Francis Beckwith

Francis J. Beckwith
Born	1960 New York City

Main interests	Christian philosophy, Christian apologetics, ethics, applied ethics, legal philosophy

Francis J. "Frank" Beckwith (born 1960) is an American philosopher, Christian apologist, scholar, and lecturer. He is currently an associate professor of church-state studies at Baylor University and associate director of the J. M. Dawson Institute of Church-State Studies. Beckwith works in the areas of social ethics, applied ethics, legal philosophy, and the philosophy of religion.

Beckwith has defended the pro-life position on abortion and the constitutional permissibility of the teaching of intelligent design in public schools. Beckwith is a former fellow at the Discovery Institute, the "hub of the intelligent design movement," and a former member of the advisory board for the Intelligent Design and Evolution Awareness Center. As of late 2007, he is a fellow at The Center for Bioethics & Human Dignity (CBHD); and a professor at Baylor's Institute for the Studies of Religion (ISR). In 2007, he converted to Catholicism from Protestant Evangelicalism.

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