The Thomas Merton Lecture

Every year a prominent Catholic figure gives a major talk at Columbia which is sponsored by the Catholic Chaplain's office. This lecture is named for the late Thomas Merton who became a Catholic after completing his undergraduate studies at Columbia and while pursuing a graduate degree here. Merton later became a Trappist monk and wrote many books on religious and spiritual topics. Merton died in 1968. Since its inception in 1978, this annual lecture has become the most prestigious religious lecture given at Columbia University.

The 30th annual Merton Lecture will take place Monday, October 20th, 2008 at 8:30 p.m. in St. Paul's Chapel.

The Lecturer: Eleonore Stump

Eleonore Stump is The Robert J. Henle Professor of Philosophy at Saint Louis University, where she has taught since 1992. She received a Ph.D. in medieval studies and medieval philosophy from Cornell University in 1975. Prof. Stump is editor-in-chief of the Yale Library of Medieval Philosophy and was section editor for the philosophy of religion for the new Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Among other honors, she is past president of the Society of Christian Philosophers, the American Catholic Philosophical Association, and the American Philosophical Association, Central Division. In 2003, she presented the Gifford Lectures in Aberdeen, Scotland. In 2004, she received the Robert Foster Cherry Award for Great Teaching from Baylor University. In 2006, she gave the Wilde lectures at Oxford. Prof. Stump's many publications include Reasoned Faith (1993); Philosophy of Religion: The Big Questions (1998); the Cambridge Companion to Aquinas (1993); the Cambridge Companion to Augustine (1999); and Aquinas in the series "Arguments of the Philosophers" (2003). Her Gifford lectures, entitled Wandering in Darkness: Narrative and the Problem of Suffering, are forthcoming from Oxford University Press.

The Lecture

Only the most naive or tendentious among us would deny the extent and intensity of suffering in the world. Can one hold, consistently with this common view of suffering, that there is an omniscient, omnipotent, perfectly good God? In this paper, I will argue that Aquinas's worldview and his theodicy constitute for us a powerful, detailed response to this question. This response gives us a morally sufficient reason for God to allow suffering, and it also explains why this reason is hard for us to see. Anecdotal evidence, reasoned reflection, and empirical research in psychology provide confirmation for it. Not everyone will be convinced by this confirmation, and there is plenty in Aquinas's worldview to dispute as well. But even so, the Thomistic response makes clear where we can and where we cannot profitably focus our disagreements.

Some Previous Lecturers:

Merton Lecture Endowment

Thanks to a generous gift from Mr. Hugh Kelly, Columbia College Class of 1926, Rev. Msgr. J. Christopher Maloney, Catholic Chaplain at Columbia, announced in the Fall of 1997 the establishment of the "Hugh J. and Catherine R. Kelly Endowment for the Thomas Merton Lecture at Columbia University." This special gift - along with other gifts from alumni and supporters of the Merton Lecture - will ensure a permanent place for this lecture as part of the work of the Catholic chaplaincy at Columbia. The alumni Board of the Father Ford Associates and the Chaplain continue to encourage other individuals to support this endowment with a pledge of at least $1,000. Anyone interested in learning more about this important project which supports the most prestigious annual religious lecture at Columbia is asked to contact the Catholic Office at Columbia.