BOOK REVIEW
LIVING WITH WISDOM: A LIFE OF THOMAS
MERTON (Revised edition)
Jim Forest (New York: Orbis Books, 2008)
Paper, 262 pages. US $22.00.
Jim Forest was a friend of the Trappist
monk, Father Louis – better known to the outside world as Thomas Merton. After
Merton’s death, one of his fellow monks at the Abbey of Gethsemani in Kentucky,
asked Forest, "How did Father Louis write all those books?" That’s what amazed
me as I read through this biography and noted all the citations from Merton’s
books and innumerable other writings. If I were that monk, I would have expanded
my question this way, "How did Father Louis find time to write all those books,
articles, reviews, poems, journal entries and letters to friends, fans and world
dignitaries? I would have added, "How was he able to write about so many
different topics so well – contemplation, prayer, monasticism, non-violence,
civil rights, inter-religious dialogue, eastern forms of meditation, ancient
Christian writers and too many other topics to count? Plus, he pursued interests
in photography, Russian literature, Shaker furniture and calligraphy! That would
be more than enough to occupy the lifetime of most of us, but Merton lived the
arduous life of a Trappist monk for twenty seven years, which required many
hours of choral prayer throughout the day and night and physical farm labor –
without the use of modern equipment.
If one were to read just Merton’s
autobiography, "The Seven Storey Mountain" and conclude they knew Merton’s life
– since he spent the rest of his life "enclosed" in a monastery in rural
Kentucky – their knowledge of Merton would be very limited. From his
autobiography we would know that he was a trans-Atlantic gadfly who had to
withdraw from Cambridge University after only a year. He then went on to
Columbia University in New York and, while he continued to live a partying life
with his fraternity brothers, he began to build his reputation as a writer both
in the university and secular press. Yet he was also growing more restless with
the life he was leading. This restlessness and spiritual hunger eventually led
him to Catholicism and, after considering some religious options (the
Franciscans and Dorothy Day’s Catholic Worker) he entered the Trappists in 1941.
The closing of the monastery’s gate behind him would seem to the outside world
as the end of Thomas Merton’s life. But, under orders from his abbot, he wrote
his famous autobiography (now translated into 29 languages) and touched the
lives of millions of a post-World War II generation who were disenchanted by the
horrors humans could inflict upon one another and were searching for lasting
meaning and spiritual significance for their lives. Many found that meaning in
Merton – the ranks of those entering monasteries at that time swelled. But even
more important, countless readers found his spiritual search gave meaning and
insight for how to live the Christian faith IN the world.
While "The Seven Storey Mountain" told a
profound story of a modern person’s inner struggles and search, Forest’s book
fills in a lot of details left out Merton’s autobiography. Forest was a close
friend of Merton and so this biography gives more information about Merton’s
life before he entered the monastery. His Trappist censors did not want Merton
to write in his autobiography about the more seamy sides of his pre-monastic
life; they thought it would be unbecoming and scandalous to the pious. Forest
fills in the blanks and, as a result, Merton’s life becomes more accessible to
later generations, especially to young adults who will identify with his search,
mis-steps and spiritual hungers. Forest says he does not want to "iron out the
wrinkles" in Merton’s life. So, for example, what we don’t learn in "The Seven
Storey Mountain," we do in this book – about Merton’s college excesses; that he
fathered a child in England; his struggles with his monastic authorities, his
severe doubts about his vocation and more.
Before he entered the monastery, Merton
worked in Harlem with the Catholic Worker community and he saw first hand the
injustices against blacks in the inner city. Forest, one of the founders of the
Catholic Peace Fellowship, got to know Merton because of his writings on peace.
Merton’s writings on contemporary social justice topics attracted many peace and
civil rights activists, many of whom wrote him and some even visited and made
retreats with him at Gethsemani.
After he entered the monastery Merton
became controversial among some of his fellow monks and more traditional church
people because of his writings on social justice, civil rights, the Vietnam war,
Buddhism and other world religions. They just didn’t think a monk should be so
"worldly," or, because of his controversial views, that a Catholic writer should
rock the boat of the Church’s hard-won acceptance into American culture.
Catholics were supposed to be "good citizens," the argument went and support the
government’s positions in America and throughout the world. They also thought
publicity on a world-wide stage was inappropriate for someone who was supposed
to "lose himself" in the anonymous life of a Trappist monk.
