The Executive Vice President and Provost, professor of Religion, and visiting professor of Law at Baylor University, Dr. J. Randall O’Brien is the featured speaker at The George Knight Bible Conference, Nov 12 - 13, at Hardin-Simmons University’s Logsdon School of Theology. An annual conference promoting Biblical scholarship in the Church, the theme for 2007 explores the rich range of meanings the book of Job offers for the human spiritual journey.

“God had one child without sin, but never one without suffering,” says Dr. O’Brien, “Sooner or later we all suffer. Then what? The story of Job is the story of every person. Standing like an Everest on the range of Scripture, the Book of Job treats the subjects of innocent suffering, divine justice, doubt, questioning, and faith unlike any other book in the Bible. The text completely rearranges the theological landscape!”

Dr. O'Brien

J. Randall O’Brien, a native of McComb, Mississippi, is a graduate of Yale Divinity
School,New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, and Mississippi College. He
has done additional study at Yale, Harvard, and Oxford Universities. He previously
served Baylor as Interim Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs, Professor
and Chair of the Department of Religion, Acting Dean of the George W. Truett
Theological Seminary, and as Executive Assistant to the President of the University.

Before arriving at Baylor in 1991, Reverend O’Brien served as Senior Pastor of
Calvary BaptistChurch in Little Rock, Arkansas. Prior to that he held a tenured faculty appointment in Old Testament and Hebrew at Ouachita Baptist University, also in
Arkansas. Dr. O’Brien has received numerous teaching awards at Baylor, including Mortar Board’s Circle of Achievement Award on three occasions, the Carr P. Collins Outstanding Professor Award presented annually by the graduating class, the
Outstanding Professor Award given by Gamma Beta Phi Honor Society, and the
Outstanding Faculty Member Award presented by the Student Congress.

Besides having served as Pastor or Interim Pastor of nineteen churches in Texas,
Arkansas, and Louisiana, Reverend O’Brien regularly preaches and teaches in
revivals and conferences in churches, conventions, and universities across America
and abroad.

O’Brien is a prolific writer, having published four books and more than 70 articles in
journals such as Christian Ethics Today, The Theological Educator, The Biblical Illustrator, Christian Reflection, Perspectives in Religious Studies, and multiple
Bible Encyclopedias,including the Eerdmans, Mercer, Holman, and Anchor Bible
Dictionaries. His books include, Set Free by Forgiveness: The Way to Peace and Healing, Who Is Jesus?, The Mosaic Messiah, and I Feel Better All Over Than I Do Anywhere Else (and other stories to tickle your soul). He is presently writing an historical novel on the Civil Rights Movement in the South in the 1960s, after which he plans to write a volume on the Book of Job, dealing with issues of innocent suffering, doubt, and faith.

O’Brien is listed in Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in Religion, Who’s Who in Humanities in Higher Education, and is a member of the American Academy of Religion and The Society of Biblical Literature. He currently serves as President of the National Association of Baptist Professors of Religion, Southwest Region.

O’Brien is a decorated military veteran, having served with the 101st Airborne
Division in Vietnam. There he received, among other decorations, the Combat
Infantryman’s Badge, the United States Air Medal, and The Republic of Vietnam
Gallantry Cross, and the Bronze Star.

The conference is named for former Hardin-Simmons University faculty Dr. George W. Knight who came to HSU in 1976 from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary where he had served as instructor of New Testament and Greek. He was subsequently appointed as the first Cook-Derrick Chair of Bible and Greek at HSU. He established HSU’s archeology program and led more than 20 archeological expeditions to Israel and Greece. He holds degrees from Louisiana College, the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, and Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, where he received his Ph.D. in 1973. Dr. Knight retired from HSU in 2002.

The 7:00 p.m. presentation in Logsdon Chapel on Nov 12, “Retelling the Story of Job and Hearing It Again for the First Time,” and the 9:30 a.m. Behrens Auditorium Chapel service on Nov 13, “When Bad Things Happen to Good People: Reflections on the Suffering of Job,” are free and open to the public. For more information contact Carol Bratton at 670-1287, or cbratton@hsutx.edu.