Martin E. Marty Regents Chair in Religion and the Academy
Established in 2004 to honor Dr. Martin E. Marty, former Chair of the St. Olaf College Board of Regents and the Fairfax M. Cone Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus at the University of Chicago, this chair symbolizes what it means to live and work at the intersection of faith and reason. It provides opportunities both to address significant religious issues within the Church and the academy at large and to respond in a thoughtful and faithful way to wider cultural issues.
Dr. Barbour, the first holder of this chair, has been a member of the St. Olaf religion department since 1982, teaching courses that link religion, literature, and ethics. His research interests center on the ethical and theological issues raised by works of fiction and autobiography. He is the author of four books and numerous articles on these themes, the most recent being The Value of Solitude: The Ethics and Spirituality of Aloneness in Autobiography (Univ. of Virginia Press, 2004). Work in progress includes a study of the religious dimensions of travel narratives.
