The Merton Annual Volume 29 – Thin Places and Thick Descriptions

Editors: Deborah Pope Kehoe, Joseph Quinn Raab

$19.95

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“Thomas Merton mindfully inhabited an exceptionally thin world. He seemed especially attuned to the omnipresence of the normally imperceptible. However common this aesthetic sensibility may in fact be in the general population, the gift for communicating it is rare. Merton unquestionably had that gift. He wrote with what Flannery O’Connor would likely describe as the “Hebrew genius for making the absolute concrete.” His thick descriptions of particular places and moments narrow the distance between heaven and earth, or perhaps simply unmask a once hidden but always present wholeness. … Merton can be described as a master of thick description and one adept at recognizing thin places; but what about the rest of us for whom, of late, places have seemed thick and descriptions very thin? Faith assures that whatever cruelties we foist upon one another, Sophia will not be made a prisoner. She continues to play in creation. Let us hope that the essays that follow help to unmask for us the world’s thinness and reveal that eternal dance, the hidden wholeness that cannot be directly seen, or touched, or put in a genus, or distinguished by a difference, yet is present.” Click here to read the full description by Joseph Quinn Rabb

The Merton Annual publishes articles about Thomas Merton and about related matters of major concern to his life and work. Its purpose is to enhance Merton’s reputation as a writer and monk, to continue to develop his message for our times, and to provide a regular outlet for substantial Merton-related scholarship. The Merton Annual includes as regular features, reviews, review-essays, a bibliographic survey, interviews, and first appearances of unpublished or obscurely published Merton materials, photographs and art. Essays about related literary and spiritual matters will also be considered.

Categories: General Thomas Merton Books, The Merton Annual, Thomas Merton Series

ISBN: 9781891785955
Year: 2016
Pages: 285

Fons Vitae Publishing

The Merton Annual Volume 29 – Thin Places and Thick Descriptions

Product Description

CONTENTS

Raab, Joseph Quinn. “Introduction: Thin Places and Thick Descriptions.” 7-14.

Merton, Thomas. “‘A Quite Exceptional Convent’: The Regina Laudis Correspondence” edited with an Introduction by Patrick F. O’Connell. 15-37.

Brandt, Charles. “A Single Sacred Community.” An Interview Conducted by Donald Grayston and David Chang. 38-57.

Pearson, Paul M. “From Clairvaux to Mount Olivet: Thomas Merton’s Geography of Place.” 58-71.

Baker, Kathleen M. “‘This Terrific Sense of Geography’: Spatial Thinking in Merton’s Journals.” 72-79.

Brown, Jason M. “Thomas Merton, Wildness and the Sacramental Power of Place.” 80-89.

McGregor, Michael N. “The Persistence of Harlem in the Life and Legacy of Thomas Merton.” 90-98.

O’Connell, Patrick F. “Trappists, Working – Trappists, Praying: The Earliest Monastic Poetry of Thomas Merton.” 99-124.

Weis, Monica, SSJ. “Was Thomas Merton Merely Dabbling in Early Irish Poetry?” 125-144.

Plekon, Michael. “‘