Providence, RI--Dr. F. Russell Hittinger, the Rev. Robert Randall Distinguished Professor in Christian Culture at Providence College, will be the featured speaker during Providence, Practical Reason and the Common Good, a symposium scheduled at the College on April 25-26, 2008.

Sponsored by the Humanities Program, the symposium will be held in Aquinas Lounge and is open to the public.

Hittinger will be one of several secular and religious scholars to present during the symposium.

Other presenters will include John Bowlin, the Rimmer and Ruth de Vries Associate Professor of Reformed Theology and Public Life at the Princeton University Theological Seminary; John Witte Jr., the Jonas Robitscher Emory University Professor of Law and director of the Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory; Rev. Stephen Brock of the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome; and Rev. Laurence Dewan, O.P. of Dominican University College in Canada.

The participants will be challenged to consider the relationship between the metaphysical and theological dimensions of divine governance and creaturely participation, on the one hand, and moral theory, on the other.

Hittinger, who is the College's fourth Randall Professor, holds the Warren Chair of Catholic Studies at the University of Tulsa, where he is also a research professor in the School of Law. He has been a visiting professor at Princeton University, New York University, Charles University School of Law in Prague, and at the Pontifical Università Regina Apostolorum in Rome.

Hittinger is widely published, with more than 100 articles and reviews to his credit, as well as scores of papers, lectures, and several books. He specializes in areas where philosophy, religion, and law intersect.

The Rev. Robert Randall Distinguished Professor in Christian Culture, PC's first endowed chair, was established in 2002. It is named for Rev. Robert Randall, a Providence diocesan priest, educator, and scholar who retired in 2004 as associate professor of English after nearly 30 years of teaching at PC.

The symposium begins with Witte's presentation on Friday, April 25, at 7:00 p.m., followed by a reception. On Saturday, April 26, the presentations begin at 9:00 a.m. and conclude with Hittinger's featured lecture at 3:30 p.m.

For more information, contact Dr. James F. Keating, associate professor of theology and director of the Humanities Program, at 865-1349 or at jkeating@providence.edu.

--30--