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Release date: Sept. 24, 2002 Martin Marty to Join Emory For 2003-2004
Marty will co-direct with CISR director John Witte Jr. the center’s next major research project on the topic of children. Marty will lead a faculty seminar in the fall of 2003 and make several presentations on campus, including a major presentation with former President Jimmy Carter in October 2003. Witte describes Marty's appointment as "a great coup" for Emory and the CISR. "Never before have I encountered a scholar with such boundless energy, or such a lively and learned pen." The CISR’s project on children is a natural sequel to its first research theme of "Sex, Marriage and Family and the Religions of the Book," says Marty. "When you begin with the family, the child is the object and not the subject of inquiry. But families in a funny way really do exist for children," he says. The project on children will investigate the religious sources and aspects of complex issues such as conception, contraception and cloning; moral, emotional and spiritual formation; child abuse, poverty and illegitimacy, and more. "It will draw together scholars from many fields of study to review the main contributions that the Abrahamic faiths have made and might make to a comparative theology and ethics of the child," says Witte, who also is Jonas Robitscher Professor of Law and Ethics. Marty says he is seeking to raise broad questions that scholars of all disciplines will find relevant to their research. "In the study of children, we usually start with problem children," he observes. But at a recent conference on nurturing morality among children, Marty raised questions such as: Where do all the good kids come from? What makes a good kid? and What do we mean by "good"? "I’m not to the point where I want to define that," he says of the last question. "But how do children who are adventurous and full of character and assertive and who know when not to be assertive get that way? They’re raised in the same culture as everyone else. I’m interested in what exists in nature/nurture, genes/environment/life experiences that presents these qualities. If we can come up with some observations, that would be useful." Marty is the Fairfax M. Cone Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of Chicago where he has taught for 35 years and where the Martin Marty Center has been founded to promote "public religion" endeavors. Time Magazine has called him the "most influential interpreter of religion" in the nation. He is the author of more than 50 books, including a National Book Award winner and several classics in the field of American religious history. He recently retired as senior editor of The Christian Century and still edits Context, a newsletter dealing with the role of religion in public life. Marty will serve as a keynote speaker at the CISR international conference, "Sex, Marriage and Family and the Religions of the Book: Modern Problems, Enduring Solutions," March 27-29, 2003, in Atlanta. His comments will focus on the challenges facing the family in this century. The conference culminates two years of study on the issues surrounding sex, marriage and family as they relate to Christianity, Judaism and Islam. Eighteen senior fellows, most from Emory, participated in the interdisciplinary approach to solving family problems, producing a series of public forums and 29 new written works in various stages of publishing. The CISR is one of The Pew Charitable Trusts’ Centers of Excellence, designed to encourage study of the many ways in which religion influences contemporary life. It was established in the fall of 2000 with funds from Emory and a five-year $3.2 million grant from Pew. The center is housed at the Emory University School of Law and administered by Emory’s well-known Law and Religion Program. |
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copyright 2001
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