James Carroll, an award-winning author and columnist for The Boston Globe, will present “Jerusalem, Jerusalem: Jewish-Christian Bonds—and Bondage—in the Holy City, “ Loyola University Maryland’s Jerome S. Cardin Memorial Lecture, on Thursday, March 24, at 7 p.m. in McGuire Hall on the University’s North Charles Street campus.
Carroll attended Georgetown University before entering the seminary to study for the Catholic priesthood. He received B.A. and M.A. degrees from St. Paul’s College and was ordained to the priesthood in 1969. Carroll served as Catholic chaplain at Boston University from 1969 to 1974, when he left the priesthood to become a writer.
Carroll’s memoir, An American Requiem: God, My Father, and the War that Came Between Us, received the 1996 National Book Award in nonfiction. His other non-fiction books include Constantine’s Sword: The Church and the Jews: A History; Practicing Catholic; House of War: The Pentagon and the Disastrous Rise of American Power, winner of the first Pen-Galbraith Award; and the recent Jerusalem, Jerusalem: How the Ancient City Ignited Our Modern World.
He is also the author of 10 novels, many essays and magazine articles, and a weekly op-ed page column that has run in the Boston Globe since 1992.
Carroll’s honors include the 2009 Press for Peace Award from the American Friends of Peace Now, an Israeli peace group. He 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, and the Richman Distinguished Visiting Professor at Brandeis University. He is a trustee of the Boston Public Library, a member of the Dean’s Council at the Harvard Divinity School, an elected Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and has received honorary degrees from institutions including Suffolk University, Claremont Graduate University, Brandeis, the University of Massachusetts at Lowell, and Brandeis. He is currently an associate of the Humanities Center of Harvard University and Distinguished Visiting Scholar at Suffolk University.
“Mr. Carroll’s appearance marks the 25th event in this distinguished speaker series,” said Paul Lukacs, Ph.D., associate professor of English at Loyola and director of the University’s Center for the Humanities, which coordinates the lecture. “I am delighted that an author of his caliber has decided to participate in this event, especially so soon after the release of an exciting new book. I remain very grateful for the generosity of the Cardin family for the gift that has made this lecture series possible.”
The Jerome S. Cardin Memorial Lecture was established by the Jerome S. Cardin family to foster exploration of topics in the humanities pertinent to the Jewish and Christian traditions, particularly in the area of Judeo-Christian relations. While the event is free and open to the region’s academic and religious communities, as well as the general public, reservations are required. The address will be followed by a kosher dairy reception.
For more information or to reserve seats, visit www.loyola.edu/cardinlecture, call 410-617-2545, or e-mail advevents@loyola.edu.
For more information or questions regarding this story, contact Media Relations Manager Nick Alexopulos at nalexopulos@loyola.edu or 410-617-5025.