ITMS 19th General Meeting
guide to concurrent Sessions
Session A - Friday, June 20 - 10:30 AM - 11:45 AM
Session B - Friday, June 20 - 2:00 PM - 3:15 PM
Session C - Saturday, June 21 - 10:30 AM - 11:45 AM
Session D - Saturday, June 21 - 1:30 PM - 2:45 PM
FRIDAY, JUNE
20
10:30 AM – 11:45 AM
A1. Merton and the Web of Life
a.
Jim Robinson – “Beyond Factory
Farming: Insights from Thomas Merton and Thich Nhat Hanh.”
Jim Robinson is a member of the Religious Studies department at Iona University, a former ITMS Shannon Fellow, and current co-chair of the ITMS Daggy Scholarship Committee.
This paper places Merton’s critique of factory farming into conversation
with the work of his friend, fellow war-resister, and fellow critic of
factory farming, Thich Nhat Hanh. It envisions an approach to sacred eating
which weaves together contemplative sensitivity to the wider web of life
with prophetic resistance to a desecrating status quo.
b. Andy
Stanton-Henry – “The Palace of Nowhere: Reframing Rural Spirituality with
Thomas Merton.”
Andy Stanton-Henry is a writer and Quaker minister in East
Tennessee. He is co-director of the Quaker Leadership Center, co-pastor of
Lost Creek Friends Meeting, and the author of Recovering Abundance: Twelve
Practices for Small-Town Leaders.
People living in rural places often struggle to
appreciate and articulate their unique spirituality. Merton's
writings provide wisdom for reframing rural contexts as places full of
spiritual possibilities. My paper will name and unpack five themes from
Merton's life and writings that open new frames of rural life.
A2. Merton and Place 1
a. Michael N. McGregor – “The Importance of Place in Thomas Merton’s Vision and Experience of Solitude.”
Michael N. McGregor is the author of Pure Act: The Uncommon Life of Robert Lax and An Island to Myself: The Place of Solitude in an Active Life.
Thomas Merton’s devotion to solitude is well known. Less known is his
conviction that seekers of solitude, whether monks or not, should find a set
place to pursue it. This presentation explores the connections between
solitude and place in Merton’s vision, writings, and experience.
b. Mark C. Meade – “A Cosmopolitan Vowed to Stability: Where Did Merton Claim as Home?”
Mark C. Meade is the assistant director of the Thomas Merton Center at
Bellarmine University and a past president of the ITMS. He has explored
existentialist themes in Merton’s writings and studied Merton’s connections
with Victoria Ocampo, Albert Camus, and Flannery O’Connor.
Merton could claim multiple countries as home or consider himself rootless.
He moved from New York to a rural Kentucky monastery, vowing stability in a
country where he was a resident alien. How does Merton self-identify by
place and what does this tell us about him as a spiritual writer?
A3. Merton and the New Monasticism
“New Monasticism as Calligraphy in the 21st-Century World.”
a. Sophia Park
Sophia Park, SNJM. is Associate Professor of Emerita at Holy Names University and a Global Educator/Learner. She published An Asian Woman’s Religious Journey with Thomas Merton.
b. Ed Murphy
Ed Murphy is a lifelong activist, organizer, Vietnam Veterans, peace and environmental advocate. Ed is an author, leader in public policy, economic and workforce development. He writes a blog: Edmurphy.net/blog.
c. Megan WayMegan Way is an Associate Professor of Economics at Babson College in Wellesley, MA. Her research spans several areas, including family economics, ecological economics and intergenerational financial transfers.
Merton’s last speech in Bangkok, “Marxism and Monastic Perspectives,” challenges us to critically engage with our place, the 21st century world, tyrannized by the neo-liberal economic order. Merton increasingly challenged the order, in his later writings, decrying the systems that were creating the ecological, social and economic crises we face today, including the poverty and alienation suffered by billions of people. This workshop uses Thomas Merton’s final speech to explore alternative views of being and living as a monk in the world. It is composed of two parts. In the first part, three presenters, Sophia Park, Ed Murphy, and Megan Way, will briefly introduce various ways of being a monk in “new monasticism” from economic, socio-political, and global perspectives. Then, in the second part, all attendees will participate in three group conversations with different topics such as social engagement, voluntary poverty, and global networking.
