Cold War Letters [Paperback]

Thomas Merton (Author), Christine M. Bochen (Editor), William H. Shannon (Editor)

Product Details

• Paperback: 206 pages
• Publisher: Orbis Books (December 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1570756627
• ISBN-13: 978-1570756627
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #946,103 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Thomas Merton (1915-1968) is arguably the most influential American Catholic author of the twentieth century. His autobiography, The Seven Storey Mountain, has millions of copies and has been translated into over fifteen languages. He wrote over sixty other books and hundreds of poems and articles on topics ranging from monastic spirituality to civil rights, nonviolence, and the nuclear arms race.

After a rambunctious youth and adolescence, Merton converted to Roman Catholicism and entered the Abbey of Gethsemani, a community of monks belonging to the Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance (Trappists), the most ascetic Roman Catholic monastic order.

The twenty-seven years he spent in Gethsemani brought about profound changes in his self-understanding. This ongoing conversion impelled him into the political arena, where he became, according to Daniel Berrigan, the conscience of the peace movement of the 1960's. Referring to race and peace as the two most urgent issues of our time, Merton was a strong supporter of the nonviolent civil rights movement, which he called "certainly the greatest example of Christian faith in action in the social history of the United States." For his social activism Merton endured severe criticism, from Catholics and non-Catholics alike, who assailed his political writings as unbecoming of a monk.

During his last years, he became deeply interested in Asian religions, particularly Zen Buddhism, and in promoting East-West dialogue. After several meetings with Merton during the American monk's trip to the Far East in 1968, the Dali Lama praised him as having a more profound understanding of Buddhism than any other Christian he had known. It was during this trip to a conference on East-West monastic dialogue that Merton died, in Bangkok on December 10, 1968, the victim of an accidental electrocution. The date marked the twenty-seventh anniversary of his entrance to Gethsemani.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Like a truly prophetic Biblical voice, Father Merton calls us back to God more powerfully now than forty five years ago., January 30, 2007

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C. Scanlon "least helpful reviewer" (among us humans) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Cold War Letters (Paperback)

Originally this was intended by Father Merton over forty five years ago to be a collection for private circulation only of his private letters written around the time of the Nuclear Missile Crisis and Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) nuclear policy, gathered in one quarter this amount. At that time Father Merton was absurdly under orders from the Trappist office in Rome not to write about war and peace, as beneath the concerns of a monk, as his writings were incompetently read by a non-English speaking secretary to the Trappist primate. In the absence of that secretary a more competent reader was called in who declared Father Merton's submissions for review for publication "pure Gospel." Pacem in Terris was at that time still on the papal writing desk, inspired by Father Merton's own suppressed writing. I fully expect this my present review to be absurdly suppressed by uncomprehending yet vocal forces who hate peace and the Catholic Church. Read it while you may, and please buy this new book.

Now this once private collection blossoms in this recent public presentation by the blessed and courageously prophetic Catholic publisher Orbis Books to three times its original length which includes other letters of that time upon the same topic, and rings as loudly now a clarion cry in the barren war torn desert as it did then, as prophetically and true and essential for our human destiny as ever. If anything in this present militarized age we need to read it now more than ever, and remember our former ideals, morality, ethics and human right to peace. As we witness this current dynastic administration in Washington give itself the exclusive decision making power to warfare, and beat nuclear drums to engage North Korea and Iran, etc., we must remember the threat which is ever in our face, a threat which now more than ever threatens the existence of ourselves as a race, and indeed of all of God's Holy Creation.

This new collection courageously published last year by the great Catholic Publishing House Orbis Books begins with a new Foreword, a new Preface and a new introduction. Most invaluably, it prints the original private preface by Father Merton serving as apologia, humbling explaining himself and his strong expressions in these letters for peace, sanity and Christian ethics. Father Merton could be writing today the exact same thing, although even more urgently, had he not been killed in 1968 to prevent his further preaching for peace. Orbis closes the collection with brief bios of each of the letters' recipients, some very familiar to any American Catholic, such as our heroes of the faith Dorothy Day and Catherine De Hueck, or Ethel Kennedy, or Frank Sheed, or Gordon Zahn, while others may have been forgotten in the long passage of time since these letters were written. In particular consider the letter to Muslim mystic Abdul Aziz recommending Saint Basil and responding to al Hujswiri, within today's context.

