Holy Cross Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture To Sponsor Spring Series of Public Events

WORCESTER, Mass. – The Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture at the College of the Holy Cross is sponsoring a number of lectures by noted experts in the next month. The talks, which are free and open to the public, will take place in Rehm Library on the campus.

William B. Allen, Ph.D., will give a talk titled "Cyrus in the Temple: The Relationship Between Monotheism and Political Progress" on March 31 at 4 p.m. Allen is professor of political science at Michigan State University, a former member of the National Council on the Humanities and former chairman of the United States Commission on Civil Rights. He authored, with Carol Allen, Habits of Mind: Fostering Access and Excellence in Higher Education (Transaction Publishers, 2003).

Dr. Alice B. Hayes will speak on "The National Review Board and the Laity in the Future of the Church in the United States" on April 2 at 10 a.m. Dr. Hayes will give an insider’s view of the work of the National Review Board on the abuse of children by clergy. She is a member of the National Review Board of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and President Emerita of the University of San Diego. She is the former Provost of Saint Louis University and vice president of Loyola University of Chicago.

Darrell Fasching will give a talk titled "Gandhi or Bin Laden? The Future of Religion and Politics in an Age of Globalization" on April 5 at 7:30 p.m. Fasching, a professor of religious studies at the University of South Florida, is a specialist in religion and politics, and post-Holocaust ethics. He is the author of World Religions Today (Oxford University Press, 2002), Comparative Religious Ethics (Blackwell Publishing, 2000) and the forthcoming Religion and Globalization (Oxford University Press).

Pheme Perkins will speak on "Women and Apocryphal Gospels in Early Christianity" on April 9 at 10 a.m. Perkins, a professor of New Testament and Early Christianity at Boston College, is author of Abraham’s Divided Children (Trinity Press International, 2001), Peter, Apostle for the Whole Church (Augsburg Fortress Publishers, 2000) and Gnosticism and the New Testament (Augsburg Fortress Publishers, 1993).

Jane Schaberg will give a talk titled "Jesus and Mary Magdelene" on April 12 at 7:30 p.m. Schaberg, professor of Religious Studies and Women’s Studies at the University of Detroit-Mercy, is author of The Resurrection of Mary Magdalene: Legends, Apocrypha, and the Christian Testament (Continuum International Publishing Group, 2002).

Perkins and Schaberg will be speaking against the background of the Da Vinci Code controversies.