Jonathan Montaldo is one of the foremost Thomas Merton scholars and interpreters of  his writings. Montaldo has served as associate director of the Merton Institute for Contemplative Living, director of a retreat center near Merton’s Abbey of Gethsemani and director of the Thomas Merton Center at Bellarmine University. Montaldo is also editor of the 10-volume Bridges to Contemplative […]

Jens Zimmermann is a professor of English and modern languages at Trinity Western University in Langley, British Columbia, where he holds the Canada Research Chair in Interpretation, Religion and Culture. He will lecture on Thomas Merton’s humanism at Regent University’s Thomas Merton Symposium. Contact via Jennifer Watton, TWU’s media relations officer.

Gary Hall is a Methodist presbyter who teaches practical theology at the Queen’s Foundation for Ecumenical Theological Education in Birmingham, England. He has written widely about Mertonian spirituality and will lead a guided retreat based on Thomas Merton’s spirituality as part of the yearlong celebration of Merton’s centenary.

Christine M. Bochen is a professor of religious studies at Nazareth College in Rochester, N.Y. She is a founding member and past president of the International Thomas Merton Society and co-editor of The Thomas Merton Encyclopedia.

Daniel P. Horan is the author of The Franciscan Heart of Thomas Merton and a columnist for America magazine, where he recently wrote an essay about why Merton still matters, especially to millennials. He blogs at Dating God. He is a Franciscan monk based in Boston.

Michael W. Higgins is vice president for mission and Catholic identity at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Conn. He is the author of several books on Thomas Merton, including Thomas Merton: Faithful Visionary and Heretic Blood: The Spiritual Geography of Thomas Merton. Higgins is also an expert on the Catholic writer Henri Nouwen and on the path […]

Paul Elie is a senior fellow with the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., and director of the American Pilgrimage Project. He is an expert on religion in literature, the arts and media. He is the author of The Life You Save May Be Your Own: An American […]