NEWPORT, R.I. – “Rhode Island and America’s Moral Charter,” a lecture by award-winning author and Boston Globe columnist James Carroll, will be presented at Salve Regina University’s Bazarsky Lecture Hall at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 18.
Free and open to the public, the lecture is being presented by the Newport Historical Society as part of “The Spectacle of Toleration” project that commemorates the 350th anniversary of the King Charles II Charter. This project explores the role of religious tolerance in society, examining Newport and Rhode Island as well as other times and places—including today.
To register for Carroll’s lecture, call 401-841-8770.
Carroll, who writes on the topics of religion and history has been described as, “one of the most adept and versatile writers on the American scene today” by the Denver Post. He is the author of 10 novels and seven works of non-fiction, including the National Book Award winning An American Requiem; The New York Times bestselling Constantine's Sword, which is an acclaimed documentary; House of War, which won the first PEN-Galbraith Award; and Jerusalem, Jerusalem: How the Ancient City Ignited Our Modern World, which was named a 2011 Best Book by Publishers Weekly.
Earlier this year he contributed one of two introductions to Vatican II: The Essential Texts (The other is by Benedict XVI). Carroll is Distinguished Scholar-in-Residence at Suffolk University in Boston, where he lives with his wife, the novelist Alexandra Marshall.
The Spectacle of Toleration project will include tours, lectures and a significant web presence, and will culminate in 2014 with an exhibition. The Society has partnered with The John Carter Brown Library at Brown University and the Pell Center for International Relations and Public Policy at Salve Regina University.
The project will include an academic symposium held in collaboration with these universities to provide content and inspiration for the two years of programming.
“The King Charles II Charter of 1663 for the colony in Rhode Island marked the first time in modern history that a government was created in which toleration of individual differences on religious matters was permitted and encouraged,” said Newport Historical Society Executive Director Ruth Taylor. “Through The Spectacle of Toleration, we will explore questions such as: what did this ‘lively experiment’ look and feel like to those who lived it? And what was its legacy?”
The Spectacle of Toleration is supported by the Rhode Island Council for the Humanities.