A4. Workshop 1
Marcela Raggio – “A Space of Desire and Imagination: Thomas Merton’s Latin America.”
Marcela Raggio teaches American literature at Cuyo National University in Mendoza, Argentina. Currently, she serves on the ITMS Board of Directors.
This workshop aims at presenting Thomas Merton’s deep interest in and involvement with Latin American people, countries, languages and culture. Through an exploration of his letters, essays, journals and poetry, we will travel across Latin America, appreciating and learning from Merton’s understanding of a people, love of a language, and imagination of a continent.
A5. Workshop 2
Melanie-Prejean Sullivan – “Writing the True Self: A Calligraphic Experience.”
Melanie-Préjean Sullivan, DMin. is an interspiritual chaplain in Louisville, KY. Her most recent book, An Apartment Next to the Angels is available through www.mysticperegrine.com.
Calligraphy is more than copying established scripts; our handwriting can reveal an authentic beauty hidden beyond its utilitarian function. Within a contemplative posture, inspired by Merton and lessons from modern calligraphers, we will engage handwritten text, line, and color to create a small conference souvenir.
A6. Guided Prayer
Michael Centore – “The Radial Imagination.”
Michael Centore is a writer and the editor of Today’s American Catholic, a journal of inquiry, reflection, and opinion based in Connecticut.
What does it mean to inhabit a place where one has never physically been? In this guided meditation we will use selections from Thomas Merton’s translations of Latin American poets as well as associated writings on Latin America to contemplate this question and its many spiritual, theological, and ecological ramifications.
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FRIDAY,
JUNE 20
2:00 PM –
3:15 PM
B1. Merton and Place 2
a. Daniel
Horan – “Seeing the World Anew: Thomas Merton, Contemplation, and the
Spirituality of Place.”
Daniel P. Horan is Professor of Philosophy, Religious Studies, and Theology at Saint Mary’s College in Notre Dame, In., where he also serves as Director of the Center for the Study of Spirituality. He is the author or editor of 15 books, including Engaging Thomas Merton: Spirituality, Justice, and Racism (Orbis, 2023).
This
presentation explores the relationship between place & contemplation.
Beginning with Bonaventure & his understanding of contemplation as
speculatio, I engage Merton’s writing with Douglas Christie’s on “the
art of attention” allowing deeper exploration of place as it relates to
contemplation. Then I develop a “spirituality of place” that helps to expand
our notion of contemplation & broaden our appreciation for Merton’s insight
& wisdom. I conclude with an invitation to explore some practical
implications for those interested in contemplative practice.
b. Aaron Kerr – “Finding Merton Among Some Philosophers of Place.”
AK
Kerr’s recent essays about Merton are in Sacred Rhetoric (Fairleigh
Dickinson) and Research Agenda for Organizational Ethics (Edward Algar). He
teaches at Mercyhurst University.
In
his writing Merton mediates environments to convey what is good, real,
personal. By placing Merton’s realism among Mircea Eliade’s hermeneutics of
the sacred cosmos, Albert Borgmann’s analysis of technology, and bell hooks’
spiritual geography of alienation and belonging this presentation will
clarify Merton’s proleptic perception of placemaking.
B2. Merton's Dialogue with Islam
a. David Odorisio – “‘We Bump. We Burst into Secrets’: Thomas Merton’s Sufi Spirituality in California – Making Our ‘Yes’ to Life.”
David M. Odorisio, PhD, is Chair of the Psychology, Religion, and Consciousness program at Pacifica Graduate Institute, Santa Barbara, CA. He is editor of Thomas Merton in California.
There is a secret “built right into our being…[T]his is our true identity.” For Merton, this “inner secret” is our personhood; our “primordial ‘yes’“ to life. It is the role of the contemplative to say “yes” to life, in order to unlock the secret of our destiny as “universal persons.”
b. Natana DeLong-Bas – “Spirit of Place, Spirit of Revelation: Thomas Merton’s Reading of Nature as a Place of Dialogue for Muslims and Christians.”
