Christine M. Bochen, Professor of Religious Studies at Nazareth College in Rochester, New York, presents the first talk in our fall speaker series about Thomas Merton. Dr. Bochen is a founding member of the International Thomas Merton Society and past president. She has edited Courage for Truth, Merton's letters to writers and Learning to Love, the sixth volume of Merton's personal journals. Dr. Bochen has just completed a short anthology of selections from Thomas Merton's writings for Spiritual Masters Series, published by Orbis Books in fall, 2000.

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Lawrence S. Cunningham is Professor of Theology at the University of Notre Dame. He is the author or editor of sixteen books, including Thomas Merton: Spiritual Master, A Search for Solitude: The Journals of Thomas Merton, 1952-1960, and Thomas Merton & The Monastic Vision. A founding member of the International Thomas Merton Society, Dr.ÊCunningham has lectured extensively on Merton, most recently delivering the keynote address at the April 2000 conference of the International Thomas Merton Society of Great Britain. He has been honoured twice by the Catholic Press Association (1987 and 1999) for best writing in the category of book and periodical literature, and received an award for the best research on Thomas Merton by the ITMS in 1996.

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Though the outlines of Thomas Merton's life are generally known to his many readers, the details of his spiritual development are less familiar. At this one-day seminar, Lawrence Cunningham will show that Merton's prolific writings and his continuing influence can only be understood against the background of his contemplative experience as a Trappist monk.

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A priest since 1979, Cynthia has been passionately committed to the recovery of the Christian contemplative path. She has worked closely with Father Thomas Keating as a teacher of Centering Prayer and editor of his two books. A well known conference and retreat leader in her own right, she is the author of many books and audiotapes on the spiritual life, and a recent book, Love is Stronger than Death. Now in hermit's vows in the Diocese of British Columbia, she divides her time between solitude and her role as resident teacher for the Contemplative Society on Salt Spring Island. Her longtime interest in Merton, as well as her own "double-vocation" as a writer and contemplative, brings a fresh perspective to her insight, reflected in her highly popular Merton courses offered regularly at Queenswood House, Victoria.

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Professor Sidney Griffith will track Thomas Merton's fascination with Gandhi from his youth to his maturity, culminating in the publication of his book, Gandhi on Non-Violence. Then he will explore how Merton shared this interest with Gandhi with another one of his correspondents, Louis Massignon, who was chairman of the "Friends of Gandhi" in Paris. In the lives of all three men, Dr. Griffith will highlight the role of the interreligious inspiration that motivated them.

Sidney Griffith is a Professor in the Department of Semitic and Egytian Languages and Literatures at the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC. A reader of Merton for many years, he is especially interested in the history of monasticism and inter-religious dialogue.

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Thomas Merton's love poetry, written in the mid-sixties, returns to the lyrical devotion of his early days in the monastery and provides us with another perspective on his personal experience and development as poet. Lynn will discuss the poetry and its importance in our understanding of Merton's spiritual journey.

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Fourteenth century spirituality spoke strongly to 20th century Trappist monk Thomas Merton. Michael Callaghan will discuss the influence of the medieval English mystics--especially Julian of Norwich, Richard Rolle, and Walter Hilton--on the life and writings of Thomas Merton.

Fr. Michael Callaghan, CM, is Professor of English at St. John's University in Jamaica, NY. He completed his doctoral dissertation on "Thomas Merton and the English Mystics" in 1998.

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Archetypally considered, the child became for Merton--20th century Trappist monk and spiritual writer--both an exemplary symbol of the expansiveness of the primordial imagination and a template for the self. Merton's childlike character could be seen in the openness in which he unselfconsciously moved through diverse intellectual fields and spontaneously wrote to authors whom he did not know but whose writings he admired. In this lecture, Ross will discuss the image of the child in Merton's writings.

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This presentation will survey Merton's use of the scriptural image of the Kingdom of God. For Merton, the Kingdom is a multidimensional yet unifying symbol, ineffably mysterious in its divine depths and starkly practical in its concrete demands. It summons us to contemplation and to action.

