with little connected activity between those conferences. There is no formal membership list; those schools with a religious affiliation were simply invited to the conferences. At our last meeting, in 2006 at Baylor, we agreed to a more formal structure, including a standing executive committee.

As we move forward, should we formalize membership in the group?

Question One: Our next meeting...

As has already been announced, our next meeting will be held in 2008 at Boston College. Are there topics or themes that people would like to explore at that time? Please enter your comments below.