Natana J. DeLong-Bas is Professor of the Practice of
Comparative Theology (Islam and Christianity), Theology Department and
Islamic Civilization and Societies Program, Boston College.
Engages Merton’s vision of communion with nature for Christian-Muslim
dialogue, looking to the spirit of place in nature as both sign and
manifestation of the divine presence and as invitation (da’wa) toward the
inner life, transforming religious visions through contemplative ecologies
and seeing traces of the Divine in each other.
B3. Merton and Finding Our Place in the World
a.
Gordon Oyer – “Place or
Property? Relating to Earth with a Merton-Aligned Compass.”
Gordon Oyer has published two books and several papers that
explore various elements of Thomas Merton’s vision for social
transformation. He lives in Louisville, Kentucky.
In asking questions about the extent to which place belongs to people or people to place, this paper explores presumptions about how we relate to landscapes we inhabit. It draws from several observers to reconsider some of those presumptions and examines how Merton’s economic and ecological views can inform our conclusions.
b.
David Golemboski – “Renewing the Public: Hannah Arendt’s Influence on
Merton’s Turn toward the World.”
David Golemboski is Associate Professor of Government at Augustana University in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. He is a Past-President of the ITMS, co-editor of the Merton Annual, and a member of the Merton Legacy Trust.
Hannah Arendt’s 1958 book The Human Condition was an important factor in Merton’s increased engagement in social issues during the 1960s. This paper interprets Merton’s diagnosis of the “post-Christian era” in light of Arendt’s call for a reconceptualization of the public realm.
B4. Workshop 1
Elizabeth Burkemper –
“Attending to Multispecies Worlds with Thomas Merton.”
Elizabeth Burkemper, a former Daggy (2017)
and current member of the ITMS Board of Directors (2023-2025), calls Troy,
MO and New Haven, CT home.
Thomas Merton invoked attention to the more-than-human world—most frequently
the trees and the birds—many times in his writings about and his own
experiences of contemplation. Grounding ourselves in Merton’s example, we
will engage in shared reflection and writing meditation on cultivating and
deepening attention to the more-than-human community in our everyday lives.
B5. Workshop 2
Cassidy Hall – “Queering Place, Poetry, and Friendship: Exploring the
Correspondence of Thomas Merton and Poet Margaret Randall.”
Cassidy Hall, author of
Queering Contemplation, award-winning filmmaker, podcaster, and
ordained minister in the United Church of Christ. She is the cohost of the
Encountering Silence podcast and the creator of the Contemplating Now and
Queering Contemplation podcasts..
Much like the weather, the true self is ever-changing and ever-becoming when we truly offer ourselves the spaciousness of unfolding, evolving and growing. In a more specific way, some questions in my interview with poet Margaret Randall (1963-1968 correspondence) includes some of her own experiences with South America, as well as Merton’s attraction to that space, along with her speculation on Merton and LGBTQIA+ perspectives.
B6. Guided Prayer
Paul
M. Pearson – “Gazing with a Paradise Eye – Merton’s Zen Seeing: A Guided
Meditation.”
Paul M Pearson is Director of the Thomas Merton Center at
Bellarmine University, resident secretary of the ITMS and chief of research
for the Merton Legacy Trust.
This guided prayer, using a selection of Merton’s photographs, will explore Merton’s way of seeing to cultivate for ourselves his deeper way of seeing; a time to stop, to pause, and begin to cultivate our own “paradise eye,” capable of seeing “the new heaven and the new earth” in everything.
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SATURDAY,
JUNE 21
10:30 AM – 11:45 AM
C1. Merton and Ecology
a. Joseph Raab – “Reverencing the Earth: Theopoetic Landscapes of Levertov and Merton.”
This paper explores selected poems of Merton and Levertov as representative of the sacramental imagination. It considers the contemplative utility of their art for facilitating what Pope Francis calls an "ecological conversion" that breaks us free from the falsities of the "technocratic paradigm" and its desacralizing, dehumanizing, and environmentally destructive effects.
b. Tiffany
Hunsinger – “Thomas Merton’s Influence on Laudato Si’ and
Laudate Deum.”
Tiffany Hunsinger is a Theology Ph.D. student at the University of Dayton
with a dissertation on G.K. Chesterton and traditional Catholicism in the
United States.
