The Year of the Book continues at the
Penn Humanities Forum...

DR. S.T. LEE DISTINGUISHED LECTURE
How Many Scriptures Became One Bible
(and Why the Change Matters)

Jack Miles
2002 MacArthur Fellow
Pulitzer Prize-winning author of
God: A Biography

An author and essayist, Jack Miles has been called an insightful critic and a lucid writer of marked originality, literary force, reach, and cast who moves effortlessly between the intellectual world of literary scholarship and contemporary social issues. 

In his Pulitzer Prize-winning book, God: A Biography, he examines the evolution of the character of God as though a figure in a work of literature, providing a unique prism through which to consider the Old Testament. Miles uses a similar approach in his 2001 book, Christ: A Crisis in the Life of God, considering not the historical Christ, but the character depicted in the stories of the New Testament. 

In addition to analyzing biblical literature, he is an astute observer of religion and culture. Trained as a Jesuit with a doctorate in Near Eastern Languages and Literature, Miles is currently focusing on religion in international relations. He is exploring links among the ethical premises of the Bible and such contemporary challenges as nuclear catastrophe and environmental degradation.

Jack Miles received a Litt.B. from Xavier University, Cincinnati, a Phil.B. from Pontifical Gregorian University, Rome, and a Ph.D. from Harvard University. He was a Jesuit seminarian for ten years, resigning from the order before priestly ordination. Miles taught at Loyola University of Chicago and at the University of Montana. He was an editor at Doubleday & Co. and an executive editor at the University of California Press. He has served as literary editor and as a member of the editorial board of The Los Angeles Times. Miles was the director of the Claremont Graduate University Humanities Center, and he was the Mellon Visiting Professor of the Humanities at the California Institute of Technology. He is presently Senior Advisor to the President of the J. Paul Getty Trust. He has written for numerous publications including The Atlantic Monthly, The New York Times, and The Boston Globe.