Event is part of yearlong Merton Centennial program On March 28, Sister Ilia Delio will continue Bellarmine University’s celebration of the Thomas Merton Centennial with a lecture on Christianity, evolution and our role in the universe as God's co-creators of the future.
The 10 a.m. lecture, titled “Beyond Dialogue: Christogenesis and Conscious Evolution,” takes place in the Wyatt Center for the Arts’ Amy Cralle Theater, and is free and open to the public. [campus map]
Delio, a Sister of St. Francis, holds a doctorate in pharmacology from Rutgers University’s New Jersey Medical School and a doctorate in historical theology from Fordham University. She currently serves as Haub Director of Catholic Studies and a visiting professor at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.
Delio follows a lineage of 20th century Catholic thinkers like Jesuit paleontologist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin and Passionist eco-theologian Thomas Berry. She is the author of 15 books, including “The Unbearable Wholeness of Being: God, Evolution and the Power of Love” and “From Teilhard to Omega: Co-creating an Unfinished Universe.”
"Ilia Delio challenges us as 21st century Christians to take ongoing evolution seriously," said Fr. George Kilcourse, director of Bellarmine's Thomas Merton Centennial. "She rightly insists that today's theological thinking needs to include Big Bang, quantum physics, systems biology and consciousness studies, as well as scripture and tradition, if we are to be honest and to claim an intellectual integrity."
This lecture is part of a yearlong series celebrating the 100th anniversary of Thomas Merton’s birth. Merton was a Trappist monk at Our Lady of Gethsemani Abbey, as well as a writer, artist and social critic. This series includes symposia, musical performances, art exhibitions and lectures through November 2015 that celebrate Thomas Merton and his impact on social thought. A complete calendar of Thomas Merton Centennial events can be found online.