Two professors of English at Brigham Young University have been named the new director and associate director of the Center for the Study of Christian Values in Literature.
Richard H. Cracroft replaces former director C. Jay Fox, and John J. Murphy replaces Steven C. Walker as associate director. The new appointments became effective in September 1994.Established in 1980, the Center for the Study of Christian Values in Literature has grown into a nationally known reference point on ethics and Christian literature.
"The center was established in answer to a felt need to affirm the importance of religious and moral values in the creation and study of imaginative literature," Cracroft said. "It seeks to identify, encourage and support teachers, writers, scholars and readers throughout the world - men and women who, regardless of religious persuasion, believe in the importance of a faith- and value-centered literary tradition."
Cracroft, a member of the BYU faculty since 1963, has formerly served as chairman of the BYU English department and dean of BYU's College of Humanities.
Murphy, a member of the St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Parish, first came to BYU as a visiting professor in 1984 and became a member of the BYU faculty in 1986.