When someone writes a biography of someone else or an autobiography, how much should the author say about family relationships? What are the ethical and theological issues raised in writing?  John Barbour will discuss these issues in his lecture, “Biography, Autobiography, and Family Dynamics,” Thursday, March 31, at 4 p.m. in the Main Library 033 at IU Bloomington.

Barbour is the Martin Marty Chair in religion and the Academy at St. Olaf College. His most recent work is The Value of Solitude: The Ethics and Spirituality of Aloneness in Autobiography.  He also has written Versions of Deconversion: Autobiography and the Loss of Faith and The Conscience of the Autobiographer: Ethical and Religious Dimensions of Autobiography.  His presentation is the second of the lectures this spring on the Ethics and Politics of Childhood, presented by the Poynter Center for the Study of Ethics and American Institutions as a part of the Interdisciplinary Faculty Fellows Program at the Poynter Center.