The Spring 2011
Merton Road Scholar week will take place from Sunday 10th April until Friday
15th April, 2011. For further details contact Linda
Bailey on (502) 272 8161 or by e-mail: lbailey@bellarmine.edu or visit the
Road Scholar website.
Thomas Merton’s Life and Writings: The Theme of
Seeds
3 Mondays - 20th and
27th September and 4th October, 2010 - 6.30 - 7.30 p.m.
Explore the theme of seeds in Merton’s life and writings. Delve into Merton’s
emphasis on the need for a real deepening of life in every area and for the need
to search for one’s identity not only in God but in other persons. Gain insight
into Merton’s thought on seeds of destruction and on hope as an unexpected gift.
Instructor:
Erlinda G. Paguio is
Director of Development Research at U of L’s Office of University Advancement.
She has served as treasurer, vice president and president of the International
Thomas Merton Society and was Program Chair for the 10th ITMS General Meeting in
June 2007. She has presented research papers on Merton and Meister Eckhart,
Merton and His Asian Friends, Merton and the Carmelite Saints, Merton and Sufism
and Merton’s Reflections on Hope.
To register for this Continuing Education Course please
contact Linda Bailey on (502) 272 8161 or by e-mail: lbailey@bellarmine.edu or
register online at:
www.bellarmine.edu/ce
"Thomas Merton and Dorothy Day: A Special
Friendship"
by James Forest
Wednesday 13th October, 2010
Frazier Hall, Bellarmine University
Free and Open to the Public
James Forest, became a close personal friend and
correspondent of Thomas Merton in the early 1960s. He was managing editor of
The Catholic Worker and worked closely with Dorothy Day. A founder of the
Catholic Peace Fellowship, and former General Secretary of the International
Fellowship of Reconciliation. He is currently secretary of the Orthodox Peace
Fellowship. He is the author of many books including the Merton biography,
Living with Wisdom,
Praying with Icons and
Love is the Measure: A Biography of Dorothy Day. Jim will be featured in the
forthcoming documentary
Hit and
Stay about the Catonsville Nine and the actions that followed.
This lecture marks the donation of a large collection of letters, photographs
and other materials relating to Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker that have
been donated to the Thomas Merton Center by the family of Joseph and Mary Alice
Lautner Zarrella. Further details of this donation can be found in
The Record.
Letters to a Green Liberal:
Thomas Merton’s Call to Ecological Responsibility
A Day Conference on
Thomas Merton and Ecology
Saturday 16th October, 2010 - 9
am - 5 pm
Hilary's, Bellarmine University
Speakers will include:
Rabbi Andrea Cohen-Kiener
is
the director of the Interreligious Eco-Justice Network and the spiritual leader
of Congregation Pnai Or
of Central Connecticut. As a teacher, rabbi and community organizer, Andrea has
practiced the art of bringing a spiritual perspective to problem solving for three
decades. She has practical skills in communication and dialogue, environmental
activism and personal growth. Andrea has worked in coalition and singly to
address environment and life style issues. Andrea was ordained as a rabbi and
spiritual guide in 1999 by the
Alliance for Jewish Renewal. She is the author of
Claiming
Earth as Common Ground: The Ecological Crisis through the Lens of Faith.
Sister Kathleen Deignan
is Professor of Religious Studies and founder
of the Iona Spirituality Institute, which she directs at Iona College, in New
Rochelle, NY. Kathleen is the author of two books on the spiritual legacy of
Thomas Merton:
When the
Trees Say Nothing: Thomas Merton's Writings on Nature (Sorin 2003), and
Thomas
Merton: A Book of
Hours (Sorin 2007). Her engagement with Merton Studies, personally and
professionally, has drawn her down paths in Christian and Buddhist spirituality
and social and ecological justice concerns, which likewise fascinated Thomas
Merton. She is engaged in formal inter-religious dialogue with Buddhists, Jews
and Muslims, was a participant in the “Nuns in the West” encounter in May 2003,
and is in the first class of Green Faith
Fellows, a training program for religious environmental leaders.
Dennis
Patrick O’Hara is
assistant professor of ethics and ecotheology in the Faculty of Theology and
Director of the Elliott Allen Institute for Theology and Ecology at the
University of St. Michael's College, Toronto. He is also an associate member
of the graduate faculty of the Centre for Environment at the University of
Toronto. Dr. O’Hara has spoken widely to professional and academic
gatherings on ecotheology, health care ethics, and the spiritual dimension
of human health. He has been actively involved in
exploring and resolving integrative healthcare issues having worked with the
Natural Health Products Directorate in Health Canada, and the World Health
Organization. He was a co-investigator in the CIHR-funded Canadian
Interdisciplinary Network for Complimentary and Alternative Medicine
Research.
Conference Schedule
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9.00 am
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Monica Weis
|
"Turning Toward the Planet: Thomas Merton's Ecological Conversion."
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10.30 am
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Kathleen Deignan
|
"A Prophecy of Paradise: Thomas Merton's Lectio
of Genesis."
