By: Mary Ringwald
Dr. Gregory Hillis, a native of Canada, is a well-loved theology professor who joined the Bellarmine faculty in 2008 after earning his doctorate. at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada. He teaches a variety of theology courses, including The Life and Thought of Thomas Merton and Ultimate Questions.
When he is not writing his new book about Merton or teaching, you can catch him at a Louisville Slugger baseball game, studying Merton’s journals or hiking in the beautiful country near the Abbey of Gethsemani.
Q: What was your professional journey like before you reached Bellarmine?
A: “I finished my Ph.D. in Canada at McMaster University, which is in Hamilton, Ontario, near Toronto. I was looking for jobs, and as I was finishing my dissertation, I saw a job at Bellarmine. I knew all about Bellarmine because of its connection to Thomas Merton. I applied for a bunch of different jobs, but the one at BU was the only one I wanted to get, and I actually wrote about in my journal. I applied, I got an interview, and it was then that I let slip that I have a tattoo of a drawing of a monk that Merton did on my shoulder. I think that probably helped me get the job, so that is how I made my way down here.”
Q: What do you specialize in on campus?
A: “I am a specialist in early Christianity, and as I have spent more time here, I have devoted more time to reading, studying and teaching Merton.”
Q: Do you have a favorite place in the state of Kentucky that you enjoy going to?
A: “My family and I frequently go down to the Abbey of Gethsemani in Trappist, Kentucky, to go hiking, and they have these hills called knobs. It is very lush and beautiful. We also go to Bernheim Forest in Clermont, Kentucky, which is near the abbey as well. That whole area is really nice.”
Q: What is you favorite place in Louisville?
A: “Louisville Slugger Field because I really think it is a beautiful little stadium. I go there regularly with my kids and sometimes I will even go alone. I just like being there for a game in the evenings, and I find it really relaxing. That place in the summer holds a lot of good memories for me.”
Q: What is your favorite baseball team?
A: “The Toronto Blue Jays have always been my favorite.”
Q: How did you start loving baseball?
A: “My mom being American meant that we watched a lot of baseball, and I got really interested in it. When I was in high school in Canada, the Toronto Blue Jays won the World Series, and I started watching even more. When I got into college, I started going to live AAA games, and I could not believe how relaxing and enjoyable I found it.”
Q: You have probably heard the phrase, “Baseball is a religion”, what are your thoughts on that phrase from a theological perspective?
A: “Well, I think that baseball has a lot of theological ideas built into it. It is not an end-to-end sport, and it is a sport that is contained in a diamond. There is a sort of eternity built into it where you have to help one another attain to some level of home. I mean you have to get home in a baseball game, right? I also think it is a contemplative sport.”
Q: How did you become so enamored with Merton?
A: “I read him when I was 23, and I did not know what I was going to do with my life. I read The Seven Storey Mountain, which is a story about someone who did not know what he was going to do with his life and found resolution. I took a lot of comfort in the way that he found resolution in his life, and I hoped that I would find that as well. From then on, I just read everything on Merton that I could.”
Q: Do you have a favorite Thomas Merton book?
A: “I like Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander. It’s a weird book, and it’s intentionally disjointed, but it really contains everything you need to know about Merton.”
Q: Besides Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander, what book would you recommend to students?
A: “I would have them read the edited collection of his journals. It’s called The Intimate Merton, and I think he is most honest and interesting in his journals.”
Q: You have mentioned that you are writing a book about Thomas Merton. What is it going to be about?
A: “It is about Thomas Merton as a Roman Catholic. He is somewhat of a controversial figure in Roman Catholicism due to his stance on war and the role he played with interreligious dialogue. Some Catholics have found him controversial because they do not like the kind of dialogue that he was involved in, and some people who really like him, but are not very religious, sort of disregard his Catholicism. The book is really about how Merton was shaped by the Roman Catholic tradition through how he lived as a monk and as a priest, what sources he found to be most important and through what he contributed to the Catholic tradition. It sort of comes out of how Pope Francis referred to him as somebody that we should emulate in the United States as a man of dialogue. I am trying to demonstrate why the Pope would point to him as a Catholic that we should emulate.”
Q: You have recently started writing it so when will do you think it will be published?
A: “My due date is the end of June 2019, and that is when the manuscript has to go to the publisher.”
Q: All in all, what does it mean to you to be a professor at Bellarmine University?
A: “I love it. For me, I love the small class sizes. I like the fact that we can get discussion going, but also I love that Bellarmine allows me to teach the things that I am interested in. Because of that, I am able to have students also be passionate about what I am passionate about. In other words, even if they are not interested in it, they can at least see that I am interested in it and can recognize that there is something to it that they may want to study. It means a lot to me to be here at Bellarmine and to be doing the things I am doing with Merton. I could not imagine a better place for me.”