The following keynote speeches and breakout sessions will be offered at the Yale Divinity School Conference, Henri Nouwen and Thomas Merton: Spiritual Guides for the 21st Century.
Nouwen, Merton and the Discipline and Language of Spirituality-The word “spirituality” made a late appearance in the English language, and even a later appearance as an accepted discipline within the academy of theology. Thomas Merton and Henri Nouwen each played a major role in this development. What were the key contributions of each? Nouwen and Merton and our present concept of spirituality in the English-speaking world.
- Keynote Speaker: Ronald Rolheiser, a Roman Catholic priest and member of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, is President of the Oblate School of Theology in San Antonio, Texas. He is a community-builder, lecturer, and writer. His books are popular throughout the English-speaking world and have now been translated into many languages. His weekly column is carried by more than 80 newspapers worldwide. Prior to this present position, he taught theology and philosophy at Newman Theological College in Edmonton, Alberta, for 16 years, served as Provincial Superior of his Oblate Province for six years, and served on the General Council for the Oblates in Rome for six years. He has been at Oblate School of Theology since 2005.
“The Home Where I Have Never Been”: The Restless Journeys of Thomas Merton and Henri Nouwen-The lives of Thomas Merton and Henri Nouwen were marked by a certain restlessness. Merton, a Trappist monk, wrestled in particular with the monastic vow of “stability”, which caused him to constantly to chafe against the restrictions of his vocation. Nouwen too, was driven to pursue various settings in a quest for his “true home.” In similar ways they ultimately found what they were seeking. Thus, they beckon to other seekers on the path to “the home where I have never been.”
- Keynote Speaker: Robert Ellsberg is the long-time publisher of Orbis Books, where he has published many books by and about Thomas Merton and Henri Nouwen. Robert was a long-time friend of Nouwen, and served for some years after his death as member of his literary Trust. Robert has edited the diaries, letters, and selected writings of Dorothy Day, with whom he worked in the late 1970s. He is also well known for his many books on saints, including All Saints: Daily Reflections on Saints, Prophets, and Witnesses for Our Time, and Blessed Among Us, based on his daily reflections for Liturgical’s “Give Us This Day.”
Thomas Merton’s Letter Writing Apostolate- Thomas Merton was a consummate, prolific letter writer. Over his life, he wrote over 10,000 letters to 1200 different correspondents from around the world. Amongst a wide range of recipients and diverse topics of discussion, a prevailing theme emerges in Merton’s commitment to an “apostolate of friendship.” This session is about the ministry of friendship evidenced in Merton’s global epistolary dialogues with each of his correspondents whose hearts, like his own, he believed to be infused with “the hidden ground of Love.”
- Breakout Speaker: William Apel is a professor Emeritus in Religion and Spirituality at Linfield College in Oregon and has also served as Chaplain to the College. His most recent book is Signs of Peace: The Interfaith Letters of Thomas Merton. He is on the editorial board of “The Merton Journal” and has published numerous articles on Merton in the journals of the International Thomas Merton Society, and the Thomas Merton Society of Great Britain and Ireland. His other publications have related to his interest in Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Howard Thurman. He is an ordained minister in the United Methodist Church and the American Baptist Churches, USA. He was educated at Muskingum College (B.A. in history and religion), Garrett Seminary (M. Div.) and Northwestern University (Ph.D. in religion with emphasis in modern Christian thought and a cognate in Buddhist studies).
- Breakout Speaker: Gabrielle Earnshaw is the founding archivist of the Henri J.M. Nouwen Archives and Research Collection at the University of St. Michael’s College, a position she has held for sixteen years. She holds a BA with honors in History from Queen’s University and a Master’s of Archival Science from the University of British Columbia. Prior to her work as Nouwen Archivist, Gabrielle held positions with the Law Society of Upper Canada and the Children’s Own Museum in Toronto. Currently, she is an archival consultant for the heritage sector, specializing in literary papers, oral history, curation and communications. She continues her work for the Nouwen legacy as scholar/researcher for the Henri Nouwen Legacy Trust. Earnshaw is also the Director of the Henri Nouwen Oral History Program. She is co-editor of Turning the Wheel: Henri Nouwen and Our Search for God, editor of Love, Henri: Letters on the Spiritual Life, and editor of a forthcoming book of daily meditations with Henri Nouwen. Earnshaw lives in Toronto with her husband Don.
