Download or read book On Thomas Merton written by Mary Gordon and published by Shambhala Publications. This book was released on 2020-01-07 with total page 156 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the best-selling novelist and memoirist: a deeply personal view of her discovery of the celebrated modern monk and thinker through his writings. “If Thomas Merton had been a writer and not a monk, we would never have heard of him. If Thomas Merton had been a monk and not a writer, we would never have heard of him.” So begins acclaimed author Mary Gordon in this probing, candid exploration of the man who became the face and voice of mid-twentieth-century American Catholicism. Approaching Merton “writer to writer,” Gordon illuminates his life and work through his letters, journals, autobiography, and fiction. Pope Francis has celebrated Merton as “a man of dialogue,” and here Gordon shows that the dialogue was as much internal as external—an unending conversation, and at times a heated conflict, between Merton the monk and Merton the writer. Rich with excerpts from Merton’s own writing, On Thomas Merton produces an intimate portrait of a man who “lived life in all its imperfectability, reaching toward it in exaltation, pulling back in anguish, but insisting on the primacy of his praise as a man of God.”

Download or read book Make Peace before the Sun Goes Down written by Roger Lipsey and published by Shambhala Publications. This book was released on 2015-05-19 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the 1950s and ’60s, Thomas Merton, a monk of the Trappist monastery of Gethsemani in Kentucky, published a string of books that are among the most influential spiritual books of the twentieth century—including the mega–best seller The Seven-Storey Mountain. He was something of a rock star for a cloistered monk, and from his monastic cell he enjoyed a wide and lively correspondence with people from the worlds of religion, literature, and politics. During that period he also explored and wrote extensively on Buddhism, Sufism, art, and social action. The man to whom he owed obedience in the cloistered life was a much more traditional Catholic, his abbot, Dom James Fox. To say that these two men had a conflicted relationship would be an understatement, but the tension their differences in orientation brought actually led to creative results on both sides and to a kind of hard-won respect and love. Roger Lipsey’s portrait of this unusual relationship is compelling and moving; it shows Merton in the years his imagination was taking him far beyond the walls of the monastery, and eventually, literally to Asia.

Download or read book Engaging Thomas Merton written by Horan, OFM, Daniel P. and published by Orbis Books. This book was released on 2023-11-10 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Monastic Way written by Hannah Ward and published by Canterbury Press. This book was released on 2013-01-25 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A book of daily readings drawn from the writings of those who have lived the monastic life in all the major spiritual traditions of the Eastern and Western Churches: Benedictine, Franciscan, Orthodox, Carmelite, and others. For each month there is a specific theme: Starting Out, Seeking Guidance, Living With Others, Balancing Life and so on, through the year. Each theme is introduced by quotations from one of the great monastic Rules, and for each day of the year there is an excerpt from the writings of a huge variety of men and women stretching across the centuries, from 5th century Desert Mothers to Basil Hume, Joan Chittister, Thomas Merton and many more familiar and new names. This is a book for all who are looking to an ancient, rooted wisdom for practical guidance on living in the world today.

Download or read book Heretic Blood written by Michael W. Higgins and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2016-10-31 with total page 331 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Thirty years after his death, we are finally catching up to Thomas Merton as one of the greatest spiritual figures of the twentieth century. The genius and spirituality of this unusual man could not be contained in his life as a monk but spilled over richly into his life and work as a poet, critic, rebel, sage, and even artist and photographer. Merton was aware that he had heretic blood within him, and it soon became apparent to the world. The balding French-English intellectual living as a Trappist monk at Our Lady of Gethsemani Abbey in Kentucky took a vow of silence, yet corresponded with and befriended such luminaries as Joan Baez, Jacques Maritain, John Howard Griffin, Martin Luther King Jr., Erich Fromm, and Boris Pasternak. His famous autobiography, The Seven Storey Mountain, captured the imagination of a generation, selling more than six hundred thousand copies in its first year. Merton also took a vow of obedience, yet feuded constantly with his second abbot. As a monk he promised to remain celibate, yet he found himself passionately in love with a nurse he met while in hospital in Louisville, Kentucky. And at the end of his life, Merton, a monk within the western Roman Catholic tradition, was moving closer and closer to Eastern spirituality. This brilliant new book is the first to use recently released diary entries and correspondence by Merton and includes new insights about the recently published diary of his episode of the heart. Higgins compares Merton with William Blake, the monk's intellectual and spiritual hero, and comes to startling conclusions about the emotional and intellectual passions that drove Thomas Merton, a man and thinker for all seasons.

Download or read book The Way and the Mountain written by Marco Pallis and published by World Wisdom, Inc. This book was released on 2008 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Way and the Mountain is a selection of Marco Pallis' most important writings on Tibetan Buddhism. Pallis traveled extensively in the Himalayas and studied Buddhism from Lamas within the tradition before the communist invasion of Tibet in 1949.