Patrick F. O'Connell, a founding member and past president of the International Thomas Merton Society, is editor of The Merton Seasonal: A Quarterly Review, and has published some two dozen articles on Merton and his work. He is Associate Professor in the Departments of English and Theology at Gannon University, Erie, Pennsylvania. Patrick holds doctorates in English literature from Yale University and the History of Christianity from Fordham University.

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Merton's early attraction to the poet and mystic William Blake developed into a lifelong love affair. Susan McCaslin will explore the question of why the Trappist monk who fled the world to find a home within a monastic institution remained fascinated by the poet and mystic William Blake, who in his lifetime could not abide institutional religion. Susan's talk examines Merton's famous "Fourth and Walnut" experience recorded in the journals and later appearing as a deeply layered text in Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander, considering it as a Blakean moment in and out of time. Merton's message to the 21st century via Blake is that the cultivation of the mystical and contemplative life is the prerogative and, indeed, responsibility of everyone.

Susan McCaslin is a Professor of English at Douglas College in Coquitlam, British Columbia. She is the author of eight volumes of poetry and the editor of the anthology A Matter of Spirit: Recovery of the Sacred in Contemporary Canadian Poetry. Her most recent collections of poetry include: The Altering Eye, Flying Wounded and Common Longing. Susan has been reading Merton since the late 1960s and studying him intensely for the past three years as a way of recovering the sacred in the experience of her own everyday life.

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Based on his prayers and drawings, this one-day retreat will help us meditate upon and discuss together the meaning of these artifacts of Merton's contemplation for our own lives.

Jonathan Montaldo is serving as Associate Director of The Thomas Merton Center at Bellarmine University in Louisville, Kentucky. He edited volume 2 of Merton's private journals published as Entering the Silence (1996) and co-edited The Intimate Merton (1999) with Brother Patrick Hart. His new book, Dialogues with Silence: Thomas Merton's Prayers & Drawings will be published by HarperSanFrancisco this fall.

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An introduction to Thomas Merton for new and longtime readers of Merton. Specialty coffees and Merton titles will be available for sale. Information: 536-3711.

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This free series looks at Thomas Merton's life and work from many perspectives.

1. Meet Merton Authors

   September 14, 2001

   Jonathan Montaldo is Associate Director of The Thomas Merton Center at Bellarmine University in Louisville, Kentucky, and is the current President of the ITMS. He edited volume 2 of Merton's private journals published as Entering the Silence and co-edited The Intimate Merton with Brother Patrick Hart. His new book, Dialogues with Silence: Thomas Merton's Prayers & Drawings, will be published this fall by HarperSanFrancisco.

   Christine M Bochen, Professor of Religious Studies at Nazareth College in Rochester, New York, edited Courage for Truth, Merton's letters to writers and Learning to Love, the sixth volume of Merton's personal journals. Dr. Bochen's most recent book on Thomas Merton is a short anthology of selections from Merton's writings for the Modern Spiritual Masters Series, entitled, Thomas Merton: Essential Writings. She is past President of the ITMS and Chair of the Program Committee for the 8th General Meeting of the ITMS that is scheduled to take place in Vancouver from June 5 - 8, 2003.

   Michael W. Higgins is President of St. Jerome's University at the University of Waterloo. He has written and published widely on Merton, most recently, Heretic Blood: The Spiritual Geography of Thomas Merton. He wrote, researched, and narrated Heretic Blood: An Audiobiography of Thomas Merton, a three-part documentary for the CBC, as well as an earlier CBC "Ideas" series and "Man Alive" film. Dr. Higgins co-edited a book with Donald Grayston on Merton entitled Pilgrim in Process. A frequent presenter at ITMS meetings, Michael served as Site Coordinator for the Sixth General Meeting of the ITMS in Waterloo, Ontario, and was recently elected to the Board of Directors of the ITMS.

2. Introducing Thomas Merton

   Author: Ross Labrie
   September 22, 2001

   Discover why Thomas Merton has been called the most important religious writer in America in the last hundred years.

