Keynote speaker Dr. Scott Hahn was born in 1957, has been married to Kimberly since 1979, and has six children. An exceptionally popular speaker and teacher, Dr. Hahn has delivered numerous talks nationally and internationally on a wide variety of topics talks related to Scripture and the Catholic faith. Hundreds of these talks have been produced on audio and videotapes by St. Joseph Communications. His talks have been effective in helping thousands of Protestants and fallen away Catholics to (re)embrace the Catholic faith. Dr. Hahn received his Bachelor of Arts degree with a triple-major in Theology, Philosophy and Economics from Grove City College, Pennsylvania, in 1979, his Masters of Divinity from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in 1982, and his Ph.D. in Biblical Theology from Marquette University in 1995. Scott has ten years of youth and pastoral ministry experience in Protestant congregations and is a former Professor of Theology at Chesapeake Theological Seminary. He was ordained in 1982 at Trinity Presbyterian Church in Fairfax, Virginia. He entered the Catholic Church at the Easter Vigil, 1986. He is currently a Professor of Theology and Scripture at Franciscan University of Steubenville, where he has taught since 1990, and is the founder and director of the Saint Paul Center for Biblical Theology. In 2005, he was appointed as the Pope Benedict XVI Chair of Biblical Theology and Liturgical Proclamation at St. Vincent Seminary in Latrobe, Pennsylvania.
 

Fr. Robert Barron is a sought-after speaker on the spiritual life-from prestigious universities to YouTube to national conferences and private retreats. The prominent theologian and podcasting priest is one of the world's great and most innovative teachers of Catholicism. His global media ministry called Word on Fire has a simple but revolutionary mission - to evangelize the culture. Fr. Barron was recently named the first recipient of the Francis cardinal George Chair of Faith and Culture at Mundelein Seminary. Ordained an Archdiocesan priest in Chicago in 1986, he also has published numerous books, essays and DVDs. Fr. Barron lectures extensively in the United States and abroad, including the Pontifical North American College at the Vatican and the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome. He also is a passionate student of art, architecture, music and history.

Dr. Lynne Boughton is a Visiting Lecturer at the Liturgical Institute of the University of Saint Mary of the Lake/Mundelein Seminary. She holds a PhD from the University of Illinois, Urban-Chapaign and her research in the field of biblical studies has been published in Jerusalem University's Revue biblique, Cambridge University's Tyndale Bulletin, Gregorian University's Gregorianum, Maynooth University's Irish Theological Quarterly, and University of Chicago's Journal of Religion. Her book chapter on translating biblical texts for Lectionary use is forthcoming from Hillenbrand Press. Dr. Boughton's research in other fields has been published in Church History and Westminster Theological Journal. She is currently completing a book-length study on the biblical foundations of the sacraments.

John Cavadini is a scholar of patristic and early medieval theology, with special interests in the theology of Augustine and in the history of biblical exegesis, both Eastern and Western, as well as in the reception and interpretation of patristic thought in the West from the sixth through the ninth centuries. His publications include three books, Miracles in Christian and Jewish Antiquity: Imagining the Truth, (University of Notre Dame Press, 1999); Gregory the Great: A Symposium, (University of Notre Dame Press, 1996); and The Last Christology of the West: Adoptionism in Spain and Gaul, 785-820, (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1993). His articles have appeared in such journals as Theological Studies, Religious Studies Review, Traditio, Augustinian Studies, and American Benedictine Review.

David Fagerberg holds a B.A. from Augsburg College, and M.Div. from Luther Northwestern Seminary, and M.A. from St. John's University (Collegeville) an S.T.M. from the Yale Divinity School and and M.A., M.Phil. and Ph.D. from Yale University. His area is liturgical theology: its definition and methodology, sacramental theology, and liturgiology. His work has explored how the Church's lex credendi (law of belief) is grounded on the Church's lex orandi (law of prayer). Liturgy is the trysting place where God and humanity meet. Liturgical asceticism is the front on which he works now, seeing how liturgy, theology, and asceticism mutually interpenetrate. Additional interests include Eastern Orthodoxy, linguistic and scholastic philosophy, and G. K. Chesterton. Published books are What is Liturgical Theology? (Pueblo 1992), The Size of Chesterton's Catholicism (Notre Dame, 1998), and Theologia Prima: What is Liturgical Theology? the second edition (Hillenbrand Press, Fall 2003). His articles have appeared in such journals as Worship, America, New Blackfriars, Pro Ecclesia, Diakonia, Touchstone, and Antiphon. He was the Richardson Fellow at Durham University, U.K. in 1996 and is currently on the editorial board of the Chesterton Review, as well as a contributing editor to Gilbert Magazine.

Dr. Denis McNamara is faculty member and assistant director of the Liturgical Institute at the University of Saint Mary of the Lake/Mundelein Seminary in Mundelein, Illinois. He holds a B.A, in the History of Art from Yale University, and an M.Arch.H. and Ph.D. in architectural history from the University of Virginia. His area of specialty is liturgical art and architecture, with special interest in classicism, aesthetics and biblical foundations of the Catholic artistic tradition. He is the author of the 2005 book Heavenly City: The Architectural Tradition of Catholic Chicago, and his latest book, Shadow, Image and Reality: Beauty, the Bible and Catholic Liturgical Architecture will be released in the fall of 2008.

Brant Pitre is the Donum Dei Professor of Word and Sacrament at Our Lady of Holy Cross College in New Orleans, Louisiana. He received his Ph.D. in Theology from the University of Notre Dame, where he specialized the study of the New Testament and ancient Judaism and graduated with highest honors. He is the author of several articles and a new book, Jesus, the Tribulation, and the End of the Exile, which focuses on the eschatology of Jesus as the key to the origin of the doctrine of the atonement (Baker Academic, 2005). He is currently working on a second book on Jesus and the Jewish Roots of the Eucharist, a project which was funded by a grant from the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology, founded by Dr. Scott Hahn. Dr. Pitre is an extremely enthusiastic and engaging speaker and has produced several Bible studies on CD and DVD, in which he explores the Jewish roots and biblical background of Catholic faith and theology. He currently lives outside New Orleans, Louisiana, with his wife Elizabeth, and their four young children.

William Portier is Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Dayton, where he serves as the Mary Ann Spearin Chair in Catholic Theology. He taught at Mount Saint Mary's College in Los Angeles for twenty four years, where he helped build that school's nationally recognized core curriculum. He has written two books, edited or co-edited three others, and contributed nearly one hundred articles and reviews in the areas of theology, U.S. Catholic history, and Catholic higher education.