R. Scott Appleby, Ph.D.
Georgetown University
Washington, D.C.
June 23, 2000
The Second Annual Lecture of the Catholic Common Ground Initiative was presented by R. Scott Appleby, Director of the Charles and Margaret Hall Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism at the University of Notre Dame. His lecture, entitled “The Substance of Things Hoped For: Common Ground and the Source of Our Disputes,” was inherently focused on the act of prayer–displaying most honestly a common ground possible via the discovery and performance of our faith.
Dr. Appleby enrolled at the University of Notre Dame after secondary school, graduating with an undergraduate degree in 1978. He subsequently matriculated at The University of Chicago for graduate studies in history, and was awarded a Ph.D. in 1985. After serving on the faculty at St. Xavier College until 1987, he moved onto the University of Notre Dame shortly thereafter. From 1988-1993, Appleby co-directed the Fundamentalism Project, sponsored by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, with former professor and doctoral advisor, Martin E. Marty. Since 1994, he has served as the Director of the Charles and Margaret Hall Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism at the University of Notre Dame, where he has also been a member of the faculty in various capacities.
Dr. Appleby is the author or co-author of many manuscripts, articles, and periodicals. Some of his best-known works include the first three, co-edited volumes of The Fundamentalism Project (Fundamentalisms Observed; Fundamentalisms and the State: Remaking Polities, Economies, and Militance; and Fundamentalisms and Society: Reclaiming the Sciences, the Family, and Education), along with Martin E. Marty, in addition to Ambivalence of the Sacred: Religion, Violence, and Reconciliation.
