His Eminence, Cardinal Péter Erdő of Esztergom-Budapest, Primate of Hungary will be delivering the 40th Bampton Lecture in America on Monday, January 29th, 2018. His lecture, titled “The Role of Religion and the Churches in a Secular State,” will take place in the Low Memorial Library Rotunda and is open to all members of the Columbia community. A catered reception will follow in the Low Library Faculty Room.
Founded in 1948 through a bequest from Ada Byron Bampton Tremaine, the Bampton Lectures in America are a series of lectures given at period intervals by prominent scholars in the fields of theology, science, art, and medicine. In accordance with the wishes of Ms. Tremaine, the lectures are delivered to a general audience and subsequently published. Included among those who have delivered the Bampton Lectures are: Arnold Toynbee, Paul Tillich, Fred Hoyle, Alasdair C. MacIntyre, Jonathan Riley-Smith, and Irving Weissman.
Cardinal Péter Erdő, Archbishop of Esztergom-Budapest, Primate of Hungary, was ordained priest on June 18, 1975 in Budapest. Between 1975-1977 he served in a parish in the city of Dorog. He obtained a Doctorate in Theology in 1976, then between 1977-1980 he studied at the Pontifical Lateran University’s Institutum Utriusque Iuris in Rome, at the end of which he obtained a Doctorate in Canon Law (1980). Over the next 20 years he served in higher education in Esztergom, at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, at the Péter Pázmány Catholic University, and at the post-graduate Canon Law Institute.
On November 5th, 1999 John Paul II appointed him Auxiliary Bishop of the Diocese of Székesfehérvár. On Decmber 7th, 2012 Pope John Paul II transferred him to the Metropolitan See of Esztergom-Budapest, appointing him Archbishop of Esztergom-Budapest and Primate of Hungary. He was created Cardinal on October 21st, 2003. His prodigious systematic reading has led to the publication of more than 250 articles and 25 books in the fields of Canon Law and the medieval history of Canon Law. Since 2013 he has been an ordinary member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.
