Category: Merton, Thomas
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Neologism: A Merton
A merton is a person who doesn't distinguish between studying a subject and writing a book about it. Cf. The Journals of Thomas Merton, vol. III, 136: "Thought of writing a book on Columbia under Spain . . ..") In his short life Merton published some 60 books, some of them good, some of…
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The Tragedy of Thomas Merton
A conservative critique by Michael Baker. It is well worth reading. Part I The discussion of self-absorption gave me serious pause. What is the typical blogger if not self-absorbed? Part II Some other Merton materials
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The Several-Storied Thomas Merton: Contemplative, Writer, Bohemian, Activist
An outstanding essay by Robert Royal on the many Mertons and their uneasy unity in one fleshly vehicle. There is of course Merton the Contemplative, the convert to Catholicism who, with the typical zeal of the convert, took it all the way to the austerities of Trappist monasticism, and that at a time (1941) when…
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An Old Entry on Thomas Merton
I wrote this on 4 July 1997: I'm reading volume 5 of T. Merton's journal. He's a flabby liberal both politically and theologically, but there is a good line here and there. "When will I learn to go without leaving footprints? Along way from that: I still love recognition . . . ." (p. 33)…
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Merton Quotes Evdokimov
Thomas Merton, Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander, p. 308: Evdokimov demands a virile ascesis, not simply gentlemanly retirement into leisure. The monk does not build his monastic city 'on the margin' of the world, but instead of it. [. . .] He frankly regards monastic chastity as a refusal to procreate and to continue the…
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Thomas Merton on Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche
I read the seventh and final volume of Thomas Merton's journals, The Other Side of the Mountain, in 1998 when it first appeared. I am currently re-reading it. It is once again proving to be page turner for one who has both a nostalgic and a scholarly interest in the far-off and fabulous '60s. But…
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Thomas Merton on Plato’s Phaedo
Thomas Merton, Journals, vol. 4, p. 57 (10 October 1960): The superb moral and positive beauty of the Phaedo. One does not have to agree with Plato, but one must hear him. Not to listen to such a voice is unpardonable, it is like not listening to conscience or nature. Absolutely right.