College sponsors panel on religion and the media
By Shannon Sherman
J Alumni News staff
Dr. Martin Marty, Lutheran theologian and professor emeritus at the University of Chicago,
returned to his home state Sept. 19 to speak to students, faculty and area clergy at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln College of Journalism and Mass Communications. Marty, a native of West Point, discussed the media and its coverage of religion and religious activities before and after Sept. 11.
Students were also able to attend a panel discussion following Marty's presentation. Members of the panel included Art Toalston, a Southern Baptist minister from Nashville, Tenn.; John Maust of International Media Associates; Julie McCord, who covered religion at the Omaha World-Herald for 11 years; and Bob Reeves, a religion reporter at the Lincoln Journal Star.
Marty, who specializes in late 18th and 19th century religion, spent 35 years teaching in the University of Chicago divinity school, the history department and the committee on history of culture. He was named the Fairfax M. Cone Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus at the university's Divinity School. The Martin Marty Center has since been founded to promote public religion endeavors.
Marty is an elected member of the American Antiquarian Society and the Society of American Historians. He is also an elected fellow of the American Philosophical Society and the American Academy of Political and Social Sciences. An admiral in the Nebraska Navy, Marty has received 67 honorary doctorates.
The author of more than 50 books, Marty has written the three-volume "Modern American Religion." He also wrote "Righteous Empire," which won the National Book Award.
Marty was ordained into the ministry in 1952 and served for a decade as a Lutheran parish pastor before joining the University of Chicago faculty in 1963. He and his wife, Harriet, live in Riverside, Ill.
