A former Lutheran pastor, Martin Marty rose to become one of the country’s preeminent historians and interpreters of religion.

Marty was a giant in the study of American Christianity and the fundamentalist movement in major faiths around the globe. He was also a warmhearted friend, mentor and pastor to many.

Throughout his distinguished career, University of Chicago Prof. Emeritus and the Rev. Dr. Martin E. Marty was one of the country’s foremost theologians and religious historians—a renowned public intellectual who shaped conversations about religion’s role in contemporary culture.

Martin E. Marty, an eminent church historian, prolific chronicler and interpreter of religion and its role in public life, died at the age of 97 on Tuesday in a Minneapolis care facility where he spent his final years.

Martin Marty, one of the foremost interpreters of religion in American public life, died on Tuesday. He was 97 years old.