Martin Marty, Fairfax M. Cone Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus, University of Chicago, will deliver the Jennie Cutler Shumate Lecture on Christian Ministry at 7:30 p.m. Monday, March 2 in Snidow Chapel at Lynchburg College.
In his talk, "The Ministry of Trust and the Trust in Ministry," Marty will discuss the breakdown of trust in the economic, political, and cultural worlds, and how ministers can help rekindle trust at many levels including family, church, local politics, and volunteer agencies.
Marty will also deliver the John M. Turner Jr. Lectureship on Life and Faith, "The Mystery of the Child at Ages Seven and Seventy and Points Between," at First Christian Church, Sunday, March 1. 3 p.m. Members of the community are invited and encouraged to attend.
Author of The Mystery of the Child and a guest on PBS' Bill Moyers Journal, Marty taught in the University of Chicago Divinity School, the Department of History, and the Committee on the History of Culture for 35 years. The Martin Marty Center has since been founded to promote "public religion" endeavors.
He writes the "M.E.M.O" column for the biweekly Christian Century, on whose staff he has served since 1956. He is also the editor of the fortnightly Context and authors the Marty Center's weekly e-mail column, Sightings.
Marty specializes in late eighteenth- and twentieth-century American religion and occasionally holds seminars on subjects related to this specialty. In retirement, Marty has established a website, www.illuminos.com, where planners of programs, consultants, and researchers, can find answers to frequently asked questions.
The author of more than 50 books, Marty has written the three-volume Modern American Religion (University of Chicago Press). Other books are The One and the Many: America's Search for the Common Good; and with photographer Micah Marty, Places Along the Way; Our Hope for Years to Come; The Promise of Winter; and When True Simplicity Is Gained. His Righteous Empire won the National Book Award.