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The Cookson Religious Freedom Lecture Series is inaugurated with a presentation by Dr. Martin E. Marty, one of the world's more renowned and respected religious scholars.

The Cookson Religious Freedom Lecture Series is named for the founding director of the Center for the Study of Religious Freedom (CSRF), Dr. Catharine Cookson. Cookson served as the CSRF's director from 1998 until 2004. At Virginia Wesleyan, she created a "safe zone" where people of various faith backgrounds could discuss religious issues in a fair and impartial manner. Through the Center, Cookson provided an educational foundation to the community to create understanding in a culturally diverse world.

Following Cookson's death in 2004, the Catharine Cookson Visiting Scholar Endowment was established for the purpose of bringing scholars in religious freedom and related areas to the Virginia Wesleyan campus. In the future, this endowment will enable world-renowned scholars to spend an extended period of time at Virginia Wesleyan, bringing students and the public together to engage in sustained study and analysis of the political, social and theological conditions of religious freedom. This lecture series is made possible by these gifts.

"With the annual Cookson Religious Freedom Lectures, we hope to bring in leading scholars of religious freedom and related areas," said Dr. Paul Rasor, director of the Center for the Study of Religious Freedom (CSRF). "Dr. Marty fits this bill perfectly and gets the lecture series off to a great start."

Marty will present a discussion titled "Theo-cracies, Demo-cracies, and Other -cracies," on Thursday, Oct. 26 in the Boyd Dining Center at Virginia Wesleyan. Marty's talk will explore the implications of an impulse toward theocracy that has recently resurfaced in America. This event will inaugurate the Cookson Religious Freedom Lecture.

A professor of religious history for 35 years at the University of Chicago, Marty is a speaker, columnist, pastor, teacher and author. He has written more than 5,000 published essays and articles, and is the author of more than 50 books. Among his books are Righteous Empire, for which he won the National Book Award; the three-volume treatise Modern American Religion; and his most recent book, When Faiths Collide. He has received numerous honors, including the National Humanities Medal and the Medal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and has been awarded more than 70 honorary doctorates.

To support the Catharine Cookson Visiting Scholar Endowment, please contact the Center for the Study of Religious Freedom at 757.455.3129 or the College Advancement Office at 757.455.5709.

For more information about upcoming CSRF programs and events, visit the Center's Web site.