Martin Marty, professor emeritus at the University of Chicago, will deliver the Religious Freedom Celebration keynote lecture at the University of Mary Washington on Wednesday, January 23. The presentation, which is part of the celebration of the 231th anniversary of Thomas Jefferson’s Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, will take place at 7:30 p.m. in Woodard Campus Center, Great Hall. The event is free and open to the public.
An ordained minister in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Marty received a doctorate from the University of Chicago. He is the Fairfax M. Cone distinguished service professor emeritus of the history of modern Christianity at the University of Chicago Divinity School, where he taught for 35 years. He specializes in late 18th- and 20th-century American religion and occasionally holds seminars on topics within his specialty.
Marty is the author of more than 50 books, including “Righteous Empire” which won the National Book Award. He also writes the “M.E.M.O.” column for Christian Century, and he has been the editor of the newsletter “Context.” In addition, he is the author of the Marty Center’s weekly e-mail column, “Sightings.”
Marty is past president of the American Academy of Religion, the American Society of Church History and the American Catholic Historical Association, and he has served on two U.S. Presidential Commissions. His honors include the National Humanities Medal, the National Book Award, the Medal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Order of Lincoln Medallion. Marty has received 72 honorary doctorates.
For more information about the lecture, contact Craig Vasey, UMW chair of the Department of Classics, Philosophy, and Religion, at (540) 654-1342.