Sister Rose Thering, a Dominican nun, spent her life combating anti-Semitism and fostering better Jewish-Catholic relations. Her research influenced the writing of "Nostra Aetate," the Declaration on the Relation of the Church with Non-Christian Religions issued by the Second Vatican Council in 1965, which dismissed the charge that Jews were responsible for the death of Jesus Christ. It also urged Christians and Muslims to work together for mutual understanding and social justice. Originated by Victor and Susan Temkin, who founded the In the Memory of Sister Rose Thering Foundation, the Thering Fellowship is designed to bring a leading figure in conversations among Jews, Christians and Muslims to UW-Madison as a scholar-in-residence to both deliver a public lecture and to meet with small groups of students and other members of the greater Madison community.
LISAR and The in the Memory of Sister Rose Thering Foundation
Proudly Announce the Fifth Annual Thering Fellow:
Charlotte Gordon
"In Her Steps:
Following Hagar to Abraham "
Monday, October 22, 2012
7:30 p.m.
Howard Auditorium, Fluno Center
601 University Avenue
Madison, Wisconsin
Free and Open to the Public
Charlotte Gordon is a writer of poetry, non-fiction and fiction. She began her writing life as a poet and has published two books of poetry, When the Grateful Dead Came to St. Louis and Two Girls on a Raft. Her biography of the 17th century poet, Anne Bradstreet, Mistress Bradstreet: The Untold Life of America’s First Poet, (Little, Brown, 2005) won a New England Book Award for non-fiction.
Her latest book, The Woman Who Named God: Abraham’s Dilemma and the Birth of Three Faiths (Little Brown, 2009), retells the famous Biblical story of Abraham, Sarah, and Hagar.
Gordon has been featured on NPR’s “Weekend Edition” with Scott Simon. Her poetry has won many prizes, including a Robert Penn Warren Award. She has been invited to read her work at various colleges, schools, and cultural institutions, including Radcliffe College, University of New Hampshire, Salem State College, University of Massachusetts and The Salem Atheneum. She has also given presentations to historical societies, churches, temples, and book clubs, from Georgia to Wyoming. Click here to read her full biography.
As part of the Thering Fellowship,Gordon will hold conversations with small groups of faculty, students, and members of the greater Madison community.
The Sister Rose Thering Fellowship is sponsored by a generous gift from the In the Memory of Sister Rose Thering Foundation as well as by the Lubar Institute.