农夫导航 will celebrate the 100th anniversary of Thomas Merton鈥檚 birth
with the , a yearlong series of thought-provoking events that will bring a host of internationally
renowned writers, thinkers and artists to Louisville, beginning in November.
The first event, a lecture by Robert Ellsberg titled 鈥淭o be a Saint: Thomas Merton,
Dorothy Day, and the Call to Holiness,鈥� will feature Ellsberg鈥檚 perspectives working
alongside Dorothy Day at the Catholic Worker. It takes place on Sunday, November 16,
at 4 p.m. in the George G. Brown Center鈥檚 Frazier Hall. []
The following day, from 10 a.m, to 2 p.m. on November 17, a symposium in Frazier Hall
will address the topic of 鈥淭homas Merton & the Catholic Worker Tradition: 21st Century
Practices of Compassion and 鈥榃orks of Mercy.鈥欌�� Participants will strive to identify
three goals for Bellarmine and Louisville related to compassion and works of mercy.
Other featured lecturers over the next year include:
- Sister Ilia Delio, director of Catholic studies and visiting professor at Georgetown University, who will deliver a lecture titled 鈥淏eyond Dialogue: Christogenesis and Conscious Evolution鈥� on March 28, 2015.
- Dr. Charles Taylor, author of the critically-acclaimed book 鈥淭he Secular Age,鈥� who will deliver an address titled 鈥淎fter Christendom鈥� on May 23, 2015.
- Fr. Francis X. Clooney, S.J., director of the Center for the Study of World Religions, Harvard Divinity School, who will speak on "Thomas Merton and Hindu Wisdom: Knowing Self, Knowing Other" on November 9, 2015.
A full schedule of Thomas Merton Centennial events is online at . All events are free and open to the public; one dinner event requires purchase of
a meal.
Merton (1915-1968) was a writer, social activist, artist, photographer and Trappist
monk at Our Lady of Gethsemani Abbey near Bardstown, Ky. He wrote more than 70 books
that include poetry, personal journals, collections of letters and social criticism,
including such classics as 鈥淭he Seven Storey Mountain鈥� and 鈥淶en and the Birds of Appetite.鈥�
鈥淏esides being one of the most significant interdisciplinary Catholic thinkers of
the 20th Century, Merton was both a neighbor and a close friend to Bellarmine, entrusting
the bulk of his literary estate to our stewardship at the Thomas Merton Center,鈥� said
Dr. Joseph J. McGowan, Bellarmine鈥檚 president. 鈥淗is writings on the search for truth,
religious inquiry, the nature of humanity, the value of cross-cultural and inter-faith
awareness, and his advocacy for peace, social justice and sustainability have urgent
contemporary relevance -- and all are at the core of our community values.鈥�
For more information, email centennial director Fr. George Kilcourse, professor of
theology, at gkilcourse@bellarmine.edu.