Download or read book Thomas Merton and the New World written by Paul R. Dekar and published by BoD – Books on Demand. This book was released on 2023-01-01 with total page 190 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ‘Merton still matters’, writes Paul R. Dekar about Cistercian monk Thomas Merton. Calling people to act justly, love kindness and walk humbly, Merton used his contemplative practice to see beyond what disrupts and divides us from one another to find the truth of our common humanity - unity in our creation in the image of God. In Thomas Merton and the New World, Dekar focuses primarily on two issues of concern to our current world. First, he studies Merton’s warnings of the abuse that stems from unmindful and irresponsible use of technology, and its ecological devastation. Second, he examines Merton’s thinking on racial injustice in the mid-1960s through his correspondence with his allies and contemporaries - James Baldwin, for example. Using Micah 6:8 to arrange Merton’s focus on justice, lovingkindness, and humility, with input from Merton’s dialogue with Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Rachel Carson and others, Dekar demonstrates just how prophetic and transferable Merton’s teachings remain.

Download or read book Thomas Merton God s Messenger on the Road towards a New World written by Paul R. Dekar and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2021-06-02 with total page 186 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Thomas Merton: God’s Messenger on the Road towards a New World highlights the contribution of the best-selling North American writer between the Second World War and 1968. The Cistercian monk called people to act justly, love kindness, and walk humbly. By his critique of technology, a major impediment for people to follow Jesus; by his writing on contemplative prayer; by his interfaith outreach; and through his witness against racism, war, and degradation of nature, Merton still matters. This book uses Micah 6:8 to organize Merton’s focus on justice, lovingkindness, and humility, as well as his dialogue with Rachel Carson, Ernesto Cardinal, Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., Thich Nhat Hahn, and others.

Download or read book Prayer written by David Marshall and published by Georgetown University Press. This book was released on 2013-12-12 with total page 229 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Prayer: Christian and Muslim Perspectives is a rich collection of essays, scriptural texts, and personal reflections featuring leading scholars analyzing the meaning and function of prayer within their traditions. Drawn from the 2011 Building Bridges seminar in Doha, Qatar, the essays in this volume explore the devotional practices of each tradition and how these practices are taught and learned. Relevant texts are included, with commentary, as are personal reflections on prayer by each of the seminar participants. The volume also contains a Christian reflection on Islamic prayer and a Muslim reflection on Christian prayer. An extensive account of the informal conversations at the seminar conveys a vivid sense of the lively, penetrating, but respectful dialogue that took place.

Download or read book Church Liberation and World Religions written by Mario I. Aguilar and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2012-11-02 with total page 177 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This work proposes a theological investigation of the community of the Church as outlined by liberation theology and a possible conversation with liberation from suffering in Tibetan Buddhism. What unites both is the human process of sublimation for others, whereby liberation theologians as well as enlightened lamas give the best of themselves for the liberation of others. At this stage of discussions between inclusivists and exclusivists this work proposes that dialogue with world religions and therefore with Buddhism is not about finding possible dogmatic similarities but a common place, a common purpose through a common humanity.

Download or read book Thomas Merton in California written by David M. Odorisio and published by Liturgical Press. This book was released on 2024-02-03 with total page 442 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Previously unpublished material from world-renowned Trappist monk and author, Thomas Merton, featuring the final conference talks given in the United States before his untimely death. In May and October of 1968, Thomas Merton offered two extended conferences at Our Lady of the Redwoods Abbey, a Cistercian women’s community in Northern California. Comprising over twenty-six hours of previously unpublished material, Thomas Merton in California covers a variety of topics including ecology and consciousness, yoga and Hinduism, Native American ritual and rites of passage, Sufi spirituality, and inter-religious dialogue, along with extended discussions on prayer and the contemplative life. The material presented in these talks reveals Merton’s wide-ranging intellectual and spiritual pursuits in the final year of his life, and fills a long-standing lacuna around Merton's visits to Redwoods Monastery, forming a necessary bridge to the Asian journey that was to come. Practical and applicable, as well as searching and inspired, Thomas Merton in California is essential for Merton readers and scholars, and all those interested in deepening their spiritual lives.

