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Communications

John Dominic Crossan to give C-SC Robison Lecture in Religion
Monday, February 09, 2009

CANTON, Mo. – John Dominic Crossan, best-selling author and lecturer, will give a presentation titled “The Bible and Violence” as the annual Robison Lecture in religion on the Culver-Stockton College campus at 7 p.m. Thursday, March 5, in the Merillat Chapel.

Crossan has written 23 books on historical Jesus studies in the last 40 years, five of which have become international religious best sellers. His work has been translated into 11 foreign languages. He is well known as the chair of the Historical Jesus Section of the Society of Biblical Literature from 1992 –1998, an association for biblical study in the United States and as co-chair of the Jesus Seminar from 1985–1986, which meets twice annually to debate the life of Jesus in the gospels.

Crossan was born in Tipperary, Ireland, in 1934. After graduating college, he moved to the United States joined the Servites, a Roman Catholic religious order at Stonebridge Seminary in Lake Bluff, Ill., and was ordained a priest in 1957. He returned to Ireland and earned his doctorate of divinity at Maynooth College in 1959 and later studied for two additional years at the Pontifical Biblical Institute of Rome. He returned to the seminary where he began teaching. After four years, Crossan embarked on two additional years of study in archaeology in East Jerusalem.

After returning to the United States and spending one year at St. Mary of the Lake Seminary in Mundelein, Ill., and one year at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago, Ill., Crossan chose to resign his priesthood. He joined the faculty at DePaul University in 1969, teaching undergraduate comprehensive religion for the following 25 years. After his retirement, he became professor emeritus in the department of religious studies.

He has received awards for scholarly excellence from the American Academy of Religion in 1989, DePaul University in 1991 and 1995, and an honorary doctorate from Stetson University, DeLand, Fla, in 2003. He has lectured to audiences in the United States, Ireland, England, Scandinavia, Finland, Austria, New Zealand, Brazil, Japan, and South Africa. He currently lives in Orlando, Fla., and remains active in religious research, writing, and teaching seminars.

The Robison Lecture is free and open to the public. It is also a part of C-SC Academic and Cultural Events program.