Conference celebrates enduring spiritual guides
Thomas Merton and Henri Nouwen were spiritual leaders in an era when the term “spirituality” emerged into mainstream American Christian thought. Their enduring relevance brought together scholars, theologians, clergy, and writers for a two-day conference at the Divinity School in November. The event, “Henri Nouwen & Thomas Merton: Spiritual Guides for the Twenty-first Century,” was as much reunion as conference, bringing together friends and followers who had personally known the spiritual exemplars and continue to celebrate them. Nouwen was the conference’s favorite son, as YDS alumni reminisced about the decade from 1971 to 1981 when he was a professor at the Divinity School. “Nouwen speaks for the soul and the unheard,” said Catholic priest and writer Ron Rolheiser. “He was always a saint in progress.”
Clergy explore faith and medicine in lifelong learning program
Major Charles Seligman, a US Air Force chaplain stationed in Germany, was one of 15 clergy who participated in the Divinity School’s recently launched Lifelong Learning program in theology and medicine. Seligman, who traveled to Yale monthly from August until the end of the fall semester, said the long flights were worth it. “I do a lot of grief counseling—working with wounded warriors and helping them to cope with the trauma they have endured,” said Seligman, who served multiple tours in Iraq. “So much of what we’re covering in this program applies to that work.” Seligman and the rest of the continuing-education cohort gathered on campus for their own luncheon seminar, followed by their attendance at a theology-and-medicine class that was cotaught by Divinity School visiting professor Mark Heim and Dr. Benjamin Doolittle ’91, ’94MDiv, ’97MD, associate professor of medicine and of pediatrics at Yale School of Medicine.
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