Tuesdays With Merton
A webinar series presented by the International Thomas Merton Society, and cosponsored by the Bernardin Center at Catholic Theological Union, on the second Tuesday of each month. Free and open to the public. Registration required.
Recordings of the webinars will be available on the Tuesdays with Merton YouTube Channel within a few days of their broadcast: Tuesdays with Merton YouTube Channel. Audio-only versions also will be available later via podcast.
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Upcoming Tuesdays with Merton
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Megan Way. Economics and Merton: Developing the Negatives. February 10, 2026 - 7 pm EST. REGISTER
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John Dickerson. Annual Fourth and Walnut Lecture. March 17, 2026 - 7 pm EST.
Virtual and in-person at Bellarmine University.
MEGAN WAY
Economics and Merton: Developing the Negatives.
February 10, 2026, 7 PM. EST
What kind of economic
system might Thomas Merton advocate? What
principles would it be based on and how would it differ from what we
see in the United States, or Sweden, or China, or Cuba? Answering
these questions requires developing the negatives. Merton's writings
are full of critiques of capitalism and its voracious appetites, its
obsession with technology, its triviality and tricks, its
relationship to the war machine, and its degradation of humans in
pursuit of profit. Merton also critiques communism and its
materialism, its obsession with technology, its relationship to the
war machine, its degradation of humans in pursuit of production, and
its repression of individual freedoms. In this talk, Megan Way will
attempt to develop Merton's negatives into an imagined picture of a
more "Mertonian" type of economic system, and will ask the
participants to lend their imaginations and insights from Merton to
this process.
Megan Way,
PhD. is an Associate Professor of Economics at Babson College in
Wellesley, MA. She teaches both undergraduate and graduate business
students, and her research spans several areas, including family
economics, ecological economics, socio-ecological systems and most
recently, spiritual leaders and economic ideals. Megan completed the
Living School at the Center for Action and Contemplation in
Albuquerque, NM, in 2021. She and her husband Rob have four grown
children, and live on Cape Cod.
The 2026 Annual Fourth and Walnut Lecture
JOHN
DICKERSON
March 17, 2026 - 7 pm EST
Frazier Hall, Bellarmine Univeristy
and live-streamed as the March 2026 Tuesdays
with Merton webinar
John Dickerson is a journalist, author, and longtime interviewer, most recently co-anchor of the CBS Evening News and chief political analyst for CBS News. He spent 16 years at CBS, where he also served as senior national correspondent, contributor to CBS News Sunday Morning, and previously co-host of CBS This Morning. From 2015 to 2018, he moderated Face the Nation and served as the network’s chief Washington correspondent. During the 2016 presidential campaign, he moderated two CBS presidential debates. From 2019 to 2021, he was a correspondent for 60 Minutes, where his story on the death of Elijah McClain was nominated for an Emmy. He resigned from CBS News in December 2025.
In addition to his political reporting, Dickerson is known for his in-depth interviews with figures ranging from Apple CEO Tim Cook to actors Glenda Jackson and Christian Bale; authors Colson Whitehead, Michael Lewis, and Tara Westover; and musicians John Prine, Jon Batiste, Jason Isbell, and Dave Matthews.
Dickerson is a contributing writer at The Atlantic and for 20 years has been a co-host of Slate’s Political Gabfest. He also hosts Whistlestop, a podcast on presidential history, and Navel Gazing, drawn from his 35 years of notebooks he carries with him.
He began his career at Time magazine, covering economics, Congress, and national politics, and spent four years as its White House correspondent. From 2005 to 2015, he was Slate’s chief political correspondent. He has covered nine presidential campaigns.
Dickerson is the author of On Her Trail (Simon & Schuster); the New York Times bestseller Whistlestop: My Favorite Stories from Presidential Campaign History (Twelve Books); and The Hardest Job in the World: The American Presidency (Random House).
He has received the Ford Prize for Distinguished Reporting on the Presidency, the David Broder Award for political reporting, and in 2025, the Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in TV Political Journalism for his essays.
A native Washingtonian, Dickerson graduated with distinction from the University of Virginia with a degree in English and American Studies. He lives in New York City where he serves on the board of Covenant House International.
Previous Tuesdays with Merton Webinars:Previous Tuesdays with Merton Webinars:
For Further Details go to: TWM - Archive
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Jordan T. Jones. Thomas Merton meets James Cone: A Conversation That Never Happened.
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Judith Valente. In Their Own Words: The Monks Who Knew Merton.
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Harley Matthews. Merton and the Protestant Tradition.
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Vincent Pizzuto. Delicious Tranquility: Near-Death Experiences and the Quietud Sabrosa.
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Ryan Bell. Pilgrims in a Polarized Church: Thomas Merton and Raymond Hunthausen.
