W.L. Lyons Brown Library
Thomas Merton Center
Bellarmine University
Session A - Friday, June 10 - 10:30 AM - 11:45 AM
Session B - Friday, June 10 - 3:30 PM - 4:45 PM
Session C - Saturday, June 11 - 10:30 AM - 11:45 AM
Session D - Saturday, June 11 - 1:30 PM - 2:45 PM
Session E - Saturday, June 11 - 3:15 PM - 4:30 PM
10:30 AM – 11:45 AM
A1. Merton: Vision and Revision
a. Mary Frances Coady – “The Enthralling Task": Evelyn Waugh Edits Thomas Merton.”
Mary Frances Coady received an ITMS Shannon Fellowship for 2009-2010. She teaches at Ryerson University in Toronto. Her latest book is a short fiction collection, The Practice of Perfection.
The English novelist Evelyn Waugh admired The Seven Storey Mountain for its depiction of religious conversion and monastic life, and he edited it and The Waters of Siloe for publication in Britain. In doing so he removed redundancies and other unnecessary text from the autobiography. Did he also remove Merton’s unique American voice?
b. Patrick F. O’Connell – “(Re)Building Babel: From Oratorio to Morality.”
Patrick O’Connell, founding member and former ITMS president, edits The Merton Seasonal, is coauthor of The Thomas Merton Encyclopedia, and has edited five volumes of Merton’s monastic conferences.
This presentation will consider the process by which the only published work of Thomas Merton in dramatic form, The Tower of Babel: A Morality, was reshaped from an earlier, unpublished version, the little-known Tower of Babel: Oratorio, examining continuities and alterations in structure, characterization, imagery and theme between the versions.
A2. Merton’s Mysticism: City and Cosmos
a. Cristóbal Serrán-Pagán – “Merton’s Ruminations on the Spanish Carmelite Tradition: Cultivating Gardens in the Desert and Spiritual Deserts in the City.”
Cristóbal Serrán-Pagán is currently an Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Religious Studies at Valdosta State University. He is the onsite coordinator for the Daggy Program.
This paper examines Merton’s thoughts on key aspects of the mystical language of the desert and of the city in the Carmelite tradition and how these thoughts impacted Merton as a Trappist. Both Merton and Teresa stress the need for a final integration between solitude and solidarity in Christian spirituality.
b. Robert Peach - “Through the Desert of Anxiety into the Oasis of Wisdom: A Vision of the Pleroma as Shared by Merton, Teilhard and Watts.”
Rob Peach is a 2005 Daggy Scholar and member of the ITMS who has written about Merton’s peace teachings and mystical poetics.
This paper offers a comparative study of Merton’s eschatological vision revealed in The New Man as it corresponds with the collective insight of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, from The Future of Man, and Alan Watts, from The Wisdom of Insecurity, into humanity’s full realization of God as the Christocentric “all-in-all”.
A3. Merton: Shaping a Culture of Justice
a. William Apel – “Out of Solitude: Thomas Merton, John Howard Griffin, and Racial Justice.”
William Apel is professor of religion at Linfield College in Oregon. He is on the ITMS Board of Directors and author of Signs of Peace: The interfaith Letters of Thomas Merton.
The year 2011 marks the 50th anniversary of the publication of John Howard Griffin's Black Like Me. Griffin's friendship with Merton, and their witness for racial justice, are well- known to many. Less well-known is a significant exchange of letters between Merton and Griffin (1962-1968) which sheds important light on how they actually approached the issue of race in America. A closer examination of some of their epistolary exchanges, I think, can provide us with helpful lessons for the ongoing struggle against racial injustice today.
b. Robert Weldon Whalen – “Thomas Merton and Hannah Arendt: Desert and City in Cold War Culture.”
Robert Whalen is professor of history at Queens University of Charlotte and Visiting Professor of Church History at the Charlotte campus of Union Theological Seminary.
By comparing Hannah Arendt’s The Human Condition (1958) to Thomas Merton’s Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander (1965), and by examining the relationship between Arendt’s idea of the “city” and Merton’s idea of the “desert,” this essay sheds light on Arendt, on Merton, and on the Cold War culture they shared.
