James Carroll closes out the Summer Lecture Series on Sunday, Aug. 16

James Carroll

The eighth annual Brandeis in the Berkshires Summer Lecture Series will conclude on Sunday, Aug. 16, when author and Boston Globe columnist James Carroll delivers an address titled “Catastrophe Means Turning Point.”

Carroll says audience members can expect to hear some "fresh ideas and thinking" during his talk. After the lecture, he will sign copies of his latest book, “Practicing Catholic.” Copies of the book will be available for purchase.

This will be the fifth summer lecture presented by Brandeis in the Berkshires this season. Several hundred audience members have attended the previous events, which covered topics including the relationship between the U.S., Iran and Israel, media coverage of President Obama, the state of the economy, and the Bible’s place in American public life.

Sunday’s lecture will begin at 8 p.m. at Shakespeare & Company in Lenox, Mass. For ticket information, visit the Shakespeare & Company Web site.

About James Carroll
James Carroll is the author of ten novels and five previous works of non-fiction, including the National Book Award winning “An American Requiem”, the New York Times bestselling “Constantine's Sword,” now an acclaimed documentary, and “House of War,” which won the first PEN-Galbraith Award.

He has written for The New Yorker, The Atlantic, and other publications, and his column appears weekly in The Boston Globe. His writing, and his long work toward Jewish-Christian-Muslim reconciliation make him a leading voice on the problem of religion and violence.

Carroll was born in Chicago in 1943, and raised in Washington where his father, an Air Force general, served as the Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency. He attended Georgetown University before entering the seminary to train for the Catholic priesthood.

Carroll received BA and MA degrees from St. Paul’s College, the Paulist Fathers’ seminary in Washington, and was ordained to the Catholic priesthood in 1969. He served as Catholic Chaplain at Boston University from 1969 to 1974 and then left the priesthood to become a writer.

James Carroll is currently the Fred and Rita Richman Visiting Professor at Brandeis and a Distinguished Scholar-in-Residence at Suffolk University in Boston.