Merton & Hesychasm: The Prayer of the Heart & the Eastern Church (The Fons Vitae Thomas Merton series) [Paperback]

Gray Henry (Editor), Jonathan Montaldo (Editor), Bernadette Dieker (Foreword)

Book Description

Series: The Fons Vitae Thomas Merton series | Publication Date: January 1, 2003

This profound work introduces the West to Eastern Christian spirituality through the lens of Thomas Merton, as practiced from the time of the Desert Fathers. Contributors to this volume present the riches of Christian contemplative methods and experience dating back to their original Christian source.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Jonathan Montaldo is president of the International Thomas Merton Society and the Immediate past director of the Thomas Merton Center at Bellarmine University. A former Jesuit seminarian, Montaldo studied Merton at a graduate level and has published extensively on him. Montaldo is co-editor with Brother Patrick Hart (a monk at the Abbey of Gethsemani) of The Intimate Merton and is sole editor of the second volume of the Thomas Merton Journals, published by HarperSanFrancisco. Other forthcoming works include Dialogues with Silence: Thomas Merton's Prayers & Drawings.

Product Details

• Paperback: 507 pages
• Publisher: Fons Vitae (January 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1887752455
• ISBN-13: 978-1887752459
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,401,279 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I have been reading Thomas Merton since I was thirteen, now for over fifty-six years. I wrote a Masters Thesis in theology and literature at Emory University in 1974, a study of Merton's autobiography entitled "Toward the Only Read City in America: Paradise and Utopia in the Autobiography of Thomas Merton". As I look back, my life has been rich with different experiences: a Jesuit seminarian in the New Orleans Province; service in Vietnam and Italy in the Navy; teaching high school; working for the government; founding and growing a ten-store retail operation with two partners (still going); and then formal work with Thomas Merton's legacy since 1988 that included being the director of the Thomas Merton Center at Bellarmine University in Louisville, Kentucky; a term as President of the International Thomas Merton Society; and administering a small retreat house, Bethany Spring, one mile away from Merton's Abbey of Gethsemani in Trappist, Kentucky, where I presented retreats on many topics but most were based on the ten-booklet series for small-group dialogue that I created entitled "Bridges to Contemplative Living with Thomas Merton". My favorites among the many editions I produced of Merton's writing include "The Intimate Merton", "Dialogues with Silence", "A Year with Thomas Merton", and "Choosing to Love the World: Thomas Merton on Contemplation". "Bridges to Contemplative Living with Thomas Merton" is perhaps the best work that I've done to bring Merton's teachings on "contemplative living" to a wide audience. "Bridges" is perhaps my most useful contribution to Thomas Merton's legacy.

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A gem for deeper prayer life, March 24, 2005

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matt (the reading room) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Merton & Hesychasm: The Prayer of the Heart & the Eastern Church (The Fons Vitae Thomas Merton series) (Paperback)

This is one of the best books for those seeking a deeper understanding of the Eastern Orthodox approach to reality, the Holy Trinity, and themselves, along with the strong connection to the life and writings of Thomas Merton. The contributors to this fine collection include Bishop Kallistos Ware, James Cutsinger, A.M. Allchin, Rowan Williams and many many other fine writers on the spiritual life. In fact, "The Power of the Name", the not too easy to find introduction to the Jesus Prayer by Bishop Kallistos Ware, is included as a chapter, alone worth the modest price of this thick book.

This is also an excellent introduction to Thomas Merton and his connection to the fathers from the East.

This is one of the best books on the subject around! Amazingly detailed.

Contents of some of the chapters:
1. How do we enter the heart? Kallistos Ware
2. Silence in prayer: the meaning of hesychia Ware
3. The power of the Name Ware
4. The Ladder of divine ascent: the yoga of hesychism Custinger
5. A sufic perspec6tive on St. Seraphim of Sarov Gary Henry
6. Merton and the eastern fathers: the worship of the whole creation Allchin
7. Our lives, a powerful Pentecost: Merton and Russian spirituality Allchin
8. Merton and the Xpian East
9. Merton and Icons Jim Forest
10. Merton and Evdokimov

PLUS 21 other chapters, all of strong erudition and scholarship. Very nourishing for mind and soul.