Witness To Freedom: The Letters Of Thomas Merton In Times Of Crises [Paperback]

Thomas Merton (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 10, 1995 | Series: Harvest Book

The letters in this fifth and last volume of Merton's correspondence span four decades, but most were written during the late fities and early sixties, when Merton experienced two serious crises in his life. Selected, edited, and with an Introduction by William H. Shannon; Index.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Trappist monk, novelist, poet and social critic, Merton (1915-1968) oscillates between engagement and solitude, hope and despair, in these impassioned, searching letters. This fifth and final volume of his correspondence--all of which are edited by Shannon--reflects his commitment to nuclear disarmament, his immersion in Gandhi's philosophy of nonviolence, his growing ecological awareness and his quest for a political philosophy of freedom grounded in his Catholic faith. Merton critiques the United States as a "warfare state" in which the convergent interests of big business, the military and the wealthy dominate and dictate national policy. The content of his letters to ecologist Rachel Carson, folksinger Joan Baez, fellow poet-teacher Mark Van Doren, French-Arabic scholar Louis Massignon and Zen adept Masso Abe show the breadth of his pursuits.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Kirkus Reviews

Fifth, final, and least satisfying volume of Merton's prodigious correspondence (The Courage for Truth, 1993, etc.). Previous books in this series have presented Merton's letters on writing, spirituality, friendship, and love. This time the prime focus is war, a subject about which Merton, a cloistered Cistercian monk, has little original to say. Mostly composed in the years just before and after the Cuban missile crisis, and usually directed toward peace activists like James Forrest or Gordon Zahn, these letters offer predictable mutterings about the dangers of nuclear holocaust, tendentious attacks on American right-wingers, and cracker-barrel advice on the idiocy of fallout shelters (``Lots of shelters that have been built have caved in or filled with water, etc.''). Occasional forays into religious themes reveal him to be a poor prognosticator as well, as when he misreads Vatican II as a ``tightening of the screws.'' More intriguing are letters concerning a meeting in 1956 between Merton and psychoanalyst Gregory Zilboorg, who, in the words of editor Shannon, labeled Merton ``neurotic in his need to get his own way and pathological in his demand for solitude.'' This harsh evaluation, which Merton seems to accept (``Zilboorg has been terrific''), is bolstered by letters surrounding Merton's vocational crisis of 1959, in which he applies for permission to leave his monastery for a hermitage. When the request is denied by his superiors, Merton at first accepts the decision but soon begins to agitate; tensions run high until he is allowed to enter a hermitage in the 1960s. In this episode and others, Merton comes off as Peck's Bad Boy, endlessly provoking Vatican officials and siding with mischief-makers. Some compensation for all this ego-preening comes near the end, in correspondence with unidentified monks and nuns to whom Merton offers simple, solid spiritual advice (``be patient, pay attention to obedience and to grace, trust God...''). Merton as bore. Try The Seven Storey Mountain instead. -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Mariner Books; 1st THUS edition (November 10, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0156002744
• ISBN-13: 978-0156002745
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,534,294 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 Insights into the Person, February 26, 2010

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This review is from: Witness To Freedom: The Letters Of Thomas Merton In Times Of Crises (Paperback)

Given the censorship that existed within Thomas Merton's Cistercian religous order, there is only so much of the man that one can really get to know through the books he wrote. The same can be said for his journals, especially the later journals, which it is fair to assume he knew would most likely be published one day.

His letters are a different matter, however, because his correspondence was not subject to censorship. In this volume, as in the other volumes of his letters, we see Merton in three dimensions. We get a sense for the broadness of the man, both the depth and the breadth of his fund of knowledge, as well as a sense for how much he treasured his friendships and how deeply he loved.

If you have read Merton's writings but not explored his letters, I highly recommend this volume as a starting point. Through it your understanding of Thomas Merton will grow exponentially.