This paper examines Thomas Merton's influence on Pope Francis's ecological writings, mainly Laudato Si' and Laudate Deum. It explores how Merton’s contemplative spirituality, emphasis on social justice, and critique of consumerism shape Pope Francis's call for an integral ecological approach that intertwines environmental stewardship with social and spiritual renewal.
C2. Communication and the Journey to Unity
a. Patrick O’Connell – “Going Nowhere and Everywhere: The Topography of Merton’s Final Poems.”
Patrick F. O’Connell is a founding member and former
president of the ITMS, and edits the The Merton Seasonal. He has
edited twelve volumes of Thomas Merton’s monastic conferences, most recently
Liturgical Feasts and Seasons.
This
paper will explore Thomas Merton’s sense of place in his two final
book-length poems,
Cables to the Ace and
The Geography of Lograire.
b. John Gillespie – “On Pilgrimage to 4th and Walnut.”
John M. Gillespie, is a Professor of History and English
from Houston, Texas and the organizer of the Houston chapter of the ITMS.
This
presentation examines Merton’s mystical experience at Fourth and Walnut and
our near-veneration of it in the light of the Christian tradition on
pilgrimage and sacred space. We will explore the possibility that despite
its ordinary setting, Merton’s now famous streetcorner can be counted among
Christendom’s holiest sites, worthy of travel, contemplation, and veneration.
C3. Workshop 1
Paul Pynkoski – “Thomas Merton and Indigenous Wisdom.”
Paul Pynkoski is the current Vice President of the
International Thomas Merton Society. Two of his
granddaughters are Ojibwe Fancy Shawl dancers and members of Curve
Lake First Nation.
Merton lamented that we refused “to listen to the voice of Christ in the unfamiliar accents of the Indian,” and imposed on them “invented identities.” We will explore Merton’s critique, and then attempt to listen for the voice of Christ in an exercise of engagement with contemporary Indigenous art and music.
C4. Workshop
2
Colette Lafia – “Exploring Deep Memory and the Spirit of Place in Journal
Writing.”
Colette Lafia is an award-winning author, spiritual
director, and retreat leader. Her books include
Seeking Surrender and
The Divine Heart. Visit her website at:
www.colettelafia.com.
C5.
CreativeDouglas Hertler – “Merton & NYC: Echoes of the Jungle.”
Douglas Hertler aka Doug Lory is an actor, playwright, NYC tour guide, & retreat leader. He performs his one-man play Merton and Me, A Living Trinity wherever the Spirit leads him.
1930’s NYC bombarded Merton’s soul with poetry, friendship, Jazz music, Harlem, Marx, cigarettes, liquor and women. It blessed, baptized, tortured him, and sent him away. A prophetic formation…? He turned toward a broken world in the 1960’s crying out for PEACE! Was he also turning back toward himself?
C6. Guided Prayer
Caleb Vanderleek – “‘When the World Looks Back ... When the Face Looks after that’: A Musical Presentation of Sufjan Stevens’ Seven Swans Through the Lens of Merton.”
Caleb Vanderleek is a husband, father, and Orthodox Christian. He teaches high school humanities in Chilliwack, British Columbia and records music under the moniker “Opie’s Funeral.”
In
this session, I will perform songs from the critically-acclaimed Seven Swans
album by singer-songwriter Sufjan Stevens. Interspersed will be relevant
Merton readings and reflections as invitations into stillness and prayer.
These reflections are informed by my recent master’s research into Merton’s
influence on the album’s uniquely contemplative Christian vision.
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SATURDAY,
JUNE 21
1:30 PM – 2:45 PM
D1. Merton and the City
a.
Jason Taylor – “Merton’s Use of Pieper’s In Tune with the World in ‘The
Street is for Celebration’.”
In
this paper, I follow Merton’s reading of Joseph Pieper’s In Tune with
the World and trace how this reading underwrites his essay, “The Street
is for Celebration.” I also consider the merits of Merton’s decision make
the street a location for Pieper’s theological reflections on festive
celebration..
Ethan Strouse hails from Rifle, Colorado, and is a graduate of Regis University and the Boston College Clough School of Theology and Ministry.
