What do you think of Thomas Merton?

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My own experiences with Merton have been extremely positive. I first read The Seven Storey Mountain when I was considering converting to the Catholic faith. In his story I could see some similarities and it was helpful to see how he worked through it all. After that I read his various diaries gathered in The Waters of Siloe and The Sign of Jonah. It was very fascinating to see what his life was like in the monastery and how he anxiously awaited his ordination to the priesthood.

I’ve also thumbed through No Man Is and Island and The New Seeds of Contemplation, but I haven’t read those so I can’t really comment on them. Still I would recommend Merton to anybody. One quick question about his later life prior to his death, I thought he was in SE Asia with the permission of his superiors?

I wanted to comment on some posts about how his work is liked by new agers. I wouldn’t let that dissuade you from reading Merton. The new age movement, in my opinion, likes to grab hold of things, pervert their meaning and intent and call it their own. Look at what the new age movement as a whole has done to things like “celtic spirtuality” or how they’ve co-opted the celtic cross. What was once authentically Christian is now, in certain quarters, code word for nonsense. The same thing goes for the labyrinth at Chartres and other monasterys, these were ways for monks and pilgrims to “complete” a pilgrimage to the Holy Land without leaving their homes, now it’s just a way to get in touch with yourself and draw power from God knows what. So, I’m sure the same goes with Merton’s writings. What may have been a way to draw closer to God and in a deeper conversation with him is now just one means among many to “find yourself.”

ChadS
 
ChadS said:
My own experiences with Merton have been extremely positive. I first read The Seven Storey Mountain when I was considering converting to the Catholic faith. In his story I could see some similarities and it was helpful to see how he worked through it all. After that I read his various diaries gathered in The Waters of Siloe and The Sign of Jonah. It was very fascinating to see what his life was like in the monastery and how he anxiously awaited his ordination to the priesthood.

I’ve also thumbed through No Man Is and Island and The New Seeds of Contemplation, but I haven’t read those so I can’t really comment on them. Still I would recommend Merton to anybody. One quick question about his later life prior to his death, I thought he was in SE Asia with the permission of his superiors?

I wanted to comment on some posts about how his work is liked by new agers. I wouldn’t let that dissuade you from reading Merton. The new age movement, in my opinion, likes to grab hold of things, pervert their meaning and intent and call it their own. Look at what the new age movement as a whole has done to things like “celtic spirtuality” or how they’ve co-opted the celtic cross. What was once authentically Christian is now, in certain quarters, code word for nonsense. The same thing goes for the labyrinth at Chartres and other monasterys, these were ways for monks and pilgrims to “complete” a pilgrimage to the Holy Land without leaving their homes, now it’s just a way to get in touch with yourself and draw power from God knows what. So, I’m sure the same goes with Merton’s writings. What may have been a way to draw closer to God and in a deeper conversation with him is now just one means among many to “find yourself.”

ChadS
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Not to mention Glastonbury…I will stick with reading about people who remained faithful to holy mother church
 
All men, women and children are called to communion with god thru his son jesus, and are asked to share what they find with each other.
T. Merton boiled it down to this.

He spent his life trying to be in gods presence at all times. His books and writings tell us that you don’t have to be a saint or a monk to be in communion with god. What scares most catholics is he talks about what is there after i leave the mass. The great con job going on by the evil one is- you can’t get close to god, you are seperated from god. Merton, pennington, keating are trying to tell us and show us a way to get closer to god than we ever imagined. That scares people.
Google centering prayer- it’s been around for 1600 years, it’s the best kept secret in the christian church:
 
I’ve read and studied Thomas Merton for forty years. I must have read Seven Storey Mountain at least fifty times (I’m not exagerrating). Here are my thoughts on him.

Thomas Merton was a victim of himself. If you read in Seven Storney Mountain, at the end of the book, he says that there are two of him in the monastery - Thomas Merton and Fr. Louis. He knows that they cannot co-exist and that one of them has got to go. He says that the worse part is that Thomas Mertaon has his superiors on his side. And that was the problem. Gethsemani needed the money his books would rake in. They should have just left him alone, and he would have been all right.

