Echoing Silence: Thomas Merton on the Vocation of Writing (Paperback)

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Key Phrases: spiritual calling, most reverend father, Echoing Silence, The Christian Writer, Modern World (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

“‘For me to be a saint means to be myself,’ wrote Thomas Merton. And for Merton, to be himself meant being not only a monk, but a writer as well. Few contemporary writers have pondered so deeply the idea of writing as a vocation. Fewer still have meditated on the complex interplay between writing and faith. In this marvelous collection of excerpts from Merton’s books, essays, journals, and letters, readers will discover how a vocation, if fully embraced, can lead to both joy for oneself and joy for the world."—James Martin, SJ, Associate Editor, America, author of My Life with the Saints

“Thomas Merton is one of the most widely read and influential authors of the twentieth century, yet no one was more conscious of the spiritual pitfalls that the writer may fall into or the limitations of language. Anyone drawn to the vocation of writing will be grateful to Robert Inchausti for gathering together in one volume what Merton has to say about being a writer.”—Jim Forest, author of Living with Wisdom: A Biography of Thomas Merton

Product Description

When Thomas Merton entered a Trappist monastery in December 1941, he turned his back on secular life—including a very promising literary career. He sent his journals, a novel-in-progess, and copies of all his poems to his mentor, Columbia professor Mark Van Doren, for safe keeping, fully expecting to write little, if anything, ever again.  It was a relatively short-lived resolution, for Merton almost immediately found himself being assigned writing tasks by his Abbot—one of which was the autobiographical essay that blossomed into his international best-seller The Seven Storey Mountain. That book made him famous overnight, and for a time he struggled with the notion that the vocation of the monk and the vocation of the writer were incompatible. Monasticism called for complete surrender to the absolute, whereas writing demanded a tactical withdrawal from experience in order to record it.  He eventually came to accept his dual vocation as two sides of the same spiritual coin and used it as a source of creative tension the rest of his life.  Merton’s thoughts on writing have never been compiled into a single volume until now. Robert Inchausti has mined the vast Merton literature to discover what he had to say on a whole spectrum of literary topics, including writing as a spiritual calling, the role of the Christian writer in a secular society, the joys and mysteries of poetry, and evaluations of his own literary work. Also included are fascinating glimpses of his take on a range of other writers, including Henry David Thoreau, Flannery O’Connor, Dylan Thomas, Albert Camus, James Joyce, and even Henry Miller, along with many others.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: New Seeds (February 13, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1590303482
• ISBN-13: 978-1590303481
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #488,853 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

42 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Art and Contemplative Spirituality, February 28, 2007

By	Paul Corrigan - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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A poignant collection of excerpts of Thomas Merton's writing, spanning his entire monastic writing career: from his journals, personal letters, essays, and books.

Thomas Merton, of course, is an internationally acclaimed and respected writer and contemplative. If you are interested in art (writing and poetry specifically) and contemplative spirituality, or simply interested in Thomas Merton, I highly recommend this book.

Before this book, beginners in the contemplative-artistic scene had to either read about Merton second hand (which is not as enriching as reading him directly) or dive into his mass of writing (which can be disorienting).

The chapters are arranged by topic: Writing as a Spiritual Calling, Poetry, Other Writers, His Own Writing, etc. Inside each chapter, the excerpts are arranged chronologically. The later Merton is deep and balanced--his material is to be chewed by the mature--but at the same time, the thoughts of early Merton are invaluable to young, contemplative-artists. This book represents both--providing, incidentally, a cross section of his personal growth.

This book is one to read all at once to get an overview of Merton (and the development of his thoughts), and then to hold on to for years, rereading small segments.

28 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Merton and vocation, May 15, 2007

By	John C. Marshell Jr. - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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"Only in His silence can the truth of words be distinguished" is only one of the many aphoristic gems to be found in this collection of Merton writings edited by Robert Inchausti. Overall, it is a fine collection, but unfortunately, it is only a collection. Merton's vocation as a writer was hardly an easy calling. "Echoing Silence" does reveal those difficulties, but without some biographical narrative or explanatory notes to accompany the selections, one is left to enjoy Merton's profound insights isolated from the larger context. If you are familiar with Merton, you can appreciate the texts dealing with his difficulties in creativity and inner truth, between "writer" and "poet," contemplative monk and world famous author, but if you are new to Merton, you will probably come away not fully appreciating the growth Merton went through in dealing with his internal conflicts and finding his "voice." His external conflicts are also represented here, but without some clarifications from Robert Inchausti, his difficulties with Dom Gabriel Sortais, one of Merton's censors, are lost. I do recommend the book as a good collection, but with reservations owing to its lack of background commentary or explanatory notes.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars MoreThan Just Writing, September 11, 2007

By	Tina Bell "NJ, USA" (Ramsey, NJ United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I treasure every Thomas Merton book I read. His simple, clear language,humility,and great piety draw one instantly into an appreciation his monastic life and his relationship to the world. He shows us how to encounter God's love in our own lives,and his book on writing makes clear that writing must come from the true self, the self as created by God. And he does this right in the middle of the world. To be a saint, Merton said, a man must first become himself. This also applies to writers who, if they are to accomplish the task of communicating, must communicate God.