Pictured, from left, are Abbot Edmund Power OSB, abbot emeritus of the Abbey of Saint Paul Outside the Walls, Rome, and professor emeritus of sacred theology at Sant’Anselmo; Fr. Bernard Denson OSB (Saint Bernard Abbey, USA); Fr. David Foster OSB, professor of philosophy at Sant’Anselmo (Downside Abbey, UK); Fr. Eduardo Lopez-Tello Garcia OSB, Dean of the Faculty of Theology, (Archabbey of Sankt Ottilien, Germany).

On Friday at the Benedictine Order’s Pontifical University of Sant’Anselmo in Rome, Fr. Bernard J. Denson O.S.B., a monk of St. Bernard Abbey, successfully defended his thesis entitled “The Presence of Christ in the Thought and Aesthetic of Percy Bysshe Shelley.”

He earned the canonical degree of Licentiate in Sacred Theology, with specialization in the History of Theology. He completed his degree with the distinction, “summa cum laude.”

Shelley, who was a major poet of British Romanticism, was known for his atheism. Fr. Bernard’s work strives to demonstrate the importance of theology’s interdisciplinary dialogue with the arts in order to gain a greater understanding of the history and significance of both.

Fr. Bernard has already begun the program for his doctorate in sacred theology in the same specialization.