When his 95 theses were nailed to the castle-church door of Wittenberg on October 31, 1517, Martin Luther could hardly have imagined the massive developments that would take place within the church, family, politics, science, and society.

The effects of the Reformation remain with us to this day; in fact, the world has been shaped and formed in far-reaching ways by the legacy of the Reformation.
Southern Seminary is pleased to host the first North American conference for Refo500, a global project to direct attention toward 2017 and the quincentenary of the beginning of the Reformation.

Conference dates will be September 27-28, 2010 in Lexington, Kentucky.

Speakers

Karla Apperloo-Boersma is Project Manager of Refo500. She was trained and has worked many years as a management assistant in various companies. In recent years she worked as professional church worker and as freelancer for several denominational organizations as trainer, project manager, product developer, advisor and editor. In 2009 she worked for the Institute for Reformation Research of the Theological University Apeldoorn, directed the exhibition “Calvin & Us” in Dordrecht, and co-edited Calvijn en de Nederlanden. At the moment she edits the memorial catalogue Heidelberg Catechism 1563-2013 and runs a family with three teenagers.

Joel R. Beeke is president and professor of systematic theology and homiletics at Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary, a pastor of the Heritage Netherlands Reformed Congregation in Grand Rapids, Michigan, editor of Banner of Sovereign Grace Truth, editorial director of Reformation Heritage Books, president of Inheritance Publishers, and vice-president of the Dutch Reformed Translation Society. He has written, co-authored, or edited sixty books (most recently, Living for the Glory of God: An Introduction to Calvinism, Meet the Puritans, Contagious Christian Living, Reformation Heroes, Calvin for Today, Walking as He Walked, and Striving Against Satan), and contributed fifteen hundred articles to Reformed books, journals, periodicals, and encyclopaedias. His Ph.D. is in Reformation and Post-Reformation theology from Westminster Theological Seminary. He is frequently called upon to lecture at seminaries and to speak at Reformed conferences around the world.

Dr. Fesko is a minister and former church planter in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. He has also taught systematic theology for Reformed Theological Seminary, prior to his appointment at Westminster Seminary California. His present research interests include the integration of biblical and systematic theology, soteriology, ecclesiology, and sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Reformed theology. He is a member of the Society of Biblical Literature, the American Academy of Religion, and the Evangelical Theological Society, and a friend of the Institute for Biblical Research. He is also the author of Diversity Within the Reformed Tradition: Supra- and Infralapsarianism in Calvin, Dort, and Westminster; Last Things First: Unlocking Genesis 1-3 with the Christ of Eschatology; and Justification: Understanding the Classical Reformed Doctrine.
Timothy George is the founding dean of Beeson Divinity School and has been at Beeson since its inception in 1988. He teaches church history, historical theology, and theology of the Reformers. He is currently serving as senior editor for Christianity Today along with serving on the editorial advisory boards of First Things, Harvard Theological Review, Christian History, and Books & Culture. A prolific author, he has written more than 20 books and regularly contributes to scholarly journals. His Theology of the Reformers is the standard textbook on Reformation theology in many schools and seminaries and has been translated into multiple languages, most recently in Chinese (2009). George is a member of the project known as Evangelicals and Catholics Together and also serves on the International Baptist-Catholic Dialogue team. An ordained minister in the Southern Baptist Convention, he has served churches in Georgia, Massachusetts, Kentucky, and Alabama.

David W. Hall is Senior Pastor of Midway Presbyterian Church outside of Atlanta, GA, the general editor of the Calvin 500 series (P&R), and the executive director of Calvin 500, the Quincentenary Conference and Commemorative Tour. He received his Ph.D. in Christian intellectual thought from Whitefield Theological Seminary. In the past, he has served on the Membership Committee for the Evangelical Theological Society and on the NAPARC Committee to commemorate the 350th anniversary of the Westminster Assembly. He is the author of numerous works including: The Legacy of John Calvin: His Influence on the Modern World, A Theological Guide to Calvin’s Institutes: Essays and Analysis and Paradigms in Polity: Classic Readings in Reformed and Presbyterian Church Government (with Joseph Hall).

Frieder Hepp is director of the Kurpfälzisches Museum in Heidelberg and professor at Ruprecht-Karls-University. He wrote his dissertation on the topic of politics and religion and is well known for his expertise in the history, culture, and arts of early modern Europe.

Erik Herrmann is Assistant Professor of Historical Theology at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, and presently serves as the chair for the seminary’s Quincentenary celebration of the Reformation. He received his Ph.D. from the same institution in 2005 in Renaissance and Reformation Studies. In 2006, he was a Stipendiat at the Institut für Europäische Geschichte in Mainz. His area of interest and research continue to be in Luther and the patristic and medieval antecedents to his thought and exegesis, as well as the modern reception and interpretation of Luther since the Luther Renaissance of the 19th and 20th centuries. He has served as a guest lecturer at the Luther Academy in Riga, Latvia; the Församlingsfakulteten in Göteborg, Sweden; and Comenius University of Bratislava, Slovakia.

Frank A. James III is Provost and Professor of Historical Theology at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in Massachusetts. Most recently he served as the third President of Reformed Theological Seminary/Orlando (2004-2009). He has two doctorates, a D.Phil. in History from Oxford University and a Ph.D. in Theology from Westminster Theological Seminary/Pennsylvania. Currently he serves as General Editor of the Peter Martyr Library, as well as the Editorial Board for the Reformation Commentary on Scriptures and is Contributing Editor at Christian History Magazine. He has written or edited 8 books and published over 50 articles in popular and academic journals. He has given lectures at distinguished universities and research institutes around the globe including: Oxford University, University of Zurich, University of Padua, Italy. He was awarded a Lilly Research Grant in 1999 and the Randall Academic Award in 2008. In 2006, he gave the Reformation Heritage Lectures at Beeson Divinity School at Samford University.

Herman Selderhuis is Director of Refo500 and Professor of Church History and Church Polity at the Theological University in Apeldoorn. He is also President of the International Calvin Congress, Research Curator of the John A Lasco Library (Emden, Germany) and Chief Editor of the series Reformed Historical Theology/ Reformierte Historische Theologie ( Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht). His books include Marriage and Divorce in the Thought of Martin Bucer and John Calvin: A Pilgrims Life. Selderhuis is on the board of various academic institutions in Europe and North-America.

Schedule: http://events.sbts.edu/refo500/schedule/

Seminars: http://events.sbts.edu/refo500/seminars/

Registration: http://events.sbts.edu/refo500/registration/

Lodging: http://events.sbts.edu/refo500/lodging/

Contact: http://events.sbts.edu/refo500/contact/

[Editor’s note: Original URLs (links) referenced in this article are no longer valid, so the links have been removed.]