MERTON AND NOUWEN: ARCHITECTS OF OUR SPIRITUAL WISDOM
2013-2014 Religious Life Lecture Series1 at King’s University College
Date: Wednesday, November 27, 2013
Time: 7:30 pm
Location: King’s University College
at Western University, 266 Epworth Avenue, London, ON N6A 2M3
All lectures will be held in the new Joanne and Peter Kenny Theatre – 7:30 p.m.
Free parking and admission | Wheelchair accessible
Lecturer: Dr. Michael Higgins, PhD, Vice President for Mission and Catholic Identity,
Sacred Heart University, Connecticut.
Merton and Nouwen are ideal models for post-conciliar spirituality. Although Merton— monk, poet, essayist, and diarist par excellence—anticipated the Council (1962- 1965), his work on returning to the sources (monastic and biblical), as well as his exploration of ecumenical, and interfaith points of 
convergence established him as a figure easily validated by the Council and its insights. Nouwen —psychologist, professor and spiritual writer—was very much a product of the Council, shaped by its teaching and custom-changing dynamic. We will explore some of the commonalities to be found in their work as spiritual diarists, honest chroniclers of the soul’s progress, and pioneers of the heart’s horizons.
Michael W. Higgins is past President of two Canadian Catholic universities and currently Vice-President of Mission and Catholic Identity at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Connecticut. He is the author and co-author of over a dozen books including two bestsellers—Power and Peril: The Catholic Church at the Crossroads and Stalking the Holy: In Pursuit of Saint-Making—and two award winners—Heretic Blood: The Spiritual Geography of Thomas Merton and Suffer the Children Unto Me: An Open Inquiry into the Clerical Sex Abuse Scandal. His most recent work is Genius Born of Anguish: The Life and Legacy of Henri Nouwen. Higgins is a columnist for the Telegraph-Journal, the Irish Catholic, a regular contributor to The Globe and Mail, and Commonweal and a CBC documentarist.
For more information please contact:
Phone: 519-433-3491
Toll Free: 1-800-265-4406
Email: [email protected]
http://www.kings.uwo.ca/about-kings/campus-ministry/religious-life-lecture-series/
1King’s at Western University is a Catholic University College committed to the ongoing creation of a vital academic community animated by a Christian love of learning and the pursuit of the truth. The Religious Life Lecture Series encourages and supports open inquiry in all areas of religious life. Through this series, the College endeavours to foster such learning by gathering together scholars, artists and activists who support and challenge our assumptions about religious life in the 21st century. In particular, this series strives to develop links with the larger community by offering an accessible series of enlightening and enriching lectures.
Black & white photo: Henri Nouwen at the Menninger Clinic, Topeka, Kansas. Henri was a Fellow in the program for Religion and Psychiatry from 1964-1966.