A4. Merton and the Education of the Heart
a. Mary McDonald – “The Soul-Rich Monk/Priest: Thomas Merton on Lectio Divina."
Mary Murray McDonald directs the Writing Center and Writing Across the Curriculum Program at Cleveland State University in Cleveland, Ohio. The rhetoric of Thomas Merton is one of her interests; she also enjoys studying about writing assessment, grammar, and writing to learn.
In an unpublished and undated manuscript entitled Lectio Divina, Thomas Merton allows readers a glimpse into his rich faith life, one informed by his knowledge of scripture and literary techniques and enriched by his imagination. The depth of his faith is shown in this document when he illustrates lectio divina using the monastic readings from Septuagesima Sunday, which contain a symphony of images that prepare us for Lent, both for its sacrifices and the greatest mysteries. This document is most likely lecture notes -- meant for men studying to be priests; Merton wished to help them attain a rich soul-life. This document is most likely from 1949, and it is an important one because it allows a vivid picture of Merton's faith at this time.
b. Ty Anderson – “Who Am I? Education with Roots in Eternity.”
Tyson Anderson is professor of religion and philosophy at Saint Leo University and does research in the areas of interreligious dialogue and philosophy.
In “Learning to Live” Merton shows how liberal education in the 21st century requires discovering the nakedness of the self, a discovery that occurs in “a desert area of man’s heart.” The roots of this lie in eternity, with the biblical witness to a desert God who upsets our notions of what “I AM” is all about. There is a powerful impetus for social justice here, as we examine the social masks that we are expected to wear.
Gray Matthews – “Confession of a Contemplative.”
Gray Matthews: Ph.D. University of Memphis, Memphis, TN. Gray serves the ITMS as a board member, co-editor of The Merton Annual and coordinator of the Memphis Chapter.
We will explore Merton’s humor in “A Signed Confession of Crimes Against the State” regarding the perception of contemplation as a “crime,” consider the essay’s relation to other works by Merton’s, as well as write, sign and share our own “Confessions” as we reflect upon our “roots in eternity.”
Paul M. Pearson – “The Paradox of Place: Experiencing ‘All the Times and Moods of One Good Place’ with Thomas Merton.”
Paul M Pearson is Director of the Thomas Merton Center at Bellarmine University, ITMS Resident Secretary and treasurer. He served as the Program Chair for the 11th Conference. He edited Seeking Paradise: The Spirit of the Shakers and A Meeting of Angels: The Correspondence of Thomas Merton and Edward Deming and Faith Andrews.
This time of prayer will combine Merton’s photographs with some brief quotations from his writings to enable participants to explore prayerfully Thomas Merton’s appreciation of place and to reflect on the meaning of place in our own lives.
3:30 PM – 4:45 PM
B1. Merton and Poetic Imagination
a. Lynn Szabo – “‘Words Fling Wide the Windows of Their Houses’: Silence and the Unspeakable in Thomas Merton’s Poetry.”
Lynn R. Szabo teaches English literature at Trinity Western University. Her scholarship focuses on poetry and spirituality. She edited In The Dark Before Dawn: New Selected Poems of Thomas Merton.
In his appropriation of metaphors of silence, Thomas Merton’s poetry is invested with mystical and imaginative possibilities for immanence and transcendence; for synthesizing his monastic and writerly vocations. As such, his poetics become the “sound of sheer silence,” offering his readers a language that has its “roots in eternity.”
b. Małgorzata Poks – “With Malinowski in the Postmodern Desert.”
Małgorzata Poks teaches courses in American literature. She is the author of Thomas Merton and Latin America: A Consonance of Voices for which she was awarded a Louie in June 2009.
Bronislaw Malinowski’s intimate Diary in the Strict Sense of the Term (published in 1967) revealed a shocking split between the ideal ethnologist and the actual individual caught between two incongruous cultures. My paper will argue the centrality of the “Malinowski section” for Merton’s The Geography of Lograire.
a. David Golemboski – “Merton on Refusal and Acceptance: Marxist Thought and the Role of Dialectic.”
David Golemboski is a lobbyist for NETWORK: A National Catholic Social Justice Lobby. He is a 2009 graduate of Harvard Divinity School and lives in Washington, D.C.
