Bellarmine professor to speak on Thomas Merton
Thursday March 5St. Bede Theater
7 p.m. Central
Dr. Gregory K. Hillis will present the annual Thomas Lecture on Philosophy and Theology at Saint Meinrad Seminary and School of Theology in St. Meinrad, IN.
The lecture will be held on Thursday, March 5, at 7 p.m. Central Time in St. Bede Theater. This year’s lecture is titled “Thomas Merton, the Eucharist, and Dialogue or How Catholic was Thomas Merton?”
Hillis is associate professor of theology at Bellarmine University in Louisville, KY.
He joined the department of theology in 2008 after completing his PhD in the department of Religious Studies at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. His doctoral research was on early Christian theology, with a focus on St. Cyril of Alexandria. He has published academic articles on Cyril’s theology, and recently wrote the introduction to a new translation of Cyril’s Glaphyra on the Pentateuch, published in 2018 by Catholic University of America Press.
In the last few years, he has turned his attention to the life and writings of Thomas Merton, the famous Trappist monk from Kentucky whose literary estate is housed at the Merton Center at Bellarmine University. In addition to teaching a popular undergraduate course on Merton, Hillis has written both academic articles and popular articles on his life and thought.
He has also delivered lectures around the United States on Merton’s theology. He is currently working on a book on Thomas Merton’s understanding of Catholicism for Liturgical Press, due in 2021.
Hillis also assists in the formation of candidates for the permanent diaconate around the United States with Saint Meinrad Seminary and School of Theology.
In 2019, he won the Wilson W. Wyatt Faculty Fellowship for excellence in teaching and scholarship at Bellarmine University.
The Thomas Lecture is made possible by an endowment established in honor of the late George and Mary Thomas and the late Fr. Kieran Conley, OSB. The lecture provides an opportunity for students and faculty at Saint Meinrad to explore issues in philosophy and theology.
The lecture is free and open to the public. Parking is available at the St. Bede, Guest House and student parking lots. Saint Meinrad operates on Central Time. For more information, call Mary Jeanne Schumacher at (812) 357-6501 during business hours.