Woodward was the longtime religion editor at Newsweek. Much of his career on the religion beat overlapped with Martin Marty’s career as a scholar and interpreter of American religious life. Here is a taste of Woodward’s piece at Commonweal:
In 1986, the religion editor of Time wrote that Marty “is generally acknowledged to be the most influential living interpreter of American religion.” But much of that influence was channeled through other influencers in the press—chiefly, the religion writers at Time, Newsweek, where I worked, the wire services, and dozens of major daily newspapers. We all read Context, Marty’s eight-page newsletter, published by the Claretian Fathers, on the impact of religion on American public life; his slyly named weekly column, M.E.M.O., in the Christian Century (now edited by his son Peter); Sightings, which continues as a newsletter published by the Martin Marty Center at the University of Chicago; and New Theology, an annual paperback anthology of the major theological essays of the previous year edited by Marty and his Century colleague Dean Pearman. We all read Marty and Marty read us.
Marty had all the instincts of crack journalist. “Tell me three things I should know about you,” was often the way he encouraged conversation with strangers on first meeting. He was also a great noticer. In the late 1960s, for example, he was the first to notice that twenty-somethings were wearing crosses, stars of David, and crescent moons, along with various New Age symbols all on a single chain around the neck. It was an early sign of the spiritually promiscuous years to come.
Marty was also a gifted synthesizer, seeing patterns that escaped most others. Shortly after the close of the Second Vatican Council, Notre Dame University hosted a two-day conference featuring Karl Rahner, Hans Küng, and other Council periti, together with many of the Council’s Protestant observers. Marty, who had been one of those observers, was asked at the close of the conference to summarize what these theological luminaries had said. Marty chose to listen to them from backstage, where he kibitzed with the journalists who were following the proceedings on in-house television. But while we took notes, Marty wrote a series of lectures he was to give the following week at Southern Methodist University. At the close, he not only summarized the main arguments that emerged from some thirty-six speakers but went on to draw them into a creative dialectic.
Read the entire piece here.