Download or read book Pursuing the Spiritual Roots of Protest written by Gordon Oyer and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2014-02-28 with total page 299 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 2015 Thomas Merton "Louie" award winner for a publication that provides "fresh direction and provocative insight to Merton Studies," presented by the International Thomas Merton Society. In the fall of 1964, Trappist monk Thomas Merton prepared to host an unprecedented gathering of peace activists. "About all we have is a great need for roots," he observed, "but to know this is already something." His remark anticipated their agenda--a search for spiritual roots to nurture sound motives for "protest." This event's originality lay in the varied religious commitments present. Convened in an era of well-kept faith boundaries, members of Catholic (lay and clergy), mainline Protestant, historic peace church, and Unitarian traditions participated. Ages also varied, ranging from twenty-three to seventy-nine. Several among the fourteen who gathered are well known today among faith-based peace advocates: the Berrigan brothers, Jim Forest, Tom Cornell, John Howard Yoder, A. J. Muste, and Merton himself. During their three days together, insights and wisdom from these traditions would intersect and nourish each other. By the time they parted, their effort had set down solid roots and modeled interreligious collaboration for peace work that would blossom in coming decades. Here for the first time, the details of those vital discussions have been reconstructed and made accessible to again inspire and challenge followers of Christ to confront the powers and injustices of today.

Download or read book The Environmental Vision of Thomas Merton written by Monica Weis and published by University Press of Kentucky. This book was released on 2011-06-24 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Delightful . . . a superb guide to the ecological themes of Merton’s life and writings.” ?The Christian Century Nature was always vital in Thomas Merton’s life, from the long hours he spent as a child watching his father paint landscapes in the fresh air, to his final years of solitude in the hermitage at Our Lady of Gethsemani, where he contemplated and wrote about the beauty of his surroundings. Throughout his life, Merton’s study of the natural world shaped his spirituality in profound ways, and he was one of the first writers to raise concern about ecological issues that have become critical in recent years. In The Environmental Vision of Thomas Merton, Monica Weis suggests that Merton’s interest in nature, which developed significantly during his years at the Abbey of Gethsemani, laid the foundation for his growing environmental consciousness. Tracing Merton’s awareness of the natural world from his childhood to the final years of his life, Weis explores his deepening sense of place and desire for solitude, his love and responsibility for all living things, and his evolving ecological awareness. “Explains how Merton evolved from a nature enthusiast . . . to one of the world’s most respected ecological stewards.” ?Louisville Courier Journal

Download or read book Superabundantly Alive written by Susan McCaslin and published by Wood Lake Publishing Inc.. This book was released on 2018-10-19 with total page 188 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Superabundantly Alive: Thomas Merton’s Dance with the Feminine is a unique, unified, multi-genre work that includes dialogue, imaginary letters, poems, and reflective essays by two established Canadian poets. Taking cues from Merton himself, Susan and John establish a playful, jazzy, dialogic tone — superabundantly alive. This book invites participation for those who already know Merton’s work and for those who are meeting this whole and broken, prophetic, whimsical, paradoxical prophet and visionary for the first time. Robert Lax once described Merton’s poetry and the man himself as “superabundantly alive.” McCaslin and Porter prove the truth of this description in their enchanting account of the writer-mystic who now comes into his second century of stature and significance, in the words of Boris Pasternak, “[a]live and burning to the end.

Download or read book Thomas Merton written by Paul R Dekar and published by Lutterworth Press. This book was released on 2012-04-26 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Thomas Merton was arguably the twentieth century's most widely published and widely read spiritual writer. This book explores Merton's prophetic writings and experience as they offer guidance for those seeking to experience God, to simplify their lives, to live more humanly, and to shape Christian community in the face of alienation, consumerism, noise, and technology. The book includes parts of three previously unpublished conference contributions by Merton on technology. Exploring Merton's thoughts on monastic renewal, prayer, radical simplicity, ecology, technology, war, peace and interfaith dialogue, Dekar reminds us why Merton was so influential and why he continues to be so.

Download or read book Thomas Merton written by Michael W. Higgins and published by Liturgical Press. This book was released on 2014-05-30 with total page 136 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: People of God is a brand new series of inspiring biographies for the general reader. Each volume offers a compelling and honest narrative of the life of an important twentieth or twenty-first century Catholic. Some living and some now deceased, each of these women and men have known challenges and weaknesses familiar to most of us, but responded to them in ways that call us to our own forms of heroism. Each of them offers a credible and concrete witness of faith, hope, and love to people of our own day. Thomas Merton was the consummate post-modern holy one: flawed, anti-institutional, a voice for the voiceless. But he was also a classical traditionalist: centered, obedient, in search of stability. He was a religious thinker of remarkable insight, a social commentator of courage and conviction, and a writer of startling virtuosity. Michael W. Higgins recounts the life of this insatiable wanderer. He explores the various layers of influence and evolution in Merton’s thought and spirituality. This book tells the remarkable story of a life that remains to be understood from its beginnings and long after its premature ending.

Download or read book Thomas Merton written by Patrick F. O'Connell and published by Orbis Books. This book was released on 2013 with total page 558 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume provides a broad cross-section of Merton's work as an essayist, collecting pieces that are characteristic examples of his astonishing output and the fantastic breadth of his interests. The essays range from the wisdom of the desert fathers to the novels of Faulkner and Camus, from interreligious dialogue to racial justice.