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Ed Sellner. Kindred Spirits: Thomas Merton, Jack Kerouac, and Zen.
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Sarah Fuller and Becky McIntyre. Merton as Visual Artist and Creating Socially Conscious Art in the 21st Century.
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James Finley. Being A Healing Presence in a Wounded and Traumatized World.
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Rose Marie Berger. The Church Has No Weapons: Merton's Influence on Catholic Nonviolence.
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Abbi Fraser. Merton in the Maryhouse Kitchen.
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Fr. William Hart McNichols & Christopher Pramuk. Offering Christ to a Broken World: Merton’s Advent Tidings of Great Joy.
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Steven P. Millies. Merton with Milosz and Pasternak: Artistic Avenues of Faithful Resistance in Authoritarian Times.
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Gray Matthews. Contemplative Mayhem.
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Julie Leininger Pycior. Despite Everything and Because Everything Is at Stake: Bearing Witness with the Help of Thomas Merton and Dorothy Day.
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David Odorisio. Lessons from the Lost Coast: Exploring Thomas Merton in California.
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Robert Ellsberg. 'It's the Direction that Matters': How Sister Wendy Beckett Changed Her Mind about Merton.
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Sophfronia Scott. Courageous Conversations on Death with Thomas Merton.
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Leslye Colvin. Merton: An Invitation to Unbind Him and Ourselves.
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Anne Pearson. White Man Writing on Racism: Thomas Merton and "Letters to a White Liberal".
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Ilia Delio, OSF. Merton's Christophany and the Second Axial Monk.
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Cassidy Hall. Queering Thomas Merton.
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Mark C. Meade. The Seven Storey Mountain at Seventy-Five: Classic or Déclassé.
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Jim Robinson. Spirituality, Sustainability, and Social Justice: Embodying “Integral Ecology” with Thomas Merton and Rosemary Radford Ruether.
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Patrick F. O'Connell. Beyond the Blurbs: Thomas Merton and St. Augustine.
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Mary Frohlich, RSCJ. Merton as Disciple and Re-interpreter of St. John of the Cross.
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Bob Grip. Washington Watches the Monk II.
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Emma McDonald. Fully Human and Fully Real: Thomas Merton on Technology and Embodiment.
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David Golemboski. People that God Has Brought Together: Thomas Merton on the Hope of Political Community Beyond Nationalism.
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Alan Kolp. Partners in the General Dance of the Spirit: Thomas Merton and Ilia Delio Evolving into the Grandeur of God.
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Julianne E. Wallace. Of Messengers of Peace: A Liturgy for Our World in the Voices of Merton and Francis.
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Daniel P. Horan, OFM. True and False Love: Thomas Merton's Spirituality of the Restless.
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Malgorzata Poks. The Geography of Lograire as Thomas Merton’s Ultimate Autobiography.
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Gordon Oyer. Re-Visioning a Fragmented World: Learnings through Merton’s Letters on Social Change.
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Deborah Kehoe. Thomas Merton and Southern Writing.
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Gregory K. Hillis. What Does Thomas Merton Have to Tell Us About Catholic Identity?
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Steven P. Millies. Our Crisis of Authority and Thomas Merton.
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Doug Hertler. Merton, You, and Me: The Reality of Life in the Paschal Mystery.
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Paul M. Pearson. “I love beer, and, by that very fact, the world.” The Humor (and Humanity) of Thomas Merton.
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Kathleen Tarr. From the Inner Frontier to the Last Frontier: Thomas Merton's Alaska Journey.
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James Martin, SJ. Prayer and Thomas Merton: A Conversation with James Martin, SJ.
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Sophfronia Scott. The Radio of Nature: Merton's Tuning Into God Outdoors.
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Judith Valente. Why We Still Read and Need Thomas Merton: A Personal Journey.
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Lynn R. Szabo. Poetry as Spiritual Direction with Thomas Merton and Denise Levertov.
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Jim Forest. An Army that Sheds No Blood: Thomas Merton’s Response to War.
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Michael W. Higgins. Merton and David Jones: Visionaries Both.
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Kathleen Deignan, CND. Overshadowed: Thomas Merton and The Cloud of Unknowing.
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Bryan N. Massingale. Merton, Malcolm X, and Catholic Engagement with Black Lives Matter.
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Christine M. Bochen. Created for Joy: Becoming Who We Are, Together.
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Jim Finley. Turning to Thomas Merton as a Trustworthy Guide in the Gentle Art of Contemplative Living.
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Jonathan Montaldo. Thomas Merton’s Contemplative Exercises for Entering the School of Our Lives.
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Christopher Pramuk. What Does God's Gender Have to Do with It? Merton's Awakening to the Feminine Divine.
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Bonnie Thurston. “...almost as if I had a sister”: Thomas Merton & Etta Gullick.
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Daniel P. Horan, OFM.