PULLMAN – Martin E. Marty, professor emeritus from the University of Chicago, will give the keynote lecture at the 32nd annual Roger Williams Symposium at 7 p.m., Oct. 16, in the CUB Senior Ballroom.
Marty is the author of more than 5o books on religion, its history, and its role in public life and culture. He will speak on “The Myth of Christian America: What is trustworthy and what is not” at the event, which is presented by the Common Ministry at WSU. His speech will follow a 6 p.m. banquet.
Marty will also speak at a symposium on Saturday, Oct. 17, at the Trinity Lutheran Church, 1300 NE Lybecker Road. A complete schedule for Friday and Saturday events is available at the Common Ministry’s website. Those interested in attending can register through the website or by calling the K House at 332-2611.
Marty is the Fairfax M. Cone Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus at the University of Chicago. Books he has written include “Righteous Empire,” for which he won the National Book Award; the three-volume “Modern American Religion” and “The One and the Many: America’s Search for the Common Good.” He also wrote “Martin Luther,” a biography for the Penguin Lives series, published in 2004.
He is a long-time columnist for The Christian Century and has served as editor of Context, a newsletter on religion and culture, since 1969.
“I think the breakdown of trust is close to being the story of our year(s)-in government, commerce, religious organizations, universities – you name it,” Marty said. “I think most people whine or whimper or close their eyes or get angry or despair. I am working on ways that citizens, including the religious among them, can do some incremental and mediational and meliorist work by building cultures of trust.”
“Marty is known as a (religious) map-maker par excellence in American religious history, but he’s always undercutting his own maps,” said John Stackhouse, a professor of theology and culture at Regent College in Vancouver, B.C. “Marty shows that individuals and groups are more complicated than any labels we can put on them. It’s like that wonderful quote of Alfred North Whitehead’s, ‘Seek simplicity and distrust it.’ That’s a good epigraph for Martin Marty.”
More information on Marty’s life and work can be seen at the illuminos website.