Thomas Merton was a very immature man. He was proud and arrogant and tended to shape himself according to whoever he was with at the moment. He could be vulgar and crude, even after twenty years as a monk. Had he any integrity, he would have left the Trappist. While it is true that those years were wretched times, if you read his journals you will find that the Trappist began to make use of psychiatry already in the fifties. So, they put their trust and confidence in man instead of Our Lord, and that was and is their downfall.

Many years ago, when I was a postulant in a religious order, Fr. John Hardon came to give us a week of talks. He told us that he wondered if Thomas Merton had saved his soul. Myself, I tend to think that Our Lord had pity on him.

I’ve studied him and his writings so intently for so long, that I have no qualms in writing what I’ve written. I’m sure Fr. Louis would agree with me from where he now is.

Pray for his soul, just in case he is still in purgatory.
 
I read “The Seven Storrey Mountain” during my RCIA class to receive Confirmation.

He had a high regard for St. Therese of Lisieux and the Discalced Carmelite Order in general.

Because of this book, after receiving the sacrement, I entered into the Secular Order of Discalced Carmelites. I have not read anything else by Merton but this one book has made a great impact on my life. It was actually suggested to me by my RCIA instructor. This was in 2004-2005.

credo
 
SourGrape said:
I loved Seven Storey Mountain too! It was one of the first books I read when I was beginning my conversion to the Church! He was a gifted writer, in my opinion.
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Ditto! Merton’s books greatly influenced my own transition from agnostic to practicing Catholic. 👍

Of course Merton is a flawed man with mistakes. But if Merton has this capacity to bring people into the Church rather than away from it, we ought to be thanking God for such an individual. His “liberal” sounding approach is actually what grabs the struggling person to eventually become a full-blown member of the Church. I was so curious to know what made Merton’s spiritual insights so profound–and I found out it was his anchor in Christ. Bingo. 🙂
 
I don’t recall how I “found” Merton but know I read “Seven Storey Mountain” many years ago. I also read most of the books mentioned in these posts, especially the ones from the late 40’s and 50’s. I own most of them today. By far my favorite is “No Man is An Island”. It is filled with wonderful insights and a spiritual depth that blew me away when I first read it. I have two copies of it (one to share with others) and many pages in it are marked for easy reference.

His interest in Eastern forms of contemplation does not bother me, as it was really a natural progression in his search for ways to better relate to God, to gain wisdom and to increase his own powers of Christian contemplation. God exists in Asia too, and there is much to be learned from the wisdom of the East; and much that is surprisingly similar (in some minds, anyway) to the wisdom of the West. One must never forget that where Judaism existed and Christianity started was on the crossroads between “east” and “west” (I recall hearing something about Wise Men from the East traveling to Bethlehem).

So, I would recommend “No Man is an Island” (number 1), “Ascent to Truth” (my intro to St. John of the Cross), “Seeds of Contemplation” , and “Seasons of Celebration”, great commentaries and meditations on the Liturgical year.

Merton said: “Every moment and every event of every man’s life on earth plants something in his soul.”

And: “We have what we seek, it is there all the time, and if we give it time, it will make itself known to us.”

And: “Love seeks one thing only: the good of the one loved. It leaves all the other secondary effects to take care of themselves. Love, therefore, is its own reward.”

Reading and contemplating the writings of Merton has greatly benefited me in my own journey of faith and in deepening my understanding of God. I thank him for that.
 
I used to like reading Thomas Merton, but as I got older, I began to realize that, in his later works, he was getting into things that were outside the parameters of Faith. It reminds me of the old protestant minister Leslie D. Weatherhead who, in the 1940s, was on fire with the faith, and his books reflected that. In his last writings, particularly when he was in his 80s, he went outside the parameters of his faith and seemingly became an agnostic. It was an interesting transformation from his own Christianity. I saw the same thing in Merton and felt kind of sorry for him.
 
Question for anyone: Can you please tell me what is so problematic about Merton?