Particularly in his later writings, Merton embraced an attitude of dialogue with respect to Marxism. This paper will examine Merton’s critical assessment of Marxist thought, focusing on the role of dialectic as a hermeneutical tool for the contemporary Christian vis-à-vis the world.
b. Marc Boswell – “Merton and Marxism.”
The Reverend Marc Boswell is a Ph.D. candidate in theology at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary. He is from eastern North Carolina and now resides in Chicago.
Merton often spoke harshly about communism. But was he influenced by certain strands of Marxist thought more than commonly assumed? Merton’s possible intersections and overlap with neo-Marxist themes will be explored in this section, focusing especially on themes of ideology, idolatry, and the site of God’s revelation.
a. Patrick Cousins – “Sophia and Prometheus: Emblems.”
Patrick Cousins SC is a doctoral student in the Religion Department at Syracuse University and a member of the New Orleans Province of the Brothers of the Sacred Heart.
Merton uses Prometheus and Sophia in relation to the idols of usefulness, relevance, and control on the one hand, and freedom and authenticity on the other. Key texts (“Hagia Sophia,” “Prometheus: A Meditation,” and others) incorporate this pattern of opposing authentic and inauthentic existence, emblems for Merton of the question of relevance and his vision of a contemplative alternative.
b. Christopher Pramuk – “The Street is for Celebration? Merton and the Eclipse of Childhood in America’s Cities.”
Christopher Pramuk teaches at Xavier University in Cincinnati, OH, and is the author of Sophia: The Hidden Christ of Thomas Merton (Liturgical Press, 2009).
From the Wisdom-child of “Barth’s Dream” to the hidden (and hunted) Christ-child of the Nativity, this paper juxtaposes Merton’s defense of “the divine Child” in all people with the marginalization and creeping despair of children of color in America’s urban landscape. Can the streets become, for them, a place for celebration?
a. Mary Louise Heffernan, SSJ – “Another Door To Contemplation: Wisdom In Merton’s Art.”
Mary Louise Heffernan, SSJ is a Sisters of St. Joseph of Rochester, NY. She is involved in Spirituality Ministry: Spiritual Direction, Retreats, and Spirituality Development. She holds a Master of Ministry from Seattle University.
Merton is a prism of unfolding beauty and wisdom. There is a freedom within that opens him to possibilities of acting from his truth and the inflowing of God. He reveals this in the movement to express himself through Calligraphy Brush Painting. In his Notebook 14, 1964 he refers to his art as “collaborations with solitude.”
This workshop will explore Merton’s art as a means of deepening and broadening his life of solitude and contemplation. What moved Merton in this direction? Who challenged and encouraged him? Time will be given to sitting in silence with the calligraphy brush paintings as well as the individual experience of brush painting
Suzanne Zuercher – “Doing Lectio Divina with Thomas Merton.”
Suzanne Zuercher, O.S.B., is a member of St. Scholastica Monastery, a psychologist, and frequent presenter at ITMS/Chicago. She has five books on spirituality, including Merton, An Enneagram Profile.
After a brief introduction to the ancient monastic practice of lectio divina and how Merton articulated it for the present day, the group will apply what has been said to a Merton text. There will be sharing at each point in the process of taking his words from the page to personal experience.
10:30 AM – 11:45 AM
C1. Merton: Camus, Milosz, Hopkins
a. David Belcastro – “Voices from the Desert: Merton, Camus and Milosz.”
David Belcastro is Professor of Religious Studies at Capital University in Bexley, Ohio, Co-Editor of The Merton Annual, and Board Member of ITMS.
Prompted by Milosz to read Camus, Merton wrote seven essays on this French philosopher. These essays and Merton’s correspondence with Milosz represent the collaboration of three public intellectuals who resisted 20th-century movements that limited human freedom. This paper will focus on these three voices with the intention of clarifying their messages to the contemporary world.
b. Mary Sommerset – “Conflict as Creative Force in the Poetry of Thomas Merton and Gerard Manley Hopkins.”
Mary Sommerset earned a Master’s in English Literature, with a focus on Victorian writers, from the University of Oregon. She has published two books of her own poems.
