Dr. Martin E. Marty is professor emeritus of religious history at the University of Chicago, where he taught for 35 years. One of the nation’s leading theologians and foremost scholars on church history, Dr. Marty has been a sought-after speaker, author, teacher, and interpreter of religion in America for over 55 years. Upon Dr. Marty’s retirement in 1998, the university renamed and rededicated its Institute for the Advanced Study of Religion as the Martin Marty Center, a research arm focusing on public religion.
          After graduating from Concordia Seminary in 1952, Dr. Marty served as an ordained Lutheran pastor while earning his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. He joined the university’s Divinity School faculty in 1963. Dr. Marty has received numerous awards, including the National Humanities Medal and the Medal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He holds honorary degrees from 75 institutions.
          A prolific writer, Dr. Marty has been a columnist for The Christian Century since 1956 and editor of the semimonthly Context, a newsletter on religion and culture, since 1969. He is also a weekly contributor to Sightings, a biweekly electronic editorial published by the Martin Marty Center. He has authored more than 50 books, including a National Book Award winner, and some 5,000 articles on a wide range of topics, including the nature of religion and its place in a pluralistic world. He was coeditor of a landmark series on religious fundamentalism for the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
          Dr. Marty’s book When Faiths Collide, published in 2005, takes a fresh look at pluralism and culture in the 21st century.