I’ve merely heard unfounded speculation from really fundamentalist-type Catholics that don’t match up to any of the actual facts that I’ve ever found. Merton never abandoned or tried to twist doctrine to fit with Zen Buddhism, Sufism, Hinduism, or other faiths. Even in his later years he seemed to be still quite insistent that correct doctrine and theology were essential for maintaining the proper orientation toward Christ in one’s prayer life–and Merton is very insistent on correct Catholic Teaching in The Ascent to Truth. I think what bothers people is his wide curiosity about other traditions. But it’s always been clear to me that Christ was always at the center of Merton’s own prayer life despite that curiosity of his.

Does anyone have evidence otherwise? I would like to get my hands on where Merton is allegedly said to have “strayed.” Can someone tell me in what respect this is supposed to be true? I’m genuinely confused.
 
The book by Thomas Merton that left an impact on me was Life and Holiness.
 
Syntax said:
Question for anyone: Can you please tell me what is so problematic about Merton?

I’ve merely heard unfounded speculation from really fundamentalist-type Catholics that don’t match up to any of the actual facts that I’ve ever found. Merton never abandoned or tried to twist doctrine to fit with Zen Buddhism, Sufism, Hinduism, or other faiths. Even in his later years he seemed to be still quite insistent that correct doctrine and theology were essential for maintaining the proper orientation toward Christ in one’s prayer life–and Merton is very insistent on correct Catholic Teaching in The Ascent to Truth. I think what bothers people is his wide curiosity about other traditions. But it’s always been clear to me that Christ was always at the center of Merton’s own prayer life despite that curiosity of his.

Does anyone have evidence otherwise? I would like to get my hands on where Merton is allegedly said to have “strayed.” Can someone tell me in what respect this is supposed to be true? I’m genuinely confused.
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I’m not terribly familiar with his later writings but I think you are correct in what you are saying. Some posters on this thread have suggested he should’ve left his order or that he gave up on the Church and her teachings. They like to point out his flaws and show just how human he was. Perhaps he isn’t the greatest spiritual master that lived but I think alot can be gained from reading much of his stuff. In his final years he did a lot of traveling but it was always with the permission of his abbot. He wasn’t some renegade monk disobeying his superiros.

ChadS
 
http://payingattentiontothesky.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/merton.jpg?w=318&h=301

A review from the paperback edition of The Seven Storey Mountain says: “Thomas Merton’s early years gave no clue as to the vast richness of spirit and intellect he would develop through out his life and share through his writings. He was the son of an itinerant painter, had an upbringing with little or no religious character, was a nondescript student, a rabble rouser… not even a Catholic… who at a point in his early manhood left the fast life of New York and knocked on the doors of a Kentucky monastary, to give over his life to austere celibacy and contemplation… and profound internal enrichment.

Seven Story Mountain has been compared to the Confessions of Augustine, but these books are of different timber. Merton’s is a story told at a personal level, of a spiritual journey in a modern context. It does not try to compete with Augustine’s intense intellectual and theological reasoning, preferring to dwell on the peace and joy of religious life, and more generally the meaning and responsibilities of all lives. You can’t read this book without being charmed and blessed by the proximity to this rare bit of humanity and devotion in our very secular and material age.”

I have used the selections “On Becoming A Saint” and “The Death Of His Father: Suffering” in other posts. The former is one that Fr. Barron devotes a great deal of time to in “The Strangest Way”; the latter spoke to me profoundly on the value of faith and I have marshaled it as an argument in posts such as The False Gods of Expedient Mercy. These are unforgettable stories and every Catholic should know them.