How to live a life of God in this world of conflict was central to the poetry of both Merton and Hopkins. This paper will explore the experience of personal conflict in the writing of poetry and an exploration of specific poems from each poet/priest on nature and grace.
C2. Merton and Monastic Vision
a. Christine Bochen – “‘More ordinary … than you think’: Monasticism in Translation.”
Christine Bochen is professor of religious studies and currently holds the Shannon Chair in Catholic Studies at Nazareth College and is a founding member and a past president of ITMS.
In letters and essays written in the sixties, Merton described his life as a monk and hermit in language his non-monastic contemporaries might understand. This paper explores how Merton not only articulates something of his vision of monastic life but also highlights ways in which the wisdom of the desert might enrich the lives of persons living in the city.
b. Young-Suck Moon – “The Contemplative Dimensions of Detachment in Thomas Merton and in Korean Seon monk’s Unsuhaenggak.”
Young-Suck Moon is a professor at Kangnam University in Korea. He received his PhD from the University of Toronto for a dissertation on monasticism.
Detachment through radical renunciation of the world ideally leads monks to inner freedom. However, detachment is practised differently in Buddhism and Christianity. One fundamental difference concerns the vow of stability. Cistercians make a commitment to stay in one monastery for their lifetime, whereas Korean Seon monks take up a wandering life style (unsuhaenggak). Distinct differences can be noted between these two approaches, but they are only different ways to achieve the same goal.
C3. Merton and Contemporary Culture
a. Jeff Kiernan – “For the Love of Arpege: Merton, Meaning, and the Banality of Advertising.”
Jeff Kiernan recently retired from the religion faculty of Notre Dame High School in Fairfield, Ct. He continues to teach sociology and the sociology of religion at Housatonic Community College in Bridgeport, CT. A Vietnam era USAF veteran, discharged as a conscientious objector, he is a husband, father, and grandfather.
A full page advertisement for Arpege perfume in the September 17, 1966 The New Yorker was the impetus for Thomas Merton to incisively and humorously address the meaninglessness of much advertising. Using Merton’s insights regarding the Arpege advertisement as point of departure, we will explore in word and picture the continuing use of language and the media to “tempt us with banalities.” Our exploration will be aided by the work of Dr. Jean Kilbourne and Fr. John F. Kavanaugh, S.J. regarding advertising and media’s role in our society. By better understanding the role these forces play, we can choose to develop healthy attitudes and actions that can serve as countervailing forces that lead to a more meaningful and just society. This goal and hope continues to be part of Merton’s legacy. This presentation will include slides of illustrative advertisements.
b. Dan P. Horan, OFM – “Seeds of De(con)struction: Insights From Merton for a Postmodern World.”
Daniel P. Horan, OFM is a Franciscan friar of Holy Name Province (NY) and an adjunct professor of religious studies at Siena College in Albany, NY. A former Daggy Scholar, Dan is a 2010-2011 ITMS Shannon Fellow who has delivered academic papers on Merton in both the U.S. and England. He has also given public lectures on Merton in Boston, Washington, DC, Chicago and New York City. His work has been published in journals such as America, The Merton Annual, The Merton Journal (UK), The Heythrop Journal, Worship, Spiritual Life, and others. Dan writes regularly at www.DatingGod.org, where you can find more information about him and his work.
This paper will explore some of the ways in which Thomas Merton's work offers insightful direction for spirituality in a postmodern world. In an age marked by increasing religious pluralism, disaffected populations resulting from political polarity and the hyper-expansive reach of globalization, a new way to view the world, God and prayer is needed that will take seriously the challenge to be relevant and speak to a new generation of spiritual seekers. The thought of Thomas Merton is one such source for our time. Merton's insight offers us seeds of wisdom that can indeed help us transform our spiritual, cultural and political landscapes into "the place of peace, the place of silence, the place of wrestling with the angel" (Sign of Jonas).
Judith Valente and Charles Reynard – “Soul Friends: Merton and Modern Poets.”
