Christopher Hitchens is a columnist with Vanity Fair. He was the 1991 Lannan Literary Award Recipient for Nonfiction, and is a graduate of Balliol College, Oxford.

Dr. James Turner Johnson is a professor at Rutgers University. The majority of his research and writing has been focused on war, peace, and the practice of statecraft as treated in the Christian and Islamic traditions. He holds a Ph.D. from Princeton.

Dr. Gilles Kepel is Professor and Chair of Middle East Studies at the Institute of Political Studies in Paris. His numerous books — which include Jihad: The Trail of Political Islam, The War for Muslim Minds: Islam and the West, and Beyond Terror and Martyrdom: The Future of the Middle East — have been translated into seventeen languages.

Jeffrey Goldberg is a national correspondent for The Atlantic and a recipient of the National Magazine Award for Reporting. He authored the book Prisoners: A Story of Friendship and Terror, which was hailed as one of the best books of 2006 by the Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Slate, The Progressive, Washingtonian magazine, and Playboy. Goldberg is the recipient of the 2003 National Magazine Award for Reporting for his coverage of Islamic terrorism. He is also the winner of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists prize for best international investigative journalist; the Overseas Press Club award for best human-rights reporting; and the Abraham Cahan Prize in Journalism. He is also the recipient of 2005’s Anti-Defamation League Daniel Pearl Prize. Before joining The Atlantic in 2007, Mr. Goldberg was a Middle East correspondent, and the Washington correspondent for The NewYorker.

Philip Jenkins is the Distinguished Professor of History and Co-Director, Program on Historical Studies of Religion at Baylor University. Dr. Jenkins’ major current interests include the study of global Christianity; of new and emerging religious movements; and of twentieth century US history, chiefly post-1970. He has published twenty-two books, which have been translated into ten languages. His most recent book is Climate, Catastrophe, and Faith: How Changes in Climate Drive Religious Upheaval.

David Brooks became an op-ed columnist for The New York Times in September 2003. He is currently a commentator on “The PBS News Hour,” NPR’s “All Things Considered” and NBC’s “Meet the Press.” His most recent book, The Road to Character, published in April, became a number-one New York Times bestseller. He is also the author of The Social Animal: The Hidden Sources of Love, Character, and Achievement, Bobos in Paradise: The New Upper Class and How They Got There, and On Paradise Drive: How We Live Now (And Always Have) in the Future Tense.  Brooks also teaches at Yale University, and is a member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. He worked at The Wall Street Journal for nine years, and his last post at the Journal was op-ed editor. Prior to that, he was posted in Brussels, covering Russia, the Middle East, South Africa and European affairs. He also served as a senior editor atThe Weekly Standard for nine years, as well as contributing editor for The Atlantic and Newsweek.