Martin E Marty obit

Rev. Martin Marty, formerly of Riverside, dies at 97 

 He was not on the list.

Martin Emil Marty, a notable former Riverside resident, religious historian and retired University of Chicago Divinity School professor, died in his Minneapolis care community on Feb. 25, 2025. He was 97. The family noted the cause of death as “old age,” though his trademark sparkle-in-the-eye and generosity of spirit remained with him to the end.

In a 2014 column in the Landmark, JoAnne Kosey noted that Marty was returning to Riverside that January to for a Taize Prayer service at St. Mary Parish. He was to offer a personal reflection after the service.

Kosey wrote, “Those who remember Dr. Marty from his time in Riverside might recall him walking around town, a man with a warm smile greeting those he encountered. Music was also a part of the Marty household with his wife, Harriet, being a musician.”

“Marty,” as he was known to the world, was born in West Point, Nebraska, February 5, 1928, the son of Emil A. and Anna L. (Wuerdemann) Marty. Although he left Nebraska for good by the age of 13 to begin studies in Milwaukee at Concordia Lutheran Prep School, Nebraska never left him. Lutheran church life on the prairie, writers like Willa Cather and Wright Morris, memories of his Swiss and German ancestors farming the soil, and even Cornhusker red contributed to his lifelong identity.

A graduate of Concordia Lutheran Seminary, St. Louis (BD 1952) and the University of Chicago (MA 1954, PhD 1956), Marty served as a Lutheran pastor in the Chicago suburbs for 10 years, most notably at Lutheran Church of the Holy Spirit, a congregation he founded in Elk Grove Village. His pastoral heart and enthusiasm for ministry never disappeared, though in 1963 he transitioned out of the congregational setting to accept an invitation to teach church history and modern Christianity in the Divinity School of the University of Chicago. It was there that he anchored his teaching and intellectual life for the next 35 years and where, upon his retirement in 1998, the Martin Marty Center was founded, an institution committed to the understanding of public religion.

For five decades Marty traveled extensively, delivering thousands of lectures, sermons, and commencement addresses. He authored more than 60 books, hundreds of scholarly articles, and countless essays, columns, and forewords for other books. Considered by many to be the most influential interpreter of American religion during the second half of the 20th century, Marty may best be known for the study of public theology, a phrase he coined to describe the critical engagement of religious and cultural issues that can foster the common good. His rich interest in pluralism allowed him to be conversant in different genres and among diverse audiences. For 50 years he served as an editor at The Christian Century, and for 41 years he authored the biweekly newsletter Context.

In 1985 he became the founding president and later scholar-in-residence of the Park Ridge Center for the Study of Health, Faith, and Ethics; from 1987 to 1995 he co-directed the Fundamentalism Project, an American Academy of Arts and Sciences–sponsored survey of world fundamentalisms that resulted in five encyclopedic volumes on the subject; and from 1996 to 1999 he directed the Public Religion Project, a program underwritten by the Pew Charitable Trust to delineate the importance of faith in a pluralistic society.

Marty received numerous awards in life, including more than 80 honorary degrees, the National Book Award (1972), the Medal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1995), and the National Medal for the Humanities (1997). He served on two presidential commissions, as president of multiple scholarly societies, and on numerous boards, including as a regent, board chair, and interim president of St. Olaf College. Marty’s greatest professional happiness, however, was being a teacher, mentoring and learning from students of all walks of life.

Much of his life’s work involved framing into historical context the changes in 20th-century American religious practice. In 1964 he spent six weeks as an invited Protestant observer at Vatican II in Rome. His unwavering support of the civil rights movement, including marching in Selma in 1965, modeled for family and friends a lifelong commitment to justice and the dignity of every person.

Marty married Elsa L. Schumacher in 1952, and together they raised four sons and two permanent foster children, while also periodically taking in additional foster sons. Following Elsa’s untimely death from cancer in 1981, Marty reconnected with the widow of a seminary classmate, Harriet J. Meyer, and they married in 1982. Over the past 43 years, Marty and Harriet have traveled the world, entertained guests enthusiastically and, as in Marty’s first marriage, enjoyed a life of devoted love. Every decade of life in the Marty household has been shaped and influenced by Marty’s own deep humility, personal faith, and abiding gratitude for life. He will be remembered as a disarmingly kind person who instinctively reached out to relate to and enjoy every person he had the opportunity to encounter.

Martin E. Marty is survived by his wife Harriet; sons Joel (Susie), John (Connie), Peter (Susan), and Micah; lifetime foster daughter Fran Garcia Carlson and lifetime foster son Jeff Garcia; stepdaughter Ursula Meyer (Jamie Newcomb); nine grandchildren; 18 great-grandchildren; and numerous nieces, nephews, friends, and admirers. In addition to his parents and wife Elsa, he was preceded in death by his sister, Mildred Burger, and brother, Myron Marty.

A memorial service of thanksgiving to God in celebration of his life will be held at Central Lutheran Church, 333 S. 12th St., Minneapolis, MN on Saturday, March 29, 2025 at 1 p.m., followed by a light reception. The service will also be livestreamed via centralmpls.org Please, no flowers. As per Marty’s request, memorial gifts in his honor may be given to The Martin Marty Center at the University of Chicago; St. Olaf College; or The Christian Century. Written expressions may be sent via legacy.com