Husband and wife team Judith Valente and Charles Reynard have lives deeply rooted in the business and professional worlds, yet make poetry a daily practice. Valente is an on air correspondent for national PBS-TV and Chicago Public Radio and former staff writer for The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal. Reynard is a Circuit Court Judge in McLean County, IL. The two are co-editors of Twenty Poems to Nourish Your Soul, an anthology of poems and reflections on finding the sacred in the ordinary. Valente is the author of the 2009 poetry collection, Discovering Moons, and the chapbook, Inventing An Alphabet, selected by Mary Oliver for the 2004 Aldrich Poetry Prize. Reynard's poems on his experiences in the justice system have appreared in numerous journals. He is the author of the poetry chapbook, The Utility of Heartbreak.
During his lifetime, Thomas Merton enjoyed deep, impassioned friendships with numerous poets. If Merton were alive today, who are the poets who would capture his imagination? Through an imaginary "dialogue," we'll explore the connection between Merton's words and those of such contemporary poets as Mary Oliver, Billy Collins, and Marie Howe, who embody Merton's contemplative spirit. We’ll make use of photography and music as well as poetry. Participants will hear an audio recording of Merton reading a poem by Wordsworth and have chance to reflect on and write about, in Mertonesque fashion, those moments when they encounter God in the commonplace.
MonicaWeis, SSJ – “Finding the Sky Within You.”
Monica Weis SSJ, Professor of English, Nazareth College, Rochester NY, is past Vice President of ITMS, current Board Member, and author of Thomas Merton's Gethsemani: Landscapes of Paradise (UPK, 2005), and most recently The Environmental Vision of Thomas Merton (UPK 2011).
This PowerPoint session – with opportunity for sharing-- will focus on Merton's favorite prayer places, accompanied by quotations from his journals that illustrate how his prayer flowed into a celebration of nature, his praise of nature became prayer, and how these inner and outer landscapes often merged.
1:30 – 2:45 PM
a. Angus Stuart – “The Ex-con and the Secular Monk with a Sexual Mysticism: Parallel and Convergence in the Lives of Thomas Merton and Henry Miller.”
Angus Stuart entered this his jubilee year by becoming a Canadian citizen along with his wife and children, having emigrated from England five years ago.
In Miller and Merton parallel experiences of disillusionment with mid-twentieth century western civilization gave rise to very different biographical stories but converged in a brief correspondence in which they recognized themselves in each other. Each stood on the margins involuntarily offering a wisdom that sprang from their own roots in eternity.
b. Joseph Madonna - “Breaking through the Poker Face: Lady Gaga, Thomas Merton, and Our Obsession with the False Self.”
Joe Madonna is an Iona College graduate. He wants to study theology and travel the world. He enjoys reading, writing, eating, and tea drinking.
As social critics, Merton and Gaga both make use of the false self concept.
Merton provides a solution for dealing with the false self while Gaga is limited
by her persona. Both have valuable insights into society's problems, but only
Merton's monastic tools and formation brings self-transcendence and mindfulness.
D2. Merton and Two Historical Voices
a. Kathleen Deignan, CND – “Cosmopolitan: Thomas Merton’s Urbane Spirituality.”
Kathleen Deignan, CND is Professor of Religious Studies at Iona College in New Rochelle, NY and director of the Iona Spirituality Institute. A member of the board of The International Thomas Merton Society, and composer in residence with Schola Ministries, .her books include Thomas Merton’s Writings on Nature and Thomas Merton: A Book of Hours.
In a close reading of Merton’s monograph, Clement of Alexandria: Selections from The Protreptikos, I will explore the way Merton’s salute to Clement gives insight into his own urbane spirit, and how he followed in Clement’s lineage of truly “sophisticated” Christian masters: lovers of wisdom and of the world.
b. Joshua Hollmann – “Searching for Sophia: The Dialogical Path to Religious Peace in the Life and Thought of Nicholas of Cusa and Thomas Merton.”
Joshua Hollmann is a PhD Candidate in the Faculty of Religious Studies of McGill University, Montreal, Canada. The title of his forthcoming dissertation is: ‘The Word of Concordance: Nicholas of Cusa’s De pace fidei and the Metaphysics of Christian-Muslim Dialogue.’
