Thomas Merton: Selected Essays

by Patrick F. O'Connell, Patrick Hart (Foreword by)

Overview

Thomas Merton, the Trappist monk who died in 1968, was one of the greatest spiritual writers of the twentieth century. His published works include a hundred volumes in many genres. But it was perhaps in the essay form that Merton found his natural element. This volume is the first to provide a broad cross-section of Merton’s work as an essayist, collecting characteristic examples of his astonishing output and the range of his interests—from Faulkner and Zen to nuclear war and the contemplative life.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781626980235
Publisher:	Orbis Books
Publication date:	06/01/2013
Pages:	528
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.40(h) x 1.50(d)

About the Author

Patrick F. O’Connell is professor in the departments of English and theology at Cannon University, Erie, Pennsylvania. A founding member and former president of the International Thomas Merton Society, he edits The Merton Seasonal and is coauthor of The Thomas Merton Encyclopedia.

Table of Contents

Foreword Patrick Hart, OCSO vii

Introduction: Merton the Essayist ix

Selected Essays

1 The White Pebble 3

2 St. John of the Cross 15

3 Poetry and Contemplation: A Reappraisal 23

4 Boris Pasternak and the People with Watch Chains 39

5 "The Recovery of Paradise 52

6 Notes for a Philosophy of Solitude 65

7 Theology of Creativity 86

8 Christian Culture Needs Oriental Wisdom 102

9 A Letter to Pablo Antonio Cuadra concerning Giants 113

10 Peace: A Religious Responsibility 126

11 The Humanity of Christ in Monastic Prayer 150

12 Message to Poets 172

13 A Tribute to Gandhi 177

14 From Pilgrimage to Crusade 185

15 Religion and Race in the United States 205

16 Rain and the Rhinoceros 216

17 The Contemplative Life in the Modern World 225

18 Day of a Stranger 232

19 Symbolism: Communication or Communion? 240

20 The Other Side of Despair: Notes on Christian Existentialism 258

21 The Time of the End Is the Time of No Room 277

22 Blessed Are the Meek 284

23 Events and Pseudo-Events: Letter to a Southern Churchman 296

24 The Spiritual Father in the Desert Tradition 310

25 Is the World a Problem? 331

26 A Christian Looks at Zen 342

27 Terror and the Absurd: Violence and Nonviolence in Albert Camus 361

28 The Monastic Renewal: Problems and Prospects 382

29 "Baptism in the Forest": Wisdom and Initiation in William Faulkner 401

30 Ishi: A Meditation 426

31 Learning to Live 433

32 The Wild Places 442

33 Final Integration: Toward a "Monastic Therapy" 452

Appendix: Merton's Essays: A Chronology 463

Bibliography 478

Index 481

Editorial Reviews

What better way to celebrate a new pope than by reading everyone’s favorite writer-monk, Thomas Merton. Here, 33 of the famous Trappist’s essays (he wrote roughly 250 in his lifetime) are collected by O’Connell (English & theology, Gannon Univ.; coauthor, The Thomas Merton Encyclopedia) on a wide range of subjects, from Zen Buddism to Boris Pasternak, peace studies to poetry, and nuclear war to the nation’s overriding problems with racism. Made famous by his best-selling autobiography, The Seven Storey Mountain, which was published when Merton was 30, Merton’s poetry and essays made up the bulk of his later writing life. His persistent interest in interfaith dialog, Buddhist and Taoist philosophy, and questions of peace and war, as well as literature and Church history, are on full display here. This collection is the first take a comprehensive look at his body of work—both secular and spiritual; it’s a great primer for readers new to his writing or, at the very least, his essays.

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