The Martin Marty Center for the Public Understanding of Religion builds on a longstanding conviction of the Divinity School that the best and most innovative scholarship in religion arises from sustained dialogue with the world beyond the academy. It contributes to this dialogue by offering scholarly perspectives on the religious questions facing the wider public, while encouraging faculty and students to situate their scholarly questions within a broader cultural frame of reference.
MARTY CENTER CONFERENCES & EVENTS
Medical Practice in the Midst of Global Pandemic
An Enhancing Life Research LaboratoryThe Enhancing Life Research Laboratory, a pilot program partially funded by the Marty Center, will give 12 physicians from around the world skills and tools to navigate orientational distress.
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Typologies of Interfaith Education Symposium
January 11-21, 2021The Martin Marty Center is excited to host this symposium in collaboration with Interfaith Youth Core (IFYC), Chicago. It will consist of an opening plenary, led jointly by David Nirenberg, Dean of the University of Chicago Divinity School, and Eboo Patel, Founder and President of Interfaith Youth Core, followed by four interactive panels on relevant themes related to interfaith education.
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Marty Center Symposium on Religion and the 2020 Elections
January 11-21, 2021This Marty Center symposium will address how religion shapes American politics--and vice-versa--in the midst of political polarization, economic crisis, and social upheaval.
LEARN MORESightings
Sightings reports and comments on the role of religion in current events; contributors are from our faculty, the academy – and the world.
On Social Dissolution: Lost Threads and Forgotten Dogmas
From passing conversations on the street to extended news…
Don't You Know There's a War On?
Thirty years after its publication, Culture Wars remains an essential…
Meet the Marty Center Fellows
Our Marty Center Fellows situate their research within a broader cultural frame of reference, bringing their perspectives to religious questions facing the wider public.
Doug Hoffer
My dissertation concerns the crux interpretum of Gal 3:15–17, a text whose function hinges on the interpretation of the ambiguous term diathēkē, which can refer both to unilateral, revocable dispositions of property (wills) and bilateral, immutable agreements (covenants). In contrast to ...
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Harini Kumar
I am a Ph.D Candidate in Anthropology and my dissertation "Formations of Tamil Islam: Negotiations and Contestations in Contemporary South India" focuses on the lived experience of Muslims in South India, specifically Tamil Islamic traditions and practices and how the complex relation between a r...
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Héctor M. Varela Rios
My goal this year can be stated simply: to complete my dissertation. Easier said than done, though. This fellowship with the Martin Marty Center (MMC), especially due to the interdisciplinary conversations with peers and faculty, will be key to accomplishing that goal. More specifically, my disse...
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Izzet Coban
My dissertation will examine complex theological-philosophical speculations concerning the concept of nonbeing, or meontology, in the Medieval Islamic World. I will explain what semantic changes the transmission of Philoponian and Neoplatonic material from Greek into Arabic produced in the ontolo...
READ MORESEMINARS & FELLOWSHIPS
Seminar and fellowship programs are oriented towards the intersection of religion and public life, and encourage faculty and students to put their scholarly questions into a broader cultural frame.
Our annual yearlong Marty Center seminar puts together junior and senior scholars for a unique interdisciplinary experience.
The Brauer Seminar encourages interdisciplinary research and teaching, with a new topic (and instructors) annually.
The Biggest Questions Podcast
The Biggest Questions Podcast is a new project sponsored by the Martin Marty Center for the Public Understanding of Religion.