Book Signing, Discussion April 12:
Aurora Author to Debut Volume Exploring Religion for Contemporary World

AURORA, Ill.—Martin Forward, professor of religion and executive director of Aurora University’s Wackerlin Center for Faith and Action, will discuss and sign his new book at 10 a.m. Saturday, April 12, in Lowry Chapel in Eckhart Hall at 347 S. Gladstone Ave. in Aurora.

Forward, an Aurora resident and a British Methodist minister, released “The Nature and Name of Love: Religion for the Contemporary World” last month.

The 200-page, softbound volume was published by Epworth Press of Peterborough, England. The book is available at Amazon.com for $25.

Forward said, “This book examines the conflicting claims of secularism, free-standing spirituality and New Age movements to replace religion as homes for the human spirit but finds them wanting.

“Resources of religion to create decent human beings have been seriously underestimated in our contemporary world. This book reclaims religion as a phenomenon encouraging adult and humane relationships, beliefs and actions that can bring together people across the boundaries of race and culture,” Forward said.

He joined AU in 2001 from Cambridge University, England, as Helena Wackerlin Professor of Religious Studies and executive director of the university’s Wackerlin Center for Faith and Action. At Cambridge, he was a professor and founder-director of the Centre for Jewish-Christian Relations.

Forward is the author and editor of numerous books and articles, and is an expert in contemporary religious studies.

He is the lead editor for a planned dictionary of Christian-Muslim relations due out in 2012. The Henry Luce Foundation of New York City awarded AU a $30,000 grant in March to support the project.

Call (630) 844-4885 for more information.

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