This paper explores how the fifteenth century philosopher Nicholas of Cusa influenced the interfaith dialogical endeavors of Thomas Merton. Nicholas of Cusa’s dialogical and mystical quest for interreligious peace as centered and oriented in Sophia parallels and further illuminates Merton’s practice of interreligious dialogue, especially with the three Abrahamic faiths. The paper also compares the theological and philosophical vocations of Merton and Cusanus as both actively sought religious understanding and peace.
D3. Merton and the Human Community
a. Steven Millies – “City of Silence: ‘This Poor World’ and Thomas Merton’s ‘Roots in Eternity’.”
Steve Millies is associate professor of political science at the University of South Carolina, Aiken. Originally from Chicago, he is also a proud Loyola alumnus.
The city and the desert are both metaphors that reflected ambivalence for Thomas Merton. Silence can foster contemplation as much as it can isolate us. This paper looks at Merton’s perplexity with this problem, not to resolve it but the better to understand Merton himself.
b. Larry Culliford – “Seeking the True Self: the Examples of Thomas Merton and Barack Obama (based on their autobiographies).”
Larry Culliford presented papers at ITMS conferences in Vancouver and Memphis. A British psychiatrist, his latest book is The Psychology of Spirituality (Jessica Kingsley, 2010).
Age 33, these two influential men wrote autobiographies about deeply personal searches for meaning. Each lost a parent and experienced diverse international cultures during childhood. Both had striking epiphanies as young adults. This paper will outline their separate but comparable paths towards spiritual maturity, noting that President Obama’s journey continues.
Morgan Atkinson – “Uncommon Vision: The Life and Times of John Howard Griffin.”
Morgan Atkinson is a writer/producer based in Louisville, Kentucky. He has produced several programs examining the monastic life including, Soul Searching: The Journey of Thomas Merton and Gethsemani.
This one-hour documentary examines the remarkable life of John Howard Griffin-writer, photographer, musicologist, a southerner who chemically changed his white skin black and wrote the bestseller Black Like Me. Griffin was also the first authorized biographer of Thomas Merton. The two men's close relationship is examined in the program as well as Griffin's lifelong struggle with the tension between the city and the desert
Marianne Hieb – “Drawn into the Mystery: Art-Journaling® with lines, shapes and spaces as a way of meditation and prayer.”
Marianne Hieb, RSM, MFA, ATR, D. Min.: artist, art therapist, retreat and spiritual director; author: Inner Journeying through Art-Journaling, ministry: Lourdes Wellness Center, Collingswood, NJ.
Experiential prayer time including Art-Journaling®, a prayerful practice combining visual journaling using black lines and shapes, contemplative gazing, and written journaling to help focus prayer. Scriptural themes and images from Merton’s extensive expressive visual meditations will enhance and illumine our prayerful responses. Input, silence and optional sharing: journaling materials included.
3:15 PM – 4:30 PM
a. Maria Barrera – “Marian art in the correspondence between Thomas Merton and Jaime Andrade.”
Author of two published books of essays and one of poetry, Maria Helena Barrera-Agarwal is an Ecuadorian lawyer and researcher, currently living in New York.
From February, 1957, to April, 1959, Thomas Merton maintained a correspondence with Ecuadorian artist Jaime Andrade about the creation of a sculpture – The Virgin and the Child – for Gethsemani. The paper explores the Marian art notions in which the exchanges were rooted, as reflected in the final work of art.
b. Fiona Gardner – “‘You are you’ that is the most important thing … everything is in it somewhere’ Analysis of the correspondence from Thomas Merton to John Harris.”
Fiona Gardner is a writer, academic supervisor and spiritual director. She is co-editor of The Merton Journal, ex-chair of the TMSGBI and ITMS International adviser.
Using discourse analysis and psychoanalytic theory the developing relationship in this correspondence is explored. Reflections on Merton’s style, sensitivity and capacity to share and elicit personal truths allows for the development of trust and emergence of deep meaning between the two men that still speaks to the contemporary reader.
E2. Merton: Paradox and Struggle
a. Lars Adolfsson – “Setbacks, Failures and Prosperity: Following Thomas Merton on the Road of Paradox.”
