Christian-Jewish relations will be the focus of a Fairfield University presentation on Tuesday, Feb. 19, when acclaimed author James Carroll speaks at the University’s Regina A. Quick Center for the Performing Arts at 7 p.m.

Carroll will speak on “After Constantine’s Sword: The Past, Present and Future of Jewish-Christian Relations.” Carroll is the author of the recent New York Times bestseller, Constantine’s Sword, the Church and the Jews: A History.

Responses to Carroll’s talk will be offered by Dr. Ellen M. Umansky, the Carl and Dorothy Bennett Professor of Judaic Studies at Fairfield University, and Dr. Elizabeth A. Dreyer, Fairfield University professor of religious studies. An on-stage conversation on the topic will also include Bill Hulseman, a Fairfield University graduate from the Class of 1998 and a recent Harvard Divinity School graduate.

Constantine’s Sword has been the subject of interfaith dialogues and conversations at synagogues and churches across the United States.

James Carroll was born in Chicago in 1943, and raised in Washington, DC, where his father, an Air Force General, served as the Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency. Carroll attended Georgetown University before entering the seminary to train for the Catholic priesthood. He received BA and MA degrees at St. Paul’s College, the Paulist Fathers’ seminary in Washington. In 1965 he studied poetry with Allan Tate at the University of Minnesota. He was a Civil Rights worker and community organizer in Washington and New York. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1969.

Carroll served as Catholic Chaplain at Boston University from 1969 to 1974.

Carroll left the priesthood to become a writer. In 1974 he was Playwright-in-Residence at the Berkshire Theater Festival in Stockbridge, MA.

Carroll is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, where he serves on the Committee on International Security Studies.

The program, sponsored by the Fairfield Alumni Association, the Departments of History and Religious Studies, and the Carl and Dorothy Bennett Center for Judaic Studies, is open to the general public.

Admission is $10; free with a Fairfield University I.D. For tickets, please call the Quick Center Box Office, 203-254-4010.

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