Associate Professor
Office: Alumni Hall 106
Phone: 502.272.7800
Twitter: @gregorykhillis
ghillis@bellarmine.edu
Rocky Mountain College, B.A.; University of Waterloo, B.A.; McMaster University, M.A., Ph.D.
Gregory K. Hillis joined Bellarmine University’s faculty in the department of theology in 2008. His doctoral research was on early Christian theology, with a particular focus on St. Cyril of Alexandria, and he has published a number of academic articles on Cyril’s theology. He also wrote the introduction to a new translation of Cyril’s Glaphyra published in 2018 by Catholic University of America Press. In recent years, he’s turned his attention to the life and writings of Thomas Merton, the famous Trappist monk from Kentucky whose literary estate is housed at the Merton Center here at Bellarmine. In addition to teaching a popular undergraduate course on Merton, Dr. Hillis has written both academic articles and popular articles on his life and thought. He has also delivered lectures around the United States on Merton’s theology. He is currently working on a book on Thomas Merton’s understanding of Catholicism for Liturgical Press, due to come out in 2021. Dr. Hillis loves baseball almost more than life itself, and hopes soon to develop an undergraduate course on the theology of baseball. In 2019, Dr. Hillis won the Wilson W. Wyatt Faculty Fellowship for excellence in teaching and scholarship at Bellarmine University.
Recent Publications
Academic Writing
- “Introduction” for St Cyril of Alexandria, Glaphyra on the Pentateuch – Volume 1: Genesis, Nicholas Lunn, trans. (Washington: Catholic University of America Press, 2018), pages 3-36.
- “‘We are Both Christ’: Learning from Merton the Correspondent How to be a Friend” in What I am Living For: Seven Lessons from the Life and Writings of Thomas Merton, Jon Sweeney, ed. (South Bend, IN: Ave Maria Press, 2018), pages 43-56.
- “Satan,” in A Pope Francis Lexicon, Cindy Wooden and Joshua McElwee, eds. (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2018), pages 167-170.
Non-Academic Writing
- ”A convert’s journey with St. John Henry Newman,” America Magazine, 16 October 2019.
- “Why Thomas Merton’s Example is Worth Your Attention,” Grotto (online magazine published by the University of Notre Dame), 15 October 2019.
- “A Sign of Contradiction: Remembering Fr. August Thompson,” Commonweal, October 2019, pages 29-31.“Model of the Church,” America Magazine, 13 May 2019, pages 44-45.
- “Model of the Church,” America Magazine, 13 May 2019, pages 44-45.
- “Thomas Merton, the problem of war and the character of Christian nonviolence,” Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Religion and Ethics, 29 January 2019.
- “A Gift, Not a Guilt Trip: Jesus’ Baptism According to St. Cyril,” Commonweal, 12 January 2019.
- “What life is like outside the cloister,” America Magazine, 28 December 2018.
- “A Trappist monk tells of a life worth living,” America Magazine, 5 July 2018.
- “Is ‘dialogue’ just an empty buzzword for Christians?” America Magazine, 2 April 2018.“Quit Trying to ‘Fix’ Baseball,” Commonweal, 28 March 2018.
- “A Burial at Gethsemani,” Commonweal, 9 February 2018, page 39.
- “Bringing Thomas Merton's wisdom to children with an ABC book,” America Magazine, 11 September 2017.
- “Pope Francis’ comments on liturgy need to be heard by traditionalists and reformers alike,” America Magazine, 28 August 2017.
- “What my Catholic son has learned from the Boy Scouts—and what President Trump misses,” America Magazine, 25 July 2017.
- “Louisville offers a model of real dialogue about ‘Amoris Laetitia,’” Crux, 29 September 2016 (co-written with Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz of Louisville).
- “Communion of Love: Thomas Merton and Liturgical Reform,” Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Religion and Ethics, 14 September 2016.
Recent Interviews
- “Gregory Hillis on the Legacy of Thomas Merton,” Forma Podcast (3 June 2019).
- “Merton, Monasticism, and Marxism, Oh My! With Greg Hillis,” The Magnificast Podcast (5 April 2019).
- “Thomas Merton’s Legacy,” Ethics Forward, a show on Forward Radio, WFMP-LP 106.5 FM (25 December 2017).
- “Dr. Gregory Hillis talks about 4th and Walnut,” Interview for The Pineapple: The Podcast for the Bellarmine University Magazine (30 October 2017).
- “Greg Hillis,” Daily Theology Podcast (30 November 2017).
- “Why We Need Silence & Thomas Merton,” Fountains of Carrots Podcast (19 April 2016).