About James Connor
James Connor has been a teacher and writer for nearly 20 years, having taught full-time at three major universities, most recently at St. Louis University in St. Louis, Missouri, and now at Kean University in Union, New Jersey. His writing has been critically acclaimed, as have his talks on science, religion, and culture.
He was born in Washington, DC within months of the end of the Korean War, but his family moved from there to Philadelphia. A few years later, his father packed the family into a 1955 Pontiac station wagon and drove across America on Route 66 to end up in Santa Monica, California. His writing career began in the third grade when Sister Enda, the principal of our Lady of Grace school, demanded an essay on why he should not be given detention, and the essay worked. Years later, he earned a bachelor’s degree in geology from the California State University at Northridge, and then immediately entered the St. Meinrad’s school of theology in southern Indiana, where four years later he was ordained a Catholic priest. For the next several years, he lived and worked in British Columbia as a parish priest and missionary to the native peoples. Having entered the Society of Jesus, he soon earned master’s degrees in both philosophy and creative writing, and then studied at the University of Iowa, where he earned a Ph.D. in contemporary American literature. For the next five years, he taught in the Communication Department at St. Louis University. At the end of this time, he left the Society of Jesusand the Catholic priesthood amicably, having been given special permission to marry from Pope John Paul II. Now he lives with his wife Beth in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania, where they raise border collies and write books.
His first book was a collection of short stories published by Paulist press, entitled God’s Breath and Other Stories. His second book was a memoir, published by Crown books, of his experiences in Canada, entitled Silent Fire. His most recent book was a biography of Johannes Kepler, published by Harper San Francisco, focusing on his mother’s witchcraft trial. His next book, a biography of Catholic mathematician, scientist, mystic, and heretic Blaise Pascal, entitled Pascal’s Wager, also published by Harper San Francisco, will be arriving at the bookstores on October 17th of this year.
He has just been named Director of Studies, Northeast US, for the Lessing Institute, an international studies program that meets in Prague every summer, in order to bring together scholars and students to discuss the political, artistic, scientific, and religious relationships between Christianity, Islam, and Judaism.