Lars Adolfsson is President of the Swedish Thomas Merton Society, MA in Ecclesiology, Lectured 2010-2011 at the Newman Institute/University of Uppsala: “Thomas Merton Spiritual Guide and Transcender of Limits.”
We all have our share of shortcomings in life and Thomas Merton new them all, but when reading Merton we can also discover how the setbacks and failures turn into prosperity, a journey within a paradox. A way of life.
b. Ed Kaplan – “Seeds of Sorrow: Merton’s 50th Birthday Journal.”
Edward K. Kaplan teaches French, comparative literature, and religion at Brandeis University. Biographer of Abraham Joshua Heschel, he organized a conference on Merton and Judaism (Fons Vitae).
Merton’s Journal is a propaedeutic of the spirit - a coming into wisdom. A major opportunity for radical self-reflection was 30 January 1965, Merton’s fiftieth birthday. He confronted issues of prayer and attentiveness to God, his desire for increased solitude, while he yearned for intimacy, maternal, passionate, even erotic.
E3. Merton and the Earthly Paradise
a. Katharine Bubel – “Cultivating the Paradise Tree in the Desert: The Figure of Wisdom and Kenosis in Merton’s ‘Hagia Sophia’.”
Katharine Bubel is pursuing her PhD in English at the University of Victoria, British Columbia. Her current research is on the intersection of the religious and environmental imagination in selected 20th-century American poets, including Denise Levertov, Robinson Jeffers, and Thomas Merton. She has published articles in North Wind and Renascence.
The central symbol of the biblical and sapiential tradition, Sophia, or Woman-Wisdom, came to embody for Merton one of the primary commitments that guided his engagement with modernity, namely, that the “unseen pivot” of reality is the Incarnation. His iconic poem “Hagia Sophia” is the creative expression of this commitment. This paper explores the contemporary significance of Merton’s vision of Sophia as the “paradise tree” in the modern spiritual desert.
b.
Hans Gustafson - “Place & Self-hood in the Later Years.”
Hans Gustafson is a PhD Candidate at Claremont Graduate University and teaches
at St. John’s University (Minnesota). He holds Master degrees in theology and
philosophy and was a Jesuit Volunteer in Alaska.
This paper reflects on Merton’s quest for self hood and “place” in his late
years. During this time he reflects on his ‘place’ in the world and considers a
possible geographic move to a new place. This paper seeks to draw connections
between this geographical quest and his theological anthropology.
Mark Filut, OCSO – “Merton and Mission.”
Br. Mark Filut, OCSO spent 17 years with Maryknoll, 11 of those in Peru. For the last 37 years he has been with the Trappists at Guadalupe Abbey in Oregon.
The call to mission is the challenge to balance the contemplative (desert) and active (city) dimensions of our lives. At Gethsemani during his 27 years, Merton struggled with this challenge and now continues to help us find the balance in our own lives.
Sharon Halsey-Hoover and David Hoover – “Thomas Merton and Dorothy Day: Pilgrims and Prophets of Peace.”
David Hoover and Sharon Halsey-Hoover live in Orange, California. David is a spiritual director and retreat and workshop presenter on topics of prayer and spirituality. Sharon is the Assistant Director of Bethany, a transitional living program for women. They are the authors of the play, Thomas Merton and Dorothy Day, Pilgrims and Prophets of Peace.
This readers’ theater production brings to life two of the most important and inspiring teachers of the last century. We listen as they take stock of their lives in a final truthful gaze on all that has happened to them on their journey into the embrace of the Love of God.
Jan Sheridan – “Seeing Through the Eyes of Thomas Merton: the New York Years.”
Jan Sheridan, author/coauthor of 7 books, works as a hospital chaplain and as Director of St. Joseph Center for Spirituality near Buffalo, NY. She was a recipient of a 2008 Shannon Fellowship.
Using power point, I will meditatively read excerpts from The Seven Storey Mountain while showing photos I have taken of the pertinent scenes Merton describes in his autobiography. There will be quiet times for reflection questions and small group faith-sharing.
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Merton Center at Bellarmine University. All rights reserved.
Photographs copyright of the Merton Legacy Trust. Not to be used without written permission.