Yes, some of Merton’s later writings may be problematic but if someone tells you “Don’t read him,” you are in the presence of a nitwit. Judge for yourself:

Reading selections from *The Seven Storey Mountain *here:

payingattentiontothesky.com/2009/09/29/the-false-gods-of-expedient-mercy/

and *The Ascent to Truth *here:

payingattentiontothesky.com/2009/11/18/book-recommendation-the-ascent-to-truth-by-thomas-merton/

dj
 
Whoops – didn’t notice this was an old thread recently resuscitated and I had posted the same recommendation earlier. No amount of groveling can excuse this but I SO SORRY!

dj
 
The Seven Story Mountain was instrumental in calling me home to my Catholic faith. It was a powerful witness to the Church’s role in properly ordering one to reality.
Also read The Sign of Jonas, Love and Living and The Silent Life. Remember enjoying them and learning from them all. What I understand of his doubts I came upon in reading about him…and his death by electrocution leaves me with the smell of smoke…but his witness had a very beautiful effect upon me and I am sure he trusted in God’s mercy as I surely do.
Gerry Zipf
 
Thomas Merton was not only a creation of the media of the time - he was also a creation of his superiors at his monastery. As the story goes, he wanted to tell the whole truth of his wayward life in his “famous” Seven Storey Mountain - but his superiors “censored” it to the point that a lot of what Merton really was was simply excised. That’s the story.
Then he became the darling of Claire Booth Luce of the Time magazine’s fortune and power. That’s how he became published to begin with.
You know you need to avoid his material when what appear to be devoted readers of his on this thread warn you here that your faith must be “rock solid” before you read his stuff. Well said. And 'nuff said. Ask yourself - does your faith need to be “rock solid” to read the Bible? Augustine’s Confessions? Of course not. Those readings bring the wayward toward the truth - with no “danger” of reading without the prerequisite of “rock solid” faith.
Merton abandoned his unborn child when he was 18 in England. His “guardian” bought off the mother of his child that he never made any attempt to care for or know. He ran off to the States. After 7 YEARS of supposedly toying around with entering monastic life - he was “struck” with his “vocational calling” within hours of the “Day that will live in Infamy”- Dec 7, 1941. At a time when all young 25 year-olds were lining up to sacrifice their lives defending our country and Allies - Merton hops a train from New York to Kentucky and presents himself at the monastery gate for admission. Quite inspiring (not).
In later years, once he was made to be a media star - he demanded and got to live separately in his own building on the far side of the monastery property. There he “entertained” a later love of his life - a nurse he lusted after who had cared for him when he had an illness.
Merton is no different than Salinger and Fromm - all media creations who found their way onto “suggested reading lists” as if they were wholesome food for the mind. There are countless better things to read.
Why read a guy who with any given step down his path can begin to lead you the WRONG way? And this reality is admitted to by his “fans”. Spend your time elsewhere.
 
A couple of comments:
  1. Odd how Merton’s “social agenda” is reflected in the Cathechism of the Catholic Church (see the sin of racism, church’s opposition to nuclear weapons"…)
  2. What Merton did was search for the sacred in all human experiences. No bifurcated Manicheanism he was among the number of thoughtful, reflective people who introduced us to what has become a 21st century Christian humanism.
  3. Merton also taught us that seeking holiness does not mean “running away from the world”. 😃
Jimzz12 said:
Having read a few Merton books and the 'Mountain.and discussions with my dad who has been reading him for around 50 years, I’ve formed a good idea of the guy. It’s basically this…

He grew up in a horribly corrosive environment where everyone around him hated Catholics for various reasons. I he read James Joyce and somehow, only the Lord knows, he decided to become Catholic. He had a real draw to the monastary because he was drawn into prayer.

He was also connected with the world around him unlike most CSSO monks, making him still a man of his times, not totally removed from current events, and this put a unique stress on his spirituality. In and around the time of World War II the far eastern oriental world was beginning to open up to the occidental world. There was a lot of mystery about this various forms of mysiticism and spirituality flooding into the west. He was open enough to see that there was a thread of truth in all of that… many mystical Catholics can see that the imprint of God is in everything. He kinda’ sorta’ got caught up in that.

He also sorta’ kinda’ got caught up in the changing social situation of the world: civil rights movements, feed the poor, etc. I’m not too sure but I doubt he was aware that the social revolutions were being used by the forces of evil to de-humanize the masses in a subversive plot by Satan to undermind the mission of the Church. The humanism of the mid-20th century is really what is still giving us so many problems today.

