New York Times bestselling and renowned Catholic author and columnist James Carroll will present a lecture at University of the Ozarks on Wednesday, Oct. 22, as part of the University's 2013-14 Walton Arts & Ideas Series.
Carroll’s talk will begin at 7 p.m. in the Rogers Conference Center on the U of O campus. The event is free and open to the public.
Carroll is the Distinguished Scholar-in-Residence at Suffolk University, and a columnist for the Boston Globe. He is author of 11 novels and eight works of non-fiction, including the soon-to-be-released "Christ Actually: The Son of God for the Secular Age."
Religion author and columnist James Carroll will present a lecture in the Rogers Conference Center at 7 p.m., Wednesday, Oct. 22.
"Christ Actually" is scheduled for release on Nov. 13. According to Carroll’s website, the book examines the question, "What can we believe about?and how can we believe in?Jesus in the 21st century in light of the Holocaust and other atrocities of the 20th century and the drift from religion that followed? Drawing on both a wide range of scholarship as well as his own acute searching as a believer, Carroll takes a fresh look at the most familiar narratives of all?Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Far from another book about the ‘historical Jesus,’ he takes the challenges of science and contemporary philosophy seriously. He retrieves the power of Jesus’ profound ordinariness, as an answer to his own last question?what is the future of Jesus Christ??as the key to a renewal of faith."
Carroll was born in Chicago in 1943, and raised in Washington where his father, an Air Force general, served as the Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency. Carroll attended Georgetown University before entering the seminary to train for the Catholic priesthood. He received BA and MA degrees from St. Paul’s College, the Paulist Fathers’ seminary in Washington, and was ordained to the Catholic priesthood in 1969. Carroll served as Catholic Chaplain at Boston University from 1969 to 1974, then left the priesthood to become a writer.
In 1974, Carroll was Playwright-in-Residence at the Berkshire Theater Festival in Stockbridge, Mass. In 1976, he published his first novel, "Madonna Red," which was translated into seven languages. Subsequent novels include the New York Times bestsellers "Mortal Friends" (1978), "Family Trade" (1982), and "Prince of Peace" (1984). His novels "The City Below" (1994) and "Secret Father" (2003) were named Notable Books of the Year by The New York Times. His novel "Warburg in Rome" was published in 2014. Carroll’s essays and articles have appeared in The New Yorker, Daedalus, The Daily Beast and other publications. His op-ed page column has run regularly in the Boston Globe since 1992.
Carroll’s memoir, "An American Requiem: God, My Father, and the War that Came Between Us," received the 1996 National Book Award in nonfiction and other awards. His book, "Constantine’s Sword: The Church and the Jews: A History," published in 2001, was a New York Times bestseller and was honored as one of the Best Books of 2001 by the Los Angeles Times, the Christian Science Monitor, and others. It was named a Notable Book of the Year by the New York Times, and won the Melcher Book Award, the James Parks Morton Interfaith Award, and National Jewish Book Award in History.
Carroll has been a Shorenstein Fellow at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University; a Fellow at the Center for the Study of Values in Public Life at the Harvard Divinity School; The Richman Visiting Professor at Brandeis University; holder of the McDonald Chair at Emory University; a trustee of the Boston Public Library; and a member of the Dean’s Council at the Harvard Divinity School. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and an Associate of the Mahindra Humanities Center at Harvard University. Carroll holds honorary degrees from, among others, the University of Massachusetts at Lowell, Suffolk University, Brandeis University, Lehigh University, and Claremont Graduate University. He delivered the 2014 Paul Tillich Lecture at Harvard University.
He lives in Boston with his wife, the novelist Alexandra Marshall. They have two grown children. His website is jamescarroll.net
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