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James J. Martin, born 29 December 1960, is a Jesuit priest, writer and Culture Editor of the Jesuit magazine America.[1]
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Martin grew up in Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania, United States, and attended Plymouth-Whitemarsh High School.[2] He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business in 1982 and worked in corporate finance at General Electric for six years. [3] Dissatisfied with the corporate world, he became more deeply involved in the Catholic Church and decided to enter the Society of Jesus (more commonly known as the Jesuits) in 1988 and was ordained a priest in 1999. [4] In addition to his work at America Magazine, Fr. Martin has written or edited more than 10 books, many of which are largely about his own experiences. He is a frequent commentator for CNN, NPR, FoxNews, Time Magazine, and other news outlets, and has written several op-ed pieces and blogged for The New York Times. [5]
Martin is a member of the LAByrinth Theater Company.[6] His involvement with the LAByrinth Theater Company's 2005 stage production of The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, written by Stephen Adly Guirgis, directed by Philip Seymour Hoffman, and featuring Sam Rockwell, John Ortiz, Eric Bogosian, and Callie Thorne, is the subject of Martin's book, A Jesuit Off-Broadway: Center Stage with Jesus, Judas, and Life's Big Questions (LoyolaPress., 2007). Publishers Weekly, which gave the book a coveted starred review, named A Jesuit Off-Broadway one of the Best Books of 2007.[7]
On September 13, 2007, Father Martin appeared on Comedy Central's The Colbert Report to discuss Mother Teresa's fifty-year long sense of abandonment by God which had much coverage in the media at the time. During the interview, Stephen Colbert jokingly asked Father Martin if Mother Teresa's "crisis of faith" had earned her, in his words, "a table for one...by the Lake of Fire." [8] Since then, Father Martin has appeared five more times on The Colbert Report, once to discuss Pope Benedict XVI's visit to the U.S. in April, 2008,[9] and again on February 23, 2009 to discuss how poverty (or, at least, reducing the importance one places on material goods) can bring one closer to God.[10] In his introduction of Father Martin on the February 23rd show, Stephen Colbert promoted Martin from "friend of the show" to "The Colbert Report chaplain." On March 18, 2010, Father Martin was invited to the program in the wake of Glenn Beck's suggesting that Catholics run away from priests who preach "social justice."[11] Father Martin noted that "social justice addresses the things that keep people poor" and "asks you why are these people poor." He added that "Christ asked us to work with the poor.... In the Gospel of Matthew he says that the way that we're going to be judged at the end of our lives is not what Church we prayed in or how we prayed but really, you know, how we treated the poor." On August 10th, 2011, Father Martin appeared on The Colbert Report to discuss God's "approval rating" and to promote his book The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything: A Spirituality for Real Life.[12] On November 9th, 2011, he appeared once again to promote his book concerning humor and religion: Between Heaven and Mirth.
Martin has written about anti-Catholicism in the entertainment industry. He argues that, despite an irresistible fascination with the Catholic Church, the entertainment industry also holds the most obvious contempt for the Catholic Church. He suggests that, "It is as if producers, directors, playwrights and filmmakers feel obliged to establish their intellectual bona fides by trumpeting their differences with the institution that holds them in such thrall." [13]
Father Martin's best known book, My Life with the Saints (2006), was named by Publishers Weekly as one of the "Best Books of the Year" [7] and was the winner of a 2007 Christopher Award.[14]
In May, 2007, he received an honorary doctor of divinity degree from Wagner College in Staten Island, NY.[15]
Martin's books include:
Martin has also edited the following books:
His essays are included the following:
Father Martin provided an afterword for: