Bo Bonner, MDiv
Senior Advisor, Mission Initiatives
Director of the Center for Human Flourishing
Assistant Professor
(515) 643-6736
BBonner@mercydesmoines.org

Office Location
SC - 117

Mailing Address

Mercy College of Health Sciences
928 6th Avenue
Des Moines, IA 50309

Year Started at Mercy College: 2016

  • Department: Mission

Education

  • M.Div., Theology, Duke Divinity School (2006)
  • BA, Philosophy, Oklahoma State University (2003)

Courses Regularly Taught

  • SVL 285 Servant Leadership

Certifications

Mandatum for Teaching Catholic Theology, Bishop Michael Jackels, December 2011

Research Interests and Professional Projects

  • The Interior Life and the Modern World
  • Prayer, Liturgy, Silence, and the Life of the Mind (and the effect of technology on all these)
  • The Philosophy and Theology of Reading
  • Virtue Ethics
  • The Great Books approach to the Humanities

Recent Publications/Presentations

  • “Chewing On God: Lectio Divina and the Life of Prayer,” Parish Renewal Talk, St. Elizabeth Anne Seaton Parish, Wichita, KS (August 26th, 2015)
  • “The Holy Family at St. Joseph’s Deathbed: Why A Convert Found the Catholic Teaching on Death Appealing,” 7th Renewed and Empowered in the Holy Spirit Conference, All Saints Parish, Wichita, KS (August 22nd, 2015)”
  • “Presentations Regarding the History of Catholic Art,” Midwest Catholic Family Conference (August 8th-9th, 2015)
  • “The Catholic Intellectual Tradition: Reprise,” CIT/NSP Summer Symposium, Newman University,(August 3rd, 2015)
  • “Tolkien and the Unsurpassable Music of Creation,” Breakout session, 1st Annual Inklings Festival, Eighth Day Institute, Wichita, KS (July 18th, 2015)
  • “Wisdom and the Unknown: Framing Questions over Providing Answers in Dogmatic Traditions,” Tulsa University (February 2nd, 2015)
  • “Dinner With The Doctors: St. Thomas Aquinas,” Spiritual Life Center, Wichita, KS (January 28th, 2015)
  • “Purifying the Passions through Wonder: Why Children Should Read Homer and Virgil,” Breakout Session, 5th Annual Eighth Day Symposium (January 17th, 2015)

Advice to Students

“Man is constituted so that when he knows himself he excels all other things; but when he forgets who he is, he becomes worse than the beasts.” – Boethius

“He was not a bad genealogist who said that Iris (the messenger of heaven) is the child of Thaumas (wonder).” – Socrates

“The Catholic Church is the only thing which protects us from the degrading servitude of being a child of your time.” – Chesterton

“Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.” – Our Lord, Jesus Christ

Personal History

Bo Bonner has been involved in the Catholic teaching ministry (primarily Philosophy and Theology) since he converted in the midst of Protestant Seminary at Duke Divinity school in 2006. He is also a Benedictine Oblate at Our Lady of Clear Creek Monastery in Oklahoma. He has been married for over a decade to his wife Robyn, and so far has four children: Elias, Stella, Antonia, and Finnian. Bo was born on the feast of St. Blaise, the patron of throats, and has not stopped talking ever since.