Marty elected to American Philosophical Society

Martin Marty, the Fairfax M. Cone Distinguished Service Professor in the Divinity School, was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society at its annual meeting in April.

Marty, one of America's foremost theologians and religious historians, was one of 36 scholars to be elected to the society, which was founded by Benjamin Franklin in 1743 and is the oldest learned society in the United States.

The American Philosophical Society promotes "excellence and useful knowledge in the sciences and humanities through scholarly research, professional meetings, publications, library resources and community service." Its members include scholars in mathematics, the biological, physical and social sciences, the humanities, the arts and other learned professions. Former members include John James Audubon, Marie Curie, Charles Darwin, Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein and 12 American presidents.

Marty has been a member of the University faculty since 1963. He received his Ph.D. from Chicago in 1956. In addition to his faculty appointment, he was founding president of, and is the George B. Caldwell senior scholar-in-residence at, the Park Ridge Center for the Study of Health, Faith and Ethics, which seeks to bring a variety of religious perspectives to ethical questions surrounding health care and is considered one of the nation's leading think tanks for medical ethics.

He is the author of more than 40 books, including "Righteous Empire," which won the National Book Award in 1972. He is currently working on the multivolume "Modern American Religion," two volumes of which have already been published by the University of Chicago Press.

He is a past president of the American Academy of Religion, the American Society of Church History and the American Catholic Historical Association, and he is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, for which he directed the six-year, six-volume international Fundamentalism Project.