ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
The Rev. James Martin SJ, is a Jesuit priest, author, and culture editor of America, the national Catholic magazine. Father Martin was born in Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania, and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business in 1982, where he received a bachelor's degree in finance (B.S. Econ.). After working for six years in corporate finance with General Electric Co. in New York and Connecticut, he entered the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits) in 1988. During his novitiate, Martin worked in a hospital for the seriously ill in Cambridge, Massachusetts, a hospice for the sick and dying with the Missionaries of Charity in Kingston, Jamaica; a homeless shelter in Boston, and at the Nativity Mission School, a middle school for poor boys, in New York City. In August 1990, he pronounced his simple vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. From 1990 to 1992, he studied philosophy at Loyola University in Chicago, and also worked in an outreach program with street-gang members in the inner city and at a local community center helping unemployed men and women find jobs. For his "regency", he worked for two years with the Jesuit Refugee Service in Nairobi, Kenya, where he helped East African refugees start small businesses and cofounded a small shop for refugee handicrafts; and for one year with America magazine in New York City. In 1995, Martin began his theology studies at the Weston Jesuit School of Theology, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he received his master's degree in divinity (M.Div.) in 1998, and his master's in theology (Th.M.) in 1999. While in Cambridge, he worked as a chaplain at a Boston prison. After completing his Jesuit studies, he was ordained a Catholic priest in June 1999. He received an honorary doctor of divinity degree (D.D.) from Wagner College in 2007. On November 1, 2009, he pronounced his final vows as a Jesuit.