   Ross Labrie, Professor of English at the University of British Columbia, is the author of a number of books on American literature, the most recent being The Catholic Imagination in American Literature. He has written two books on Thomas Merton, The Art of Thomas Merton and Thomas Merton and the Inclusive Imagination, which will be published in early December.

3. Jesus Lama: Thomas Merton in Asia

   Author: Donald Grayston
   September 29, 2001

   In October 1968, monk, writer and social critic Thomas Merton fulfilled a longheld dream by going to Asia. He visited India, Sri Lanka and Thailand, meeting Buddhist lamas (who called him a "Jesus Lama") and other representatives of Asian religions. He died accidentally in Thailand at a conference at which he had just spoken, on December 10, 1968.

   Essentially he had two purposes in going: to engage in multifaith dialogue, and to seek a deeper spiritual realization for himself. Between October 2000 and January 2001, Don Grayston retraced the route of Merton's Asian pilgrimage, visiting the places he visited, meeting some of the people he met, and re-reading Merton's Asian Journal in the places in which it was written. In this lecture illustrated with slides, he will share the discoveries he made on his own pilgrimage.

   Donald Grayston is Director of the Institute for the Humanities at Simon Fraser University, where he teaches a course on Merton in the Humanities Department.

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Fall 2001 Lecture Series

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This lecture will focus on the transformation that takes place in Merton over the course of his journal Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander. Reference will also be made to Merton's essay "Rain and the Rhinoceros," his collection of poetry "Emblems of a Season of Fury" and to his translation of Meng Tzu's "Ox Mountain Parable."

Paul M. Pearson is Director and Archivist of The Thomas Merton Center at Bellarmine University in Louisville, Kentucky. He completed his Ph.D. on Merton at Heythrop College, University of London. Paul is a founding member and first secretary of the Thomas Merton Society of Great Britain and Ireland. He is editorial advisor to The Merton Journal, editor of Thomas Merton: Poet, Monk, Prophet, and a regular contributor to Merton conferences in the UK and USA.

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Long before the majority of people recognized the importance of the issue, Thomas Merton began to write about environmental concerns. In Merton's writings the careful reader will discover profound insights into how human beings are integrally connected to nature. Merton's writings can point the way towards a useful spirituality of creation.

Christopher Page has been the Rector of St. Philip's Anglican Church in Victoria since 1993. In 1998/99 he spent a sabbatical year studying Thomas Merton. In May 2001, he was awarded a Master of Theology degree from the Vancouver School of Theology for his thesis on the nature mysticism of Thomas Merton.

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This lecture explores the different purposes for which Merton writes about nature, as well as the impact nature has on his prayer and thinking about the environment.

Monica Weis, SSJ, is the Rosemary A. White Professor of English at Nazareth College, Rochester, NY where she teaches American nature writers, colonial American literature, rhetoric, and various courses in the English Education program. She has published articles on composition theory, Walt Whitman, and Olaudah Equiano. Her more recent research on Thomas Merton has resulted in papers delivered at the last six General Meetings of the ITMS, the biographical entry on Merton in American Environmentalists: A Selective Biographical Encyclopedia, 1850-1990, and published articles in Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment and The Merton Seasonal. Currently, Dr. Weis is working on a book on Merton and nature.

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Sheilla Fodchuk's talk will explore how Thomas Merton's understanding of the eye of faith in New Seeds of Contemplation has significance for his illumination theory, for his mystical theology and human anthropology.

Sheilla Fodchuk is Executive Director of the Cathedral Centre for Spiritual Direction at Christ Church Cathedral, and a registered Clinical Counselor. She teaches summer school at Vancouver School of Theology in the Diploma Program in Spirituality. Sheilla's graduate degree is in Spiritual Directon from General Theological Seminary in New York City.

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Thomas Merton's Life and Thought Series Vancouver Public Library Author Series

Central Branch, Hamilton and Georgia Streets

Thursday, March 14, 2002, 7 pm

Based on his essay of the same name in Merton & Sufism: The Untold Story--A complete Compendium, Sidney Griffith outlines the relationship between Louis Massignon and Thomas Merton, and gives an account of the significance of Massignon's phrase, "le point vierge," which Merton found so evocative that he appropriated it for his own purposes.

