Fr. James Martin, S.J., is a Jesuit priest, author, and contributing editor of America, the national Catholic magazine. Father Martin is the author of several books, including The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything, which was a New York Times bestseller and won a Christopher Award in 2010. His memoir My Life with the Saints, which also received a Christopher Award, and his book Between Heaven and Mirth: Why Joy, Humor and Laughter are at the Heart of the Spiritual Life, were both named “Best Books of the Year” by Publishers Weekly. His books have been translated into Spanish, German, Chinese, Portuguese, Korean, Polish, Lithuanian and Slovenian. 

 

Father Martin entered the Jesuits in 1988, after graduating from The Wharton School of Business and working at General Electric for six years. During his Jesuit training, he worked in a homeless shelter and with the seriously ill in Boston; at a hospice run by the Missionaries of Charity in Kingston, Jamaica; with street-gang members, and with the unemployed, in Chicago; as a prison chaplain in Boston; and, for two years, in Nairobi, Kenya, with the Jesuit Refugee Service, where he helped East African refugees start small businesses. He received his Master’s Degree in Divinity (M.Div.) and in Theology (Th.M.) from the Weston Jesuit School of Theology in Cambridge, Mass. and was ordained a priest in 1999. Since his ordination he has received honorary degrees from several colleges and universities.

 

Father Martin has written for a variety of publications, both religious and secular, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Boston Globe, Slate and The Huffington Post, and has appeared on all the major networks, including venues as diverse as CNN, BBC, the History Channel and Vatican Radio. He has also been featured on such programs as NPR’s “Fresh Air with Terry Gross,” PBS’s “Newshour,” Fox-TV’s “The O’Reilly Factor,” and Comedy Central’s “The Colbert Report.” Father Martin blogs regularly for America magazine’s “In All Things,” posts to a public Facebook page (www.facebook.com/FrJamesMartin) and Tweets under @JamesMartinSJ.