Henri Nouwen: A ‘Signpost’ in the Americas- This session will explore a threefold rationale for the wide spiritual appeal of Henri Nouwen, using both a pastoral and academic context. Additional focus will be placed on Nouwen’s “Christ of the Americas” (1983) as a signpost in his movement towards an increasingly Christocentric and Bibliocentric spirituality.
- Breakout Speaker: Rev. James D. Smith III (Th.D., Harvard) teaches as Professor of Church History, Emeritus at Bethel Seminary San Diego - and is Associate Pastor of La Jolla Christian Fellowship. He has lectured extensively at the University of San Diego and currently serves as visiting faculty at Richmont Graduate University, Atlanta. Among publications, he served as consulting editor for the award-winning Dictionary of Christian Spirituality (2011) and did editorial advisory for the Encyclopedia of Christian Education (2015).
Thomas Merton: Responding to Touchstone Moments-This session will describe several experiences in Merton’s life that influenced his evolving spirituality and commitment to take prayer, people, and social issues seriously, while offering reflection on how Merton can be a model for our own deepening spirituality.
- Breakout Speaker: Dr. Monica Weis, SSJ is professor emerita of English at Nazareth College where she taught American literature and rhetoric in their professional writing program. She was a Fulbright Visiting Professor at the University of Pannonia, Veszprém, Hungary, and is a frequent presenter on Thomas Merton, both nationally and internationally. Her publications appear in various journals, along with three books on Merton: Thomas Merton’s Gethsemani: Landscapes of Paradise (UPK 2005), The Environmental Vision of Thomas Merton (UPK 2011) and Thomas Merton and the Celts(Pickwick 2016).
Henri and Vincent-Henri thought of the artist Vincent Van Gogh as his personal “saint.” Vincent became a case study in Henri’s course Compassion at Yale Divinity School in 1978. This session will explore how both Dutchmen shared the same desires to live purposefully, faithfully, and compassionately.
- Breakout Speaker: Carol Berry is an author, artist, lecturer, and retreat leader. She has given presentations for the Vermont Humanities Council, the Capital Region Theological Center in New York, the Wisdom House in Litchfield, Connecticut and for various other organizations. She earned her Masters Degree in Art Education from California State University, Northridge. In 1978 Carol was fortunate to have the opportunity to study Vincent Van Gogh under the tutelage of Henri J.M. Nouwen. Carol has spent the last twenty-five years immersed in the study of Van Gogh and has traveled throughout to The Netherlands, Belgium, and France, retracing Van Gogh’s life. Carol’s passion for both Van Gogh and Nouwen has prompted her research and study of these two Dutch men.Carol has essays published in anthologies, including a keynote lecture in Toronto, Canada, given at the 10th anniversary of the death of Henri Nouwen in a book entitled Turning the Wheel. She published the book Vincent Van Gogh; His Spiritual Vision in Life and Art through Orbis Books. Carol will be publishing her second book next year, which will encompass Henri Nouwen, Vincent Van Gogh, and stories from forty years of shared ministry with her husband Steve. In this book she shares insights on compassion and reveals why Henri Nouwen considered Vincent Van Gogh his patron saint.
Emblems for a Season of Fury: The Art of Thomas Merton-The child of artistic, pacifist parents, Thomas Merton expressed himself throughout his life in various mediums – prose, poetry, drawings and photographs. His early monastic writings and art work were conservative. But, as his self-confidence in his vocation changed, and as he discovered a deeper and broader understanding of God arrived at through his solitude, so his self-expression through his writings and artwork changed. This presentation will explore Merton’s experimentations with drawing and photography in the sixties, exploring them as a response to the Cold War and the social upheaval of the period.