Sidney H. Griffith is Professor of Semitic and Egyptian Languages and Literatures at The Catholic University of America in Washington, DC.

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Thomas Merton the Mystic/Poet

Saturday, March 23, 2002, 10:30 am - noon

Thomas Merton's poetry has been the least known aspect of his diverse and wide-ranging writings. In this talk, Lynn Szabo explores the passion and mystery which underlie Merton's poetic voice.

Professor of English Literature and Creative Writing at Trinity Western University, she is currently completing The Sound of Sheer Silence, a book on Thomas Merton's poetics.

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Thomas Merton and William Blake

Saturday, March 30, 2002, 10:30 am - noon

Monk and poet Thomas Merton spent a lifetime reflecting on the continuing impact on his life of poet and visionary William Blake. Both were prolific, revolutionary artists of the divine. Susan McCaslin examines the way Blakean symbols shaped Merton's imaginative geography.

Susan McCaslin is a poet and Instructor of English at Douglas College in Coquitlam. She is the author of nine volumes of poetry.

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Long before it became popular to do so, Thomas Merton sought to understand other faith traditions and cultures, and became a prophetic voice in inter-religious dialogue and peace. Especially now, in the wake of September 11, this Merton Conference and Festival of the Arts promotes multifaith and multicultural understanding and healing among members of our various faith and cultural communities.

The conference is open to people of all ages, with an intentional invitation to youth in Vancouver and the Lower Mainland to participate, learn and share insights about pluralism in our multicultural society.

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Inchausti will present Merton not as the spokesman for any particular group, cause, or idea, but rather as the quintessential American outsider who defined himself in opposition to the world, then discovered a way back into dialogue with that world and compassion for it.

Robert Inchausti is Professor of English at Callifornia Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. Among his publications are Thomas Merton's American Prophecy, an interpretation of Merton's contribution of American thought, published by State University of New York Press, The Ignorant Perfection of Ordinary People, and Spitwad Sutras: Classroom Teaching as Sublime Vocation. He is a member of the Catholic Commission on Cultural and Intellectual Affairs.

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This presentation will explore exciting new dimensions of Merton's spiritual journey as shown by a fresh look at patterns in The Seven Storey Mountain and his journals. In particular, it will reveal Merton's directional self-image, the effects of the loss of his parents, significant parallels between the three parts of his autobiography, and his tendencies to two types of addiction.

David J. Leigh, SJ, is Professor of English at the University of Seattle. He has published thirty articles in scholarly journals on Virgil, St. Augustine, medieval drama, Donne, Swift, Pope, pre-romantic poetry, the gothic novel, Byron, Yeats, Chesterton, Joyce, T.S. Eliot, Graham Greene, Foucault, Malcolm X, Rigoberta Menchu, and modern spiritual autobiographies. His most recent book, Circuitous Journeys: Modern Spiritual Autobiography, was published last year by Fordham University Press.

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In a letter to artist Victor Hammer in 1959 Merton commented on a triptych Victor had painted depicting Hagia Sophia or Holy Wisdom: "I know who she is. I have always known her. She is Hagia Sophia."This lecture explores the feminine figure of the Godhead as she appears and reappears in Merton's letters and journals, linking her to a recurrent dream figure Merton called "Proverb." In his scattered journal entries and in the long poem "Hagia Sophia," Merton overcomes the duality of gender divisions, rediscovering the presence of she who dances darkness into light and light into darkness the feminine child who plays in the world. In so doing, Merton anticipates much of feminist theology that would follow upon his death and moves towards a more balanced and full image of the Godhead active in creation.

Susan McCaslin is Professor of English at Douglas College. She is the author of eight volumes of poetry and the editor of the anthology A Matter of Spirit: Recovery of the Sacred in Contemporary Canadian Poetry. Susan has been reading Merton since the late 1960s and studying him intensely for the past three years as a way of recovering the sacred in the experience of her own everyday life.