Inspired by Merton’s Fourth and Walnut Epiphany, this presentation explores
the city as a theological landscape. Through a constructive reading of the
city, Merton’s epiphany reveals an urban mysticism as the monk becomes the
flaneur: one who explores the city and the reality of human lives where/as
they exist.
D2. Merton and Social Commitment
a. Eric Martin – “‘The Rhinoceros is Having Fun in Gaza:’ Merton’s Role in Students for Justice in Palestine.”
Eric
Martin is visiting assistant professor at LMU. He is author of
The Writing on the Wall: Signs of Faith Against Fascism.
This
paper examines Merton’s influence on the Palestine encampment at UCLA
through his use and interpretations of graffiti in Raids on the Unspeakable.
By wrestling with the tension in his work between purposeful uselessness and
being socially effective, students aimed to become what Merton called
“indecipherable” to authorities.
b. Anne Pearson – “Thomas Merton and Non-violence: Developing an Ideology of Resistance.”
Anne
Pearson has presented on Thomas Merton and racism at conferences around the
world. She currently lives in Washington, D.C. and works with graduate
nursing students.
This
presentation traces the evolution of Thomas Merton’s thoughts on nonviolence
as an effective form of activism through sociological and theological
lenses. It highlights the impact of others’ writings on his later thinking
and his continued relevance through his impact on the nonviolent actions of
recent justice leaders.
D3. Merton, Mystical Ecology
a. Daniel London – “‘I Hope I Haven’t Been Too Wild’: Thomas Merton’s Invitations to Rewild Our Prayer Lives.”
Daniel DeForest London is the rector of Christ Episcopal Church in Eureka CA, which Merton described as a “forgotten lumber town.”
This paper will show how Merton’s writings on the Lost Coast and the Last Frontier invite readers to “rewild” their prayer lives by praying in the wilderness of the outdoors as well as the wilderness within. Aware of this theme, Merton writes, “I hope I haven’t been too wild.”
b. Aaron J. Godlaski – “Anti-Manifest Destiny: Thomas Merton's unselfing in the American West.”
Aaron J. Godlaski is Associate Professor of Neuroscience &
Psychology at Centre College, focusing on nature, health, and contemplative
practices in the more-than-human world.
This paper offers a contemplative analysis of Thomas Merton's final notebook, Woods, Shore, Desert, which captures his spiritual journey through the American West, particularly the northern California coast and New Mexico desert. It explores Merton's poetic reflections and photographs, revealing his deepening ecological consciousness and contemplative engagement with the landscape.
D4. Workshop
1
Judith Valente and Carol Lenox – “Searching for Home: Thomas Merton and
Thomas Berry in Conversation.”
Judith Valente is a journalist, the author of several spirituality titles and a poet. She guides frequent retreats for busy professionals and is the 2023-25 President of the ITMS
.
Carol Lenox works as an environmental researcher in
North Carolina. She holds a
Masters of Pastoral Studies from Loyola University New Orleans.
D5. Workshop 2
Regina Sara Ryan – “Promptings of Place: Seeing Nature’s Calligraphies ~ A Writing Workshop with Thomas Merton.”
Regina Sara Ryan: Writing coach, freelance editor. Author, Praying Dangerously and Igniting the Inner Life, among others. Regina conducts seminars and retreats in the US and internationally.
This workshop is inspired by Merton the writer, especially by his lifelong journal-keeping. With prompts from his journals, we will write about place and the calligraphies that nature draws for us. Sharing our words, listening with an open heart, we will receive the wisdom that each of us discerns
.
D6. Guided Prayer
Steven Denny – “The Merton Prayer: An Exercise in Authenticity.”
Steven Denny, a trial attorney 38 years; pastor 10 years; Greek professor 4 years. His PhD work at the University of Chicago led him to scholarship in semitic languages. He is the author of The Merton Prayer: An Exercise in Authenticity.
We will dig into each phrase of the “I don’t know where I am going prayer” from Merton’s 1958 “Thoughts in Solitude”. Much participant interaction in hearing the Spirit’s message as we rejoice that God “is ever with us and [God] will never leave us to face our perils alone.”
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