Martin E. Marty, a renowned religious historian and author, passed away at 97 in Minneapolis. He authored over 60 books and thousands of articles, advocating for public theology and pluralism. As a leader in mainstream Protestantism, he warned against extremism and the divisive culture wars that threaten America’s unity. Marty believed in the importance of diverse voices in maintaining social fabric and civil discourse. A lifelong activist, he participated in civil rights marches and influential projects. His legacy includes a commitment to understanding rather than condemning. Marty is survived by his wife, children, and numerous grandchildren.
Martin E. Marty, a distinguished religious historian, prolific writer, trusted advocate of mainstream Protestantism, and ardent supporter of pluralism, passed away on Tuesday in Minneapolis at the age of 97.
His passing at a retirement facility, where he had resided since 2022, was confirmed by his son Peter.
Through more than 60 books, thousands of articles, and his role as a “travelling lecturer,” Dr. Marty championed what he dubbed public theology, highlighting the intersection of essential cultural and religious traditions for the common good.
He possessed “a talent for making complex concepts accessible to varied audiences,” Peter Marty remarked in an online homage. Time magazine described him as “generally acknowledged to be the most influential living interpreter of religion in the U.S.”
He had a strong aversion to extremism and fundamentalism, whether from Islamist extremists or right-wing Protestants. In his book “The One and the Many: America’s Struggle for the Common Good” (1997), he cautioned that the culture wars were undermining the principles of e pluribus unum and challenging the shared heritage of Americans.
He observed that the nation had become polarized, dividing between “totalists,” who felt marginalized and demeaned, and “tribalists,” whose pride in their race, religion, ethnicity, and gender limited their perspective of the American mosaic.
The dangers posed by such divisions to the American experiment was a recurring theme in his work.
“Nothing is more crucial than maintaining the richness of our pluralism,” Dr. Marty articulated once. “To recognize and engage with diverse peoples and perspectives.”
In a review of Dr. Marty’s 1991 work, “Modern American Religion, Volume Two,” Stanford historian David M. Kennedy noted that “Despite the intense conflicts he documents, Mr. Marty remains an optimist. He concludes, in a moving conclusion with a nod to James Madison, that it is the diversity of religious voices that has safeguarded the integrity of the social fabric, preventing the persistent dominance of any one group.”
Despite historical fluctuations, Dr. Marty maintained that mainstream Protestantism had a significant impact on American public policy, especially during the 19th century, although he forecasted that no single denomination would command such dominance again.
“Their successes — particularly in civil rights, internationalism, ecumenism, and in addressing issues of sexuality, gender, and scientific engagement — did not equate to total victory,” he wrote in The Christian Century magazine in 2013.
“Yet it signified,” he continued, “that over the years, prominent figures risked much to express their convictions beyond church boundaries and into the broader culture.”
Dr. Marty was undoubtedly one of those figures.
He marched during the civil rights movement in Selma, Alabama, alongside the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., participated as a Protestant observer at the Second Vatican Council, and played a key role in establishing the antiwar organization Clergy and Laymen Concerned About Vietnam. He served as president of both the American Academy of Religion and the American Society of Church History.
His academic contributions were extensive. With former student R. Scott Appleby, he initiated the six-year Fundamentalism Project under the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1988, which examined conservative religious movements.
“Only an intellectual giant with Marty’s blend of multidisciplinary insight and vast knowledge could have anticipated the relentless waves of modern anti-pluralist and anti-modernist attacks on liberal worldviews and institutions coming from the ‘benighted’ edges of Western and westernized societies,” stated Professor Appleby, who teaches global affairs at the University of Notre Dame, following Dr. Marty’s passing.
“Marty remained committed to his principle of coming ‘not to condemn, not to praise, but to understand,’” Professor Appleby added.
In 1972, Dr. Marty received a National Book Award for his work “Righteous Empire: The Protestant Experience in America” (1971).
His other notable publications include “A Short History of Christianity” (1959), “A Cry of Absence” (1983), “Pilgrims in Their Own Land: Five Hundred Years of Religion in America” (1984), and “A Short History of American Catholicism” (1995).
“His volume of published work was not only astonishing but unmatched among religious historians from any discipline,” commented Grant Wacker, an emeritus professor of Christian history at Duke University and a biographer of the Rev. Billy Graham, in an email. “His humor was legendary, and his generosity of spirit was profound.”
In 2018, writing for a Divinity School bulletin, Professor Wacker mentioned, “One of the real issues in modern life is that those who excel at being civil often lack deep convictions, while those who possess strong convictions frequently lack civility.”
Martin Emil Marty was born on February 5, 1928, in West Point, Nebraska. His father, Emil, taught at parochial schools and was an organist for Lutheran churches in Nebraska and Iowa, while his mother was Anne Louise (Wuerdemann) Marty.
After graduating from a Lutheran preparatory school, he attended Concordia College, Washington University, and Concordia Seminary, where he earned a bachelor’s in divinity in 1949 and a master’s in 1952. He obtained a Master of Sacred Theology from the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago in 1954 and secured a doctorate from the University of Chicago in 1956.
Ordained as a minister in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, he served as a pastor in Washington, D.C., Maryland, and suburban Chicago. In 1963, he joined the University of Chicago Divinity School as an associate professor of religious history, a position he held until 1998.
In 1952, he married Elsa L. Schumacher, who passed away in 1981. He remarried in 1982 to Harriet J. Meyer, a voice coach and the widow of a seminary classmate.
He is survived by his wife, his son Peter, who publishes The Christian Century magazine, three other sons from his first marriage — Joel, Micah, and John, a Minnesota state senator; a foster daughter, Fran Garcia Carlson; a foster son, Jeff Garcia; a stepdaughter, Ursula Meyer; nine grandchildren; and 18 great-grandchildren.
Upon retiring as a professor on his 79th birthday, the Divinity School recognized his contributions by naming the research center he established in 1979 as the Martin Marty Center for the Public Understanding of Religion.
When asked by the University of Chicago Magazine in 1998 how he wished to be remembered, he expressed: “That I was a good teacher.”
In the pantheon of American religious history and values, Professor Wacker remarked warmly that Dr. Marty “might very well be regarded as the fourth member,” following Dr. King, Billy Graham, and Jonathan Edwards, the 18th-century Congregationalist theologian.
“For Marty, the only genuine swear word was tribalism — prioritizing one’s personal or familial interests, one’s community or nation, or one’s group — at the expense of others,” Professor Wacker stated in an email. “Everyone, and he truly meant everyone, deserved a place at the public discourse table as long as they were willing to adhere to the principles of civility and a reasoned evaluation of evidence.”