Environmental ethicist Holmes Rolston III will speak Monday, April 14,  at 1 p.m. in Brenau University’s Thurmond McRae Auditorium  as a part of the Gainesville area interfaith ministries’ activities leading up to the 38th annual celebration of Earth Day on April 22.   

The event is free and open to the public. Thurmond McRae Auditorium is located on Academy Street on the Gainesville campus adjacent to the Trustee Library.

Known as “the father of environmental ethics” as an academic discipline, Rolston currently is distinguished professor of philosophy at Colorado State University. He is a founder of the academic journal Environmental Ethics and a prolific writer, the author of six books. Among his works are “Genes, Genesis and God” (Cambridge University Press, 1999), “Science and Religion: A Critical Survey” (Random House 1987, with a 2006 new edition by Templeton Foundation Press, 2006), and “Philosophy Gone Wild” (Prometheus Books, 1986, 1989). 

Virginia-born Rolston is a third-generation Presbyterian minister. After he majored in science and mathematics as an undergraduate at Davidson College in North Carolina, he earned a bachelor of divinity at Union Seminary. He also has a master’s in philosophy of science at University of Pittsburgh and a Ph.D. from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. 

Among other high honors, Rolston won the 2003 Templeton Prize for Progress Toward Research or Discoveries about Spiritual Realities, which was awarded by Prince Philip in Buckingham Palace. He gave the Gifford Lectures, University of Edinburgh, 1997-1998. He has participated in many international conferences on environmental issues and philosophy.