October 6, 2010

Writer, editor Joseph Bottom to explore ‘Hope and the Apocalypse’ in free lecture

Archbishop’s Lecture series returns with talk by Joseph Bottum

By Roxanne King

The popular Archbishop’s Lecture series is back after a year’s hiatus and the new schedule promises to be enlightening and thought provoking.

Joseph Bottum, writer, composer and former editor-in-chief of First Things, the nation’s leading journal of religion and public life, will kick off the series at 7 p.m. Nov. 1 reflecting on “Hope and the Apocalypse: Where We Are Today.”

Bottum recently stepped down as First Things editor to complete a book for Doubleday.

The next talk in the series, also in November, will feature Princeton University professor Robert George, an author of last year’s Manhattan Declaration, a clarion call signed by more than 140 Christian leaders and nearly 500,000 citizens in defense of the sanctity of life, traditional marriage and religious liberty. In January, to launch and highlight the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, Eric Metaxas, author of the current New York Times bestselling biography, “Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy — A Righteous Gentile vs. the Third Reich,” will speak.

Bottum’s talk, which is co-sponsored by the Archbishop’s Office and the Catholic graduate school the Augustine Institute, should be insightful and lively.

“It won’t cover much, really,” Bottum teased, “just that short stretch of time between creation and the final judgment, those few moments between Adam’s beginning and Christ’s Second Coming.

“I want to think about how we respond, as Catholics, to the utterly opposed themes of progress and tradition, hope and despair, mercy and judgment, that are all somehow simultaneously present in America. That we draw in with every breath.”

A highly sought after speaker, Bottum, is also an established poet and composer.

A native of South Dakota, Bottum is a graduate of Georgetown University, with a Ph.D. in philosophy from Boston College. His essays, reviews, and poetry have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the Atlantic Monthly, Nineteenth-Century Literature, Commentary, National Review, Philosophy & Literature, and elsewhere.

He is the former books and arts editor of The Weekly Standard and is host of “Book Talk,” a nationally syndicated radio show.

Audience members will have an opportunity to ask questions of Bottum following his talk. For more information, contact the Office of Communications at 303-715-3123 or e-mail info@archden.org