- Breakout Speaker: Paul M. Pearson is Director and Archivist of the Thomas Merton Center at Bellarmine University in Louisville, Kentucky and Chief of Research for the Merton Legacy Trust. He is the current Resident Secretary of the International Thomas Merton Society, and has served as President for the 10th administration (2005-2007), program chair for the 11th and 15th ITMS conferences, treasurer for the Society (2007-2013, 2015-2017) and site coordinator for the 2015 conference celebrating the centenary of Merton’s birth. He completed his Ph.D. in theology with a dissertation 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 edited Seeking Paradise: Thomas Merton and the Shakers (Orbis 2003), and Thomas Merton on Christian Contemplation (New Directions, 2012). In 1999 he was awarded a “Louie” by the ITMS for his contribution on an international level to the promotion of Merton’s writings and to the presentation of his ideas. He received the 2010 John Brubaker Memorial Award of the Catholic Library Association, Bellarmine University’s Hidden Wholeness Award for International Unity and Diversity in 2011, and the James R. Bennett CEA Award for Literature and Peace in 2017.
Thomas Merton and Henri Nouwen: Western Explorers of the Christian East-Both Thomas Merton and Henri Nouwen sought to unite in themselves the intellectual thought and spiritual devotion of Eastern and Western Christendom, contributing in significant ways to overcoming Christianity’s East-West schism.
- Keynote Speaker: Jim Forest is a lecturer, educator, retreat leader, and author of many books, including The Root of War is Fear: Thomas Merton’s Advice to Peacemakers, Loving Our Enemies: Reflections on the Hardest Commandment, Living With Wisdom: a Biography of Thomas Merton, and All Is Grace: a biography of Dorothy Day. In 1965, Jim founded the Catholic Peace Fellowship, a group who worked in making known the option of conscientious objection. In the late sixties, Jim was responsible for Vietnam program activities of the Fellowship of Reconciliation. In 1969-70, Jim was imprisoned for thirteen months as a consequence of his involvement in the “Milwaukee Fourteen,” a group of Catholic priests and lay people who burned draft records. In 1977, he moved to Holland to head the staff of the International Fellowship of Reconciliation. He was IFOR’s General Secretary for twelve years. In connection with work on two books about Russian religious life, Jim traveled widely throughout the former Soviet Union and was a witness to the final days of the USSR. Jim is international secretary of the Orthodox Peace Fellowship and, for 21 years, edited its quarterly journal, In Communion. He is now Associate Editor. An influential factor in Jim’s life was his friendship with Thomas Merton, who dedicated Faith and Violence to Jim. Merton’s letters to Jim have been published in The Hidden Ground of Love. Jim has received the Peacemaker Award from Notre Dame University’s Institute for International Peace Studies, the St. Marcellus Award from the Catholic Peace Fellowship, the 2011 Prince Constantine Ostrogsky Award, the 2014 Esse Non Videri Award by St. Joseph’s College and the 2015 Peace and Justice Award of the Thomas Merton Center.
Pure and Fresh Seeing: Henri Nouwen and Thomas Merton as Sacred Disrupters-Merton and Nouwen often argued for a new mode of perception, a new way of apprehending reality, and a new way of seeing. The artistic and mystical dimensions of this “unblinkered” perception meant different things to the monk and to the pastor, but there are also striking convergences in their thought as well. This session will explore how, to a considerable degree, Henri and Thomas were captured by this same vision.
- Keynote Speaker: Michael W. Higgins is an author, scholar, Vatican Affairs Specialist for The Globe and Mail, Papal Commentator for the CTV Network, educator, CBC Radio documentarian, columnist, and former senior academic administrator. He has served as President and Vice-Chancellor of two Canadian Catholic universities, St. Jerome’s University in the University of Waterloo, Ontario, and St. Thomas University, Fredericton, New Brunswick, and as Vice-President for Mission and Catholic Identity at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Connecticut. He is currently Distinguished Professor of Catholic Thought at Sacred Heart University. He has edited, co-authored and authored many books, including The Jesuit Mystique, Heretic Blood: The Spiritual Geography of Thomas Merton, Genius Born of Anguish: The Life and Legacy of Henri J. M. Nouwen, The Unquiet Monk: Thomas Merton’s Questing Faith, and Jean Vanier: Logician of the Heart. A columnist over the years for The Toronto Star, Telegraph-Journal, The Record, and The Catholic Register on media matters, literary issues and Catholicism, he currently has a monthly column on the American Church for the Dublin-based Irish Catholic. He is also a regular contributor to Commonweal (New York), The Literary Review of Canada, and The Tablet (London). He is the recipient of many awards, including two honorary doctorates, and the 2013 Gold Medal for International Radio Documentaries, awarded by the New York Festivals.