Guilty Bystander –

Thomas Merton and Moral Reflection in the Professions

10th - 11th March 2006

The Ethics and Social Justice Center and

The Thomas Merton Center at

Bellarmine University

After Thomas Merton’s Louisville Epiphany in 1958 the world-denying monk of The Seven Storey Mountain disappeared forever to be replaced by a Merton fully engaged with the world. His description of himself changed from that of an “innocent bystander” in the fifties to that of a “guilty bystander” in the sixties. His book Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander is "a confrontation of twentieth-century questions in the light of a monastic commitment, which" Merton says, "inevitably makes one something of a 'bystander.'"  But during the challenging events of the period in which he wrote innocent bystanding was no longer possible - just to bystand made a person guilty because they were a part of the human race and therefore deeply implicated. From his new position Merton wrote:  

…the monastery is not an “escape from the world.” On the contrary, by being in the monastery I take my true part in all the struggles and sufferings of the world…by my monastic life and vows I am saying No to all the concentration camps, the aerial bombardments, the staged political trials, the judicial murders, the racial injustices, the economic tyrannies, and the whole socio-economic apparatus which seems geared for nothing but global destruction in spite of all its fair words in favor of peace.

 Through his writings Merton continues to speak to people in every walk of life. This conference will seek to engage with our understanding of Merton’s life and writing as it is applied to our daily lives in our professional work – education, medicine, law, media, ministry, business etc.  If the writings of Thomas Merton have influenced your approach to work or your own vocation, or if his writings informed your response to some ethical dilemma which you faced on the job, please contribute to this conference.

 Papers should be designed for presentation in thirty minutes (10-12 double-spaced pages, maximum) and proposals should be no more than 500 words.  Proposals are also invited for workshops (90 minutes) and for dramatic, poetic and musical reflections (45-90 minutes).

 It is hoped that papers will be published in a book following the conference and presenters should consider this in the preparation of their texts – ideally texts should be submitted on disk or by e-mail before the end of the conference to facilitate timely publication.  Co-operation of presenters is appreciated.

 Proposals should be submitted by e-mail to the following address by 30^th April 2005: [email protected]

 For further information about submitting a proposal, or to submit a proposal in non-electronic format, please contact Dr. Barry Padgett at the above e-mail address or phone (502) 452 8204.