Merton can thus be seen as a liberal, but he really is not liberal at all. He was a staunch defender of the faith. Although in private letters and journals later published he was often seen as a bit of a gossip. I can understand how that happens. The ‘recounting of another’s sin’ is usually – almost always, the last habitual mortal sin to leave a man or woman (and often into old age). God’s plan really is mysterious as Merton never quite made it back; dying much younger than many people would have hoped. In some ways it may have saved his immortal soul.

I’ve known quite a few converts – good strong converts – who became Catholics via the writings of Merton. I’d say before reading too much Merton try to spread your wings into a healthy reading of the Catechism and don’t forget to pray for guidance and faith. Also, read some works by other Cistercians and Carthusians. Take these books one bit at a time they are very high level. I usually read two unrelated books at the same time, one easy and one harder. Its also a worthy piece of advice that when reading the works of people of a solitary lifestyle that you’re going to get everything that was going on in their heads. When they get back to their cell after hard work in the fields they have nobody to go off on. Observe the older unmarried men (or guys without girlfriends) you’ll see that they do complaining at work – and then their usually fine by the time they get home. This is the opposite of married men and women.

So, to anyone who thinks that Merton was a bad guy. Imagine if I wrote down everything we thought! We’d be driven out of town and shot… so let’s not discuss the Hanuman golden hindu monkey god that our president carries with him in his pocket. In all fairness of course, he does carry a Modonna and Child statuette on his person too. There is some audacious hope there I guess – pray for the president’s soul and conversion.

Back to Merton. Reading Merton’s alright. Don’t get caught up in his criticisms or social agenda.
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And you actually think Augustine, Benedict, Bernard of Clairveux, Aquinas, St. Alphonsus, et al actually had no influences on their thinking or spirituality?

Merton was one of the truly great, spiritual writers of the 21st century. He was honored by John XXIII and Paul VI.

If you don’t like him fine. But if you haven’t read him I wonder if you’re in a position to dissuade other people from reading him?

😃
I_Believe said:
I think he wanted to be a monk, but couldn’t simply be one. A restless man who wanted to form his own brand of Catholic spirituality.

Obviously, many are attracted to his writings, but like David said, I’ll stick with the solid writings of those like St Alphonsus.
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Which “faith” are you referring to? Seems to me the Second Vatican Council in Nostrae Ataete clearly stated that the church recognizes “all that is good and holy” in other religious traditions. Merton was seeking what was “good and holy” about Buddhism. If that makes him outside the faith then I guess Vatican II was a sham…🙂
peary said:
I used to like reading Thomas Merton, but as I got older, I began to realize that, in his later works, he was getting into things that were outside the parameters of Faith. It reminds me of the old protestant minister Leslie D. Weatherhead who, in the 1940s, was on fire with the faith, and his books reflected that. In his last writings, particularly when he was in his 80s, he went outside the parameters of his faith and seemingly became an agnostic. It was an interesting transformation from his own Christianity. I saw the same thing in Merton and felt kind of sorry for him.
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Can you please define for me the term “liberal”?

Have you bothered to read Nostra Aetate in the Documents of Vatican II where it explicitly says the church recognizes all that is “good and holy” in other religions? And if Merton was sincerely seeking that which was “good and holy” in Buddhism does that make him counter to the church? Merton didn’t become a Buddhist and never expressed any interest in becoming one. His Asian journey supported by the superiors of his community was intended to forge a path for inter-religious dialogue to arrive at clearer understandings of these religious tradition.

If Merton is so bad what must you think of John Paul II"s invitation to representatives of the world’s religions to “come together and pray” at Assisi in 1986?

I know it’s very hard and confusing for people to deal with the changes that came out of the Second Vatican Council. What’s wearisome is when people read their own fears into things which are not contrary to anything the Church teaches and disseminate such as “truth”.

Thanks!🙂
LynnGM said:
It has been advised that one avoid Merton’s spiritual works. The liberal Episcopalians I knew used to like his spiritual stuff b/c, apparently, it was pro-Buddhism.

Not to hijack this thread, but I think people should also avoid most of the books by Dennis and Matthew Linn. Their spiritual books are very liberal, too!
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