Western Culture, Values Topics Of Rev. O'Malley Lecture

BUFFALO, NY - Rev. John W. O’ Malley, S.J., University Professor in the Theology Department at Georgetown University, will speak at Canisius University on Monday, September 19 at 7 p.m. in the Grupp Fireside Lounge. His lecture, entitled “Four Cultures of the West,” is free and open to the public. Father O’Malley, who will visit the college from September 19-21, will serve as the All-College Honors Program’s first scholar-in-residence. 

A renowned historian on the religious culture of early modern Europe, Father O’Malley is the recipient of best-book prizes from the American Historical Association, the American Philosophical Society, the Sixteenth Century Studies Conference and the Alpha Sigma Nu fraternity. His best-known books are The First Jesuits(Harvard University Press, 1993), a revolutionary study of the early Society of Jesus which was translated into 10 languages; and What Happened at Vatican II(Harvard, 2008). His most recent book, Four Cultures of the West, was published by Belknap Press (Harvard) in 2004. Father O’Malley edited or co-edited a number of volumes, including three in the Collected Works of Erasmus series, University of Toronto Press. The Jesuits and The Arts (Saint Joseph University Press, 2005) co-edited with Gauvin Alexander Bailey, is of particular significance in Father O’Malley’s body of work.

Father O’Malley obtained his doctorate from Harvard University. He lectures across North America and Europe to professional and general audiences. Father O’Malley held professorships at Harvard University, the University of Michigan, Boston College, Fordham University and Oxford University. He was awarded many honors including a fellowship in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a membership in the American Philosophical Society and past presidencies of both the Catholic Historical Society and the Renaissance Society of America. Father O’Malley holds the Johannes Quasten Medal from the Catholic University of America for distinguished achievement in Religious Studies. 

Father O’Malley’s visit to Canisius University is sponsored by the All-College Honors Program. The Scholars-in-Residence Program has been made possible by the generous support of Matthew E. Raiff ’91, PhD, an alumnus of the All-College Honors Program, and a founding member of Bates White, a large economic consulting firm based in Washington, D.C. Participating scholars-in-residence have national reputations and are chosen for their expertise in the Western Tradition, a required, year-long, interdisciplinary course in The All-College Honors Program that lays the foundation for intellectual inquiry in subsequent courses.

For more information, contact Bruce J. Dierenfield, PhD, professor of history and director of the All-College Honors Program, at (716) 888-2683. 

Canisius University is one of 28 Jesuit colleges in the nation and the premier private college in Western New York. Canisius prepares leaders – intelligent, caring faithful individuals – able to pursue and promote excellence in their professions, their communities and their service to humanity.