Release date: Sept. 27, 2002
Contact: Elaine Justice, Associate Director, University Media Relations,
at 404-727-0643 or ejustic@emory.edu

Lecture to Examine Catholic
Sexual Morality in America

WHO: Luke Timothy Johnson, Robert W. Woodruff Professor of New Testament and Christian Origins

WHAT: "Sex and American Catholics," Annual Currie Lecture in Law and Religion

WHEN: Noon - 1 p.m., Wednesday, Oct. 9

WHERE: Cannon Chapel, 515 Kilgo Circle, Emory

PARKING: Peavine Parking Deck, 27 Fraternity Row, located off Pierce Drive

COST: Free and open to the public. For more information, call 404-712-8710.

Catholic teaching on sexual morality and how it has shaped--and been shaped by--American culture will be the subject of Emory University's annual Currie Lecture by Luke Timothy Johnson, the Robert W. Woodruff Professor of New Testament and Christian Origins at Emory's Candler School of Theology.

Johnson's lecture, titled "Sex and American Catholics," will explore how Catholics became American at the moment America was undergoing a fundamental cultural revolution--in which sex and gender played key roles. Johnson will argue that Catholic teaching on sexual morality, once considered "prophetic" in a sexualized American culture, has been compromised and even corrupted by recent scandals.

Johnson is the author of 19 books, including "The Real Jesus: The Misguided Quest for the Historical Jesus and the Truth of the Traditional Gospels," "Religious Experience: A Missing Dimension in New Testament Studies" and "Living Jesus: Learning the Heart of the Gospels."

The lecture is presented by Emory's Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Religion, and the Law and Religion Program of Emory Law School. A reception will be held prior to and after the lecture, at 11:30 a.m. and 1 p.m. in Brooks Commons of Cannon Chapel. The event is free and open to the public. For more information, go to: www.law.emory.edu/cisr/.

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