Passion for Peace: Reflections on War and Nonviolence [Abridged] [Paperback]

Thomas Merton (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 4, 2006

Violence, war, and terrorism fill our televisions, newspapers, and websites. To meet the great need for nonviolent wisdom in the tradition of Martin Luther King Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi, Crossroad presents this new and reedited version of Thomas Merton’s Passion for Peace. The book, never before available in an attractive trade edition, presents Merton’s most important insights into themes such as the nature of violence, armed conflict, Christian responsibility, and the individual in the state.

Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: The Crossroad Publishing Company; Abridged edition (August 4, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0824524152
• ISBN-13: 978-0824524159
• Product Dimensions: 7.3 x 5.1 x 0.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #566,223 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.