Authors of Religious Books

[brabble]

I have been told that Anthony de Mello, Teillhard de Chardin and also Thomas Merton are held suspect by The Church. Anyone out there enlarge on this for me?

 

[Todd_Easton]

Thomas Merton’s book, The Seven Storey Mountain, is well worth reading. I don’t know about anything else he wrote.

 

[Grayton]

Teilhard de Chardin wrote very speculative theology. The Church officially warned that Teilhard de Chardin’s writings “abound in such ambiguities and indeed even serious errors, as to offend Catholic doctrine.” The official document can be viewed at:

ewtn.com/library/CURIA/CDFTEILH.HTM

The Catholic Church has also officially warned readers of Father Anthony de Mello some of Father de Mello’s writings “are incompatible with the Catholic faith and can cause grave harm.” You can view the document at:

catholicculture.org/docs/doc_view.cfm?recnum=493

I am not aware that any official Catholic Church judgment has been rendered on the works of Thomas Merton. I think that his early work, “Seven Storey Mountain” is very worthwhile. Many individual Catholics have criticized some of Merton’s later works as tending toward the mysticism of Eastern religions.