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12.00 pm
|
Lunch
|
|
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1.30 pm
|
Dennis Patrick O'Hara
|
"Recruiting
Merton: Conjectures on Ecological Ethics."
|
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3.00 pm
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Andrea Cohen-Kiener
|
"Working Beyond Class and Race."
|
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4.00 pm
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Roundtable Discussion
|
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Registration
Print out and send the conference Registration Form or
download the Conference Brochure
Fees
(Including registration for the conference, refreshments, and lunch):
$50
$40 (Reduced Student Rate - please include photocopy of student ID)
$60 for registrations after 10/01/10.
Checks (payable to Merton Conference) should be sent to:
Dr. Paul M Pearson. Merton Conference,
Thomas Merton Center, Bellarmine
University,
2001 Newburg Road, Louisville. KY.
40205.
Local Hotel Information:
Best Western (Airport East) - 502-456-4411
Motel 6 (Airport East) - 502-473-0000
Red Roof Inn (Airport East) - 502-456-2993
(Special rates may be available for those attending events at Bellarmine
University. Please ask when booking.)
Laws
Lodge, the conference/retreat center at Louisville Seminary may also have rooms
available, all with private facilities. Bookings can be made at: 502 992 0220.
Further information about Laws Lodge can be found on the web at:
http://www.lpts.edu/Rentals/LawsLodge/
Fifth Annual Thomas Merton Black History Month
Lecture
Sr. Jamie Phelps, O.P.
February 15th 2011 - 7 pm
Free and Open to the Public
Further details to come...
Sister Jamie T. Phelps, O.P., Ph.D., has been a member of the Adrian
Dominican Sisters since 1959. Currently she is a Professor of Systematic
Theology and Director of the Institute for Black Catholic Studies of Xavier
University of Louisiana. Prior to this position she has been a member of the
faculty of the Catholic Theological Union and Loyola University, both in
Chicago, and a Distinguished Visiting Professor of Theology in the Religious
Studies Department at the University of Dayton, Dayton Ohio.
Dr. Phelps holds a B.A. in sociology from Siena Heights
University, Adrian Michigan, an M.S.W. in Social Work from the University of
Illinois at Chicago; a M.A. in Theology from St. John's University,
Collegeville, Minnesota and a Ph.D. in Systematic Theology from The Catholic
University of America.
She has edited two books
Black and
Catholic: The Challenge and Gift of Black Folk and co-edited
Stamped in
the Image of God: African Americans as God's Image in Black. In addition
she has published more than 50 theological articles on issues of the mission of
the Church, evangelization, enculturation, Christology, and spirituality. These
have appeared in scholarly books and journals including The Bible Today,
Missiology, New Theology Review, Theological Studies, U.
S. Catholic Historian, Spiritual Traditions for the Contemporary Church
edited by Gabriel O'Donnell and Robin Mass, A Troubling in My Soul: Womanist
Reflections on Evil and Suffering edited by Emilie M. Townes, Taking Down
Our Harps: Black Catholics in the United States edited by Diana Hayes and
Cyprian Davis, and Black Faith and Public Talk, edited by Dwight N.
Hopkins, and The Spirit in the Church and the Word edited by Braford E.
Hinze. Most Recently she has written the 2008 Advent Meditation Booklet for Pax
Christi USA Be Watchful and Alert-Seek God's Spirit in Our World.
Contemplation in a Technological Era:
Thomas Merton's Insight for the Twenty-First Century
September 24th, 2011
A Conference on Merton and
Technology
Keynote Presentation by: Albert
Borgmann
Albert Borgmann is Regents Professor of
Philosophy at the University of Montana In Missoula, where he has taught since
1970. His special area is the philosophy of society and culture with particular
emphasis on technology. Among his publications are
Technology
and the Character of Contemporary Life (University of Chicago Press,
1984),
Crossing the Postmodern Divide (University of Chicago Press, 1992),
Holding on to
Reality: the Nature of Information at the Turn of the Millennium
(University of Chicago Press, 1999),
Power
Failure: Christianity in the Culture of Technology (Brazos Press, 2003),
and
Real American
Ethics: Taking Responsibility for Our Country (University of
Chicago Press, 2007).
Speakers will include:
Claire Badaracco
Kathleen Deignan, CND.
Paul Dekar
Daniel Horan, OFM.
Gray Matthews
Philip Thompson
Further details to come...
The Paradox of Place: Thomas Merton's Photography
The exhibit of Merton's photographs celebrating the 40th Anniversary (1963-2003) of the Thomas Merton
Collection at Bellarmine University is now a permanent exhibit displayed
in the W. L. Lyons Brown Library on
the Bellarmine University campus. This exhibit focuses on the places Merton visited in his final
travels of 1968 including California, Alaska and Asia and the contrast with his
photographs of Gethsemani and his hermitage.
Click here for a campus map and directions
Financial assistance is needed to assist with funding these
special events at the Thomas Merton Center. If you would be interested in
assisting with funding, or becoming a major sponsor for one of these events
please contact:
Dr Paul Pearson on (502) 272 8177 or by e-mail:
pmpearson@bellarmine.edu