The 9th Peace and Justice Scholar in Residence at Moravian College
Bethlehem, Pa., March 23, 2016— American Zen Buddhist Monk and author Claude Anshin Thomas is the 9th Peace and Justice Scholar in Residence at Moravian College. Thomas will present a talk, “Watering the Seeds of Peace: Facing Inequality, Violence, and War” at Moravian College on Tuesday, April 12 at 6:30 p.m. in Prosser Auditorium. The public is welcome to attend and admission is free of charge.
Thomas is a Vietnam War veteran, a fully ordained Zen Buddhist Monk in the Japanese Soto Zen Tradition, and author of At Hell’s Gate: A Soldier’s Journey from War to Peace. He leads programs around the United States and internationally to promote mindfulness, healing, and transformation. His writing has appeared in The Mindfulness Revolution and The Best Buddhist Writing.
Thomas has been politically and socially active participating in the efforts to end the Vietnam War, work for student rights, and address the issues of fellow veterans suffering from homelessness, suicide, divorce, and imprisonment. He is the founder of the Zaltho Foundation, which is a spiritually based non-profit committed to ending violence by promoting mindfulness and positive change within individuals. The foundation works with combat veterans, victims of war, sufferers of PTSD, and their families.
Thomas has participated in several walks to promote justice. He worked for peace in the Balkans where he participated in a Pilgrimage for Peace with the Venerable Brother Sasamori Shonin of the Nippozan Myohoji lineage of the Japanese Nichiren Order. In March 1998, he began a New York to California cross-country journey, called the American Zen Pilgrimage that was completed in July 1998. On this journey he practiced the ancient Buddhist tradition of takuhatsu or alms begging, where he relied on donations of food and shelter through the trek.
This year's Peace and Justice Scholar in Residence is co-sponsored by the Peace and Justice Studies Program at Moravian College, the Religion and Sociology Departments, the "Healthy Minds" student club, and IN FOCUS (Moravian’s year-long themed programming).
Past Peace and Justice Scholars in Residence at Moravian College include: renowned civil rights leader The Rev. James M. Lawson II; Chris Hedges a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, activist, and author; Congressman and Civil Rights Leader John Lewis; William Ayers, author, professor of Education and Senior University Scholar at the University of Illinois at Chicago; Pamela Brubaker, professor at Cal Lutheran University specializing in Christian social ethics, economic justice and feminist studies in religion; Darius Rejali, professor of Political Science at Reed College and award-winnng author; Vandana Shiva, philosopher, author and environmental activist; and Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer, author and activist for justice and hunger issues.
Moravian College encourages persons with disabilities to participate in its programs and activities. Anyone who anticipates needing any type of accommodation or who has questions about the physical access provided should Michael Wilson at 610-861-1365 or wilsonm@moravian.edu prior to visiting Moravian.
Moravian College is a private coeducational liberal arts college, offering undergraduate and graduate degrees, in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. For over 274 years, the Moravian College degree has been based on a liberal arts curriculum where literature, history, cultural values and global issues, ethics, and aesthetic expression and the social sciences are infused with multidisciplinary perspectives. Visit www.moravian.edu to learn more.