"This is quintessential Merton." The Catholic Review.These pages reveal the character and circumstances of a rare and beloved person. It is a book which seemingly ends in tragedy, but the tragic element, which is a part of life, is transcended by his vibrant humanity. So says Amiya Chakravarty, consulting editor of this work.
read moreThomas Merton
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 27 years 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.
Products by this Author:
Seven Storey Mountain
A modern-day Confessions of Saint Augustine, The Seven Storey Mountain is one of the most influential religious works of the 20th century. This edition contains an introduction by Merton’s editor, Robert Giroux, and a note to the reader by biographer William Shannon.
read more$25.99 CAD |
Thomas Merton
In Thomas Merton, Essential Writings, Christine Bochen has performed a wonderful service to all who know and will come to know Merton through his writings. She presents his works in the framework of his vocation -- the call to contemplation, the call to compassion, and the call to unity.
read more$32.50 CAD |
Book of Hours
By: |Merton was the 20th century’s most popular proponent of the Christian contemplative tradition.
read more$30.75 CAD |
Bread in the Wilderness
By: |Bread in the Wilderness sets forth Merton's belief that "the Psalms acquire, for those who know how to enter into them, a surprising depth, a marvelous and inexhaustible actuality.
read more$23.95 CAD |
Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander
By: |In this series of notes, opinions, experiences, and reflections, Thomas Merton examines some of the most urgent questions of our age.
read more$25.00 CAD |
Contemplative Prayer
In this classic text (first published in 1969), Thomas Merton offers valuable guidance for prayer. He brings together a wealth of meditative and mystical influences—from John of the Cross to Eastern desert monasticism–to create a spiritual path for today.
read more$19.00 CAD |
From the Monastery to the World
This correspondence, full of warmth, candor, and humor, reflects the friendship of two men who worked to reconcile their intense spirituality with an urgent sense of social justice in a violent and troubled time.
$25.50 CAD |
Gandhi On Non Violence
For many people the world over, Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948) is the greatest figure of the 20th century which, by all accounts, has been an era of the most unimaginable widespread violence, cruelty, hatred and destruction in all of human history.
read more$19.50 CAD |
Inner Experience
Thomas Merton’s final book explores the meaning and daily practice of contemplation—the heart of monastic and religious experience. This is his most comprehensive work on the subject.
read more$19.99 CAD |
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