In Father Merton's Preface, he found it necessary first to emphasize that "The author is not, never was and never will be a Communist" and "detests every type of totalitarian coercion (. . .)" He expresses his "contempt for those who use power to distort the truth or to silence it altogether." We cannot help but think of current administrative policy.

He further states: "The writer is a Catholic, devoted to his Church, to his faith, and to his vocation." Indeed, witnessing Merton's full commitment to the Cistercians, no one can question this axiom. Yet, Father Merton found it necessary to respond to those who found it blessed to urge the nuclear bombing of Moscow (and he foreshadows our great American Catholic Moral Theologian Father Charles Curran in humbling explaining his dissent from certain fallible statements of individual members of the then American hierarchy who called for killing commies for Christ) by basing his cry for peace upon the essence of Christianity right up to the then still recent statements of Popes Pius XXII and Pope John XXIII. He also quotes, to support his right to speak these words, a contemporary (1962) Lenten Pastoral appeal by Cardinal Meyer of Chicago: "If we adopt a policy of hatred, of liquidation of those who oppose us, of unrestrained use of total war, of a spirit of fear and panic, of exaggerated propaganda, of unconditional surrender, or pure nationalism, we have already been overcome by the evil." These words could be, should be, resounding today, as also the Pastoral Letter The Challenge of Peace, the Papal Encyclical Pacem in Terris, etc., etc.

Do you not hear as necessary in these our present times these halting words of Merton, explaining why he has written?

"In actual fact it would seem that during the Cold War, if not during World War II, this country has become frankly a warfare state built on affluence, a power structure in which the interests of big business, the obsessions of the military, and the phobias of political extremists both dominate and dictate our national policy. It also seems that the people of the country are by and large reduced to passivity, confusion, resentment, frustration, thoughtlessness, and ignorance so that they blindly follow any line that is unraveled by the mass media." He goes on to point out the present propaganda we hear that our cause is what is now called to "punish the wrongdoers" by showing how we divide the world into black and white to such a degree that we believe that "we have a divinely given mission to destroy this hellish monster and any steps we take to do so are innocent and even holy." This rings true today in our present warfare, and the fallacious nature of this is courageously revealed by Father Merton's call for peace and ethics.

Let me end with one final quote before you go on to purchase this useful and strong and ever more necessary book. Merton notes "It is a curious fact that those who insist that the only way to peace is the hard nosed and stiff necked way of missile rattling and nuclear threats are developing a mentality that is insensitive to the realities of nuclear war and indifferent to the missiles and menaces of the enemy. Indeed it is counted bravery and patriotism to ignore the realities of the situation or to shrug them off . . ."

Please purchase this substantial study for peace. Please awaken to all the possibilities for peace, and please work very hard in every way and in every place for peace. Thou shalt not kill. Love thy neighbor, and do good to those who harm thee. Do unto others what you want them to do for you! Love thy enemy and do good to those who harm you.

5.0 out of 5 stars Thomas Merton on the madness of MAD, September 8, 2009

By 

Chris_NDUVA (Michigan, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cold War Letters (Paperback)

I can't do much to add to the excellent review that's already been written, but I second the sentiments.

Written during the height of MAD, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and Dr. Strangelove, this collection of letters was initially mimeographed and circulated among the nonviolence movement like the samisdat of Soviet dissidents, because Fr. Merton was forbidden by his religious superiors to publish anything dealing with issues of war and peace. Luckily, they are mass published now, since his words are just as relevant in this era of weapons of mass destruction. Merton excoriates the Manichean mentality of the Cold Warriors and, in doing so, provides a vision of peace and understanding that transcends (but also respects) individual differences. It is a valuable antidote to the Manicheism that we breathe in our air every day.