Crossroads Podcast: Martin Marty’s Career Went Beyond Just Numbers

Writing a news feature about the life and work of historian Martin E. Marty requires two things — lots of numbers about what he accomplished and stories about how he managed to get so much done, as a scholar, teacher, colleague, mentor and friend.

The problem is that there are so many Marty facts and numbers that mainstream reporters struggle to find room for the personal stories that capture the man, as well as all those numbers that describe the academic superstar.

During this week’s “Crossroads” podcast, I tried to do some of both, since Marty played a small — but strategic — role in my own academic life. I also mentioned that in my On Religion” column this week.

Then, I have one funny, but illuminating, Marty story to pass along. Hold that thought. 

First, let’s demonstrate the numbers issue with this wave of information from Kenneth Woodward, who spent decades covering religion for Newsweek. This is the overture for his Commonweal tribute: “The Great Interpreter — Remembering Martin Marty.” This is long, but that’s kind of the point:

“Of Martin Emil Marty, who died last week at the age of ninety-seven, it can honestly be said that what he knew could fill volumes. Over a seventy-year career as an historian of American religion, Marty — everyone but his children called him that — wrote or edited more than sixty of them. As a journalist as well as an academic, he also published over five thousand articles, essays, and book reviews. And then there are the more than 3,500 lectures he gave at nearly seven hundred colleges and universities all over the world. Then there are the 125 doctoral students whose dissertations he oversaw at the University of Chicago Divinity School and the countless sermons he preached as a Lutheran clergyman. He could do all this in part because he got up in the morning at precisely 4:44 a.m. and took ten-minute cat naps during the day. A very short list of the honors that came his way include the National Humanities Medal, the National Book Award, the Medal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and seventy-five honorary degrees.

“So much for Marty by the numbers. They do not convey the man I knew and loved for nearly six decades — or what he did for journalists like me and our readers.”

Actually, another source put the honorary doctorate number at 80. At some point, Marty’s colleagues may have stopped counting.

I quoted Woodward in my own (short) column in a context that, believe it or not, added some additional numbers trying to describe his output as a writer. 

“For 50 years he was an editor and columnist at The Christian Century and, for 41 years, wrote his own biweekly Context newsletter, followed by Sightings essays online.

“‘It is clear that we religion journalists needed Martin Marty and he needed us,’ said writer and editor Kenneth Woodward. … ‘We read his Context, his Sightings, his MEMO column, his books, his annual New Theology paperback ... and we called him for quotes. In today's terms, he influenced the influencers.’”

Here’s two other statistics that I wish I knew, since they’re crucial to understanding the many ways that Marty encouraged quality religion-beat work. How many journalists had Marty’s direct, desk telephone number at the University of Chicago stashed away in their files? How many had his home number? 

Yes, Marty knew that helping reporters would be good for his work and his school. He once told me that he would accept almost any speaking engagement if it “helped the Kingdom of God or the University of Chicago Divinity School and, hopefully, both.”

But he also helped students from across the country. I contacted him while researching my thesis for the Church-States Studies program at Baylor University. The title: “A Unity of Frustration — Civil Religion in the 15 October 1969 Vietnam War Moratorium.”

I was living and working in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, at the time. Instead of talking on the phone, Marty suggested that I hop on a train and come to Chicago for interviews — chunks of time over two days — at his office. He helped me find a room in a nearby house for graduate students. 

One of the key words in Marty obituaries is “pluralism.” It helps to know that Marty didn’t water that word down into happy-talk mush. He viewed America, at its best, as a “community of communities” in which believers had to be able to preach and practice their core beliefs, while striving to be civil. Public, civil, religion wasn’t just about the “mainstream” winners. It was also about protecting the smaller groups, even those on the margins. 

To be blunt: Those Chicago interviews were crucial to my Baylor thesis. Footnotes to Marty books and essays would have been good — but new, specific Marty quotes from face-to-face interviews were crucial, allowing me to connect his scholarly work with my work about the often chaotic Moratorium events.

In that context, read this passage from the must-read Marty obit that religion-beat veteran Bruce Buursma (who spent years in Chicago) contributed to Religion News Service: 

“Emily D. Crews, executive director of the Martin Marty Center, praised Marty as ‘a devoted teacher and adviser who leaves a legacy of boundless energy and creativity. I’m surrounded by so many people who were influenced by his work — his advisees, fellow clergy, members of his former congregations. He lived a life of generosity — generous with his work, with his time, with his students and with colleagues, parishioners and friends.’

“Religion writers for daily newspapers counted on Marty as a go-to source of information, but also winsome wisdom and a generosity of spirit. He was prompt to answer calls and lent greater clarity and nuance to the often obscure points of religion stories. As with his students, his expertise often came with friendship, including invitations to lively wine-and-cheese gatherings in his John Hancock Building apartment in Chicago.”

I was too far away for those gatherings, but I had timely journalism contacts with Marty over the years. During several interviews, he made references to our academic conversations years, or decades, earlier. How did he manage to remember so many things about so many subjects?

In 2002, Marty was the keynote speaker at a University of Nebraska conference — “Is There Any Non-Religious News After 9/11?" — focusing on the importance of quality religion-beat journalism. Will Norton, who was dean of the Nebraska journalism program at the time, invited me to respond to Marty’s address, speaking as a professor and as a religion-beat columnist. Yes, I wrote an ”On Religion” column about that event, including this: 

“Truth is, most Western leaders have long believed that religion would inevitably fade, [Marty] said. Thus, the West has been dominated by two big ideas.

“‘One idea was that every time you looked out your window, there was going to be less religion around than there was before,’ said Marty, in a forum for journalism students, ministers and media professionals. ‘The other idea was that whatever leftover religion you find, it was going to be tolerant, concessive, mushy and so on.

“‘Instead, there has been an increase in religion and the prospering religions are all extremely intense. The versions of Catholicism, Protestantism, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism that are prospering tend to be among people who care very much about what their faith is about.’”

In the middle of it, Marty, Norton and I went to lunch. We talked about many things, including my creating some kind of online forum critiquing the state of religion writer — two years before GetReligion.org was born.

I asked Norton what he remembered from that lunch:

“From that conversation, I confirmed that Marty could write about American religion and be accepted by persons on the right and on the left because he had showed respect for both sides. …

“Our conversation with Marty showed how much he believed in the First Amendment, freedom of expression, freedom of religion, freedom of assembly, freedom to petition government, and freedom of the press. He was able to give the First Amendment context.”

Amen. Let us attend.

In conclusion, let me offer one amazing Marty story — from one of his former students who took part in that Nebraska event.

One day, while driving the Chicago Loop, this graduate student noticed a car that was being driven in a unique way. At stoplight after stoplight, the driver was clearly slowing down just enough to miss the light. That caused long, long waits for the light to change, with many turn arrows adding to the delay.

Eventually the student pulled up next to that car. The driver was Marty and, during the long waits at each light, he was picking up magazine, newspaper and journal articles from a stack on the passenger seat, while using a cassette tape recorder to DICTATE the chatty but informative commentaries for his next biweekly Context newsletter.

You see, there was always work to do, and Marty did as much as he could manage to get done. Obviously, that was a lot of work, by a one-of-a-kind worker.

May his memory be eternal.

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