Merton’s honest sharing of his doubts and
his dialogue with eastern religions also made him suspicious in other church
circles. Forest reports that in 2005 a new American Catholic Catechism, aimed at
young adults, was being prepared. Each chapter was to deal with a separate topic
and include a profile of an exemplary American Catholic. But the bishop in
charge of the preparation committee had Merton’s name struck from the draft. The
reasons given were that this generation would not know who he was and that "we
don’t know of all the details of the searching at the end of his life" (page
242). The chapter Merton was supposed to be profiled in was the one on prayer –
the only chapter in the book without a profile.
Forest includes in the sidebars of almost
each page quotes or photos that parallel the time frame of the narrative. Those
photos, gathered from very diverse sources, are a treasure and many of them I
had never seen before. In particular, there are some taken during his monastic
years when social justice activists came to talk with him. I love the photo of
Merton and Daniel Berrigan (another founder of the Catholic Peace Fellowship).
Merton is speaking and a very young Berrigan seems held in rapt attention to his
words. There are many close up shots of Merton taken through his lifetime. Most
are of him looking directly into the camera and they show a calm and good face –
and, it must be said, an impish smile, monk or no monk!
Forest had a lot of access to
correspondence between Merton and his friends, scholars, religious superiors,
writers, philosophers, peace activists, etc. In addition, Forest quotes
liberally from Merton’s published writings and offers insightful commentary on
them so, when I finished the book, I felt I had just completed a survey course
in the life, spirituality and social activism of Thomas Merton. This book would
be a good introduction for someone wishing to begin reading Merton. It is also
informative for those who are already familiar with him, because Forest traces
the development of his thoughts and spirituality in the light of his on-going
spiritual practices and the rapid changes occurring in the Church and the world
beyond his monastery walls.
Merton loved his solitude, yet Forest also
reveals how he struggled with being "locked up" and cut off from social and
world events that both interested and disturbed him. But it is clear, after
reading Merton’s biography, that walls do not a monastery make. Even after his
death many people still come to Gethsemani to visit his grave, including the
Dalai Lama who, in 1994 said, "Whenever someone speaks about Jesus Christ, I
think of Thomas Merton."
Book Review Archive
Just click on a
book title below to read the review.
(The latest submissions are listed first.)
• COME, HAVE BREAKFAST - MEDITATIONS ON GOD AND THE EARTH •
• SPEAKING WITH AUTHORITY •
• Mark's Passion Narrative •
• THE CRISIS OF BAD PREACHING •
• A HISTORY OF CATHOLIC THEOLOGICAL ETHICS •
• Jesus: A Gospel Portrait •
• How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row •
• Christ and the Spirit: Catholic Perspectives Through the Ages •
• MAKING SENSE OF MYSTERY - A PRIMER ON THEOLOGICAL THINKING •
• PREACHING IN THE BLACK CHURCH •
• The Council and the Making of the Ultramontane Church •
• LONGING TO SEE YOUR FACE – PREACHING IN A SECULAR AGE •
• A Joint Review •
• St. Dominic: A Story of a Preaching Friar •
• JESUS and the PRODICAL SON •
• PREACHING MATTERS: A PRAXIS FOR PREACHERS •
• Moses in Pharaoh's House •
• ...and the Mountains Echoed •
• Behind the Beautiful Forevers •
• Preaching the Mystery of Faith: The Sunday Homily •
• The Rhythm of Being... •
• Remi De Roo - Chronicles of a Vatican II Bishop •
• Redeeming the Past •
• Abraham Joshua Heschel: Essential Writings •
• This Is Our Exile •
• Compassion: Loving Our Neighbor in and Age of Globalization •
• True and False Reform In the Church •
• Adult Faith •
• The Mystical Way In Everyday Life •
• Racial Justice and the Catholic Church •
• Let the Great World Spin •
• The Priesthood Of the Faithful •
• Living With Wisdom •
• Where the Pure Water Flows •
• LITURGY WITH STYLE AND GRACE •
• Best Advice For Preaching •
• We Speak the Word Of the Lord •
• KINGDOM, GRACE, JUDGEMENT... •
• Great World Religions: Islam •
• FULFILLED IN OUR HEARING: HISTORY AND METHOD OF CHRISTIAN PREACHING. •
• PARABLES FOR PREACHERS - YEAR C •
• Of Books and Preparation •
• After Sunday: A Theology of Work •
• A Captive Voice: The Liberation of Preaching •
• GOSPEL LIGHT: JESUS STORIES FOR SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS •
• Written Text Becomes Living Word... •
• Voicing the Vision: Imagination & Prophetic Preaching •
• The Death of Innocents •
|
