The Fourteenth General Meeting of the International Thomas Merton Society
June 4-7, 2015
at Bellarmine University, Louisville, Kentucky

The year 2015 marks the one hundredth anniversary of Thomas Merton’s birth. His life and writings are not merely historically important, but offer a prophetic witness to a vision that points a way into the future. As Merton wrote in an untitled poem, “All theology is a kind of birthday / Each one who is born /Comes into the world as a question / For which old answers / Are not sufficient…” (In the Dark Before Dawn: New Selected Poems of Thomas Merton). The centenary offers an opportunity to consider how we too might set aside easy answers and wrestle with the urgent questions of our day. The Fourteenth General Meeting of the International Thomas Merton Society will focus particularly on ways in which Merton’s life and writings challenge us to continue his legacy through ever-deepening contemplation, compassion, and unity– a legacy in which deep prayer informs action, action on behalf of justice, and the embrace of the whole world. As Merton concludes that poem: “No one ever got born / All by himself: It takes more than one. / Every birthday / Has its own theology.”

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