THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

             PRESIDENT CLINTON NAMES MARTIN E. MARTY TO THE
          PRESIDENT'S COMMITTEE ON THE ARTS AND THE HUMANITIES

     The President today announced his intent to appoint Martin E. Marty

as a member of the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities.

Dr. Martin E. Marty, of Riverside, Illinois, is the Fairfax M. Cone Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus at the University of Chicago, where he taught for thirty-five years. Additionally, he served as director of the University's Public Religion Project from 1996 to 1999. The Project's purpose was to promote efforts to bring light and interpret the forces of faith within a pluralistic society. Ordained as a Lutheran minister forty-seven years ago, Dr. Marty is recognized as a leader in ecumenical and interfaith affairs. For forty years he was an editor of The Christian Century and continues to write for it, just as he edits and writes the newsletter Context, and for thirty-five years, co-edited the scholarly journal Church History. Since 1949, he has written over 5,000 journal articles, columns and reviews. Professor Marty was the founding President and is now the George B. Caldwell Senior Scholar-in-Residence at the Park Ridge Center for Health, Faith and Ethics. He has spoken on over 500 campuses, and is Chair of the Board of Regents of St. Olaf College in Minnesota.

Dr. Marty has authored over fifty books, including the National Book Award winning Righteous Empire. His major endeavor in recent years has been a three-volume work, Modern American Religion. His recent book, The One and the Many: America's Search for the Common Good combines historical insight and comment on contemporary affairs. In January, 1999, Dr. Marty and Professor Natalie Davis were featured speakers at the Fifth Millennium Evening at the White House, leading a discussion on The Meaning of the Millennium.

Dr. Marty was educated at Concordia Seminary in St. Louis and received his Masters and Ph.D in American Intellectual and Religious History from the University of Chicago in 1956.

The President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities was established in order to advise the President, the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities concerning ways to promote private sector support for the arts and the humanities, especially at the state and local level.

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