I, Monty

"Success, or failure, very often arrives on wings that seem mysterious to us"
~ Marcus Bach

Marcus Bach(1906 - 1995) was born in Sauk City, Wisconsin. He trained for the ordained ministry at Mission House College and seminary in Plymouth, Wisconsin. After a pastorate in Kansas City, Missouri, Marcus Bach returned to school to pursue play writing . He received his M.A. (1937) and Ph.D. (1942) from the University of Iowa's prestigious interfaith School of Religion. There he taught about little known religious sects and also presented the course in radio.
Although he always continued to write and publish, in 1961, he resigned from the School of Religion to pursue lecturing and writing full time. He authored twenty-seven books, including Major Religions of the World, Had you Been Born in Another Faith, The Unity Way, The World of Serendipity, and The Power of Total Living. At one point in his life, Dr. Bach set out to meet the five people of his time whom he felt best exemplified the teachings of Jesus Christ in their lives. He travelled 40,000 miles in pursuit of this aim, interviewing ...
Helen Keller[1], Pope Pius XII[2], Albert Schweitzer[3],Therese Neumann[4], and Shoghi Effendi[5].
Dr. Bach was founder and director of "The Fellowship for Spiritual Understanding." He has contributed to the Encyclopedia Americana, Theatre Arts, the Reader's Digest, and many other periodicals. and was director of special projects for SFF. The Rockefeller Foundation granted him a fellowship in “research and creative writing” from 1934-36
Marcus Bach is recognized as a leading authority on the world's religions and inter-cultural relations. Among his currently popular works are The World of Serendipity, The Power of Perception and the metaphysical allegory, I, Monty.
[1]Helen Adams Keller (1880 –1968) was an American author, political activist, and lecturer. She was the first deafblind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degreeThe story of how Keller's teacher, Anne Sullivan, broke through the isolation imposed by a near complete lack of language, allowing the girl to blossom as she learned to communicate, has become widely known through the dramatic depictions of the play and film The Miracle Worker. A prolific author, Keller was well-traveled, and was outspoken in her opposition to war. A member of the Socialist Party of America and the Wobblies, she campaigned for women's suffrage, workers' rights, and socialism, as well as many other leftist causes.
[2] The Venerable Pope Pius XII, born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli (1876 –1958), reigned as Pope, head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of Vatican City State, from 2 March 1939 until his death in 1958.
[3] Albert Schweitzer OM (1875 –1965) was a German theologian, organist, philosopher, physician, and medical missionary. He was born in Kaysersberg in the province of Alsace-Lorraine, at that time part of the German Empire. Schweitzer, a Lutheran, challenged both the secular view of Jesus as depicted by historical-critical methodology current at his time in certain academic circles, as well as the traditional Christian view. Schweitzer's passionate quest was to discover a universal ethical philosophy, anchored in a universal reality, and make it directly available to all of humanity.
[4] Therese Neumann ( 1898 –1962) was a German Catholic mystic and stigmatic. She was a member of the Third Order of St. Francis.
[5] Shoghí Effendí Rabbání (1897 —1957), better known as Shoghi Effendi, was the Guardian and appointed head of the Bahá'í Faith from 1921 until his death in 1957.