APPLETON, WIS. — One of the world’s most prominent theologians examines the dilemma created between fundamentalism and constructive religious practice, particularly in the Middle East, in an address at Lawrence University.
Martin Marty, professor emeritus at the University of Chicago Divinity School, presents “The Dilemmas of Fundamentalisms” Wednesday April 9 at 7 p.m. in the Lawrence Memorial Chapel. A question-and-answer session will follow the address. Free and open to the public, the program is a presentation of the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters’ Academy Evening series.
An ordained Lutheran pastor, Marty served parishes in suburban Chicago for a decade before joining the University of Chicago faculty in 1963, teaching for 35 years in the Divinity School. When he retired in 1998, the Divinity School’s Advanced Study of Religion, which he founded and first directed, was renamed the Martin Marty Center in his honor. The center is the major conference and program arm of the Divinity School, with a focus on public religion.
Marty has written more than 50 books, including “Righteous Empire,” for which he won the National Book Award; the three-volume “Modern American Religion,” 2005’s “When Faiths Collide” and the forthcoming “World Christianity: A Global History,” slated for publication later this year. In addition, he is the author of more than 5,000 book chapters, forewords, essays and scholarly articles.
During his distinguished career, Marty has been a member of two U.S. Presidential Commissions and received the prestigious National Humanities Medal in 1997 from President Clinton. He also has been the awarded the Medal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Distinguished Service Medal of the Association of Theological Schools and been recognized with 75 honorary doctorate degrees. He is a former president of the American Academy of Religion, the American Society of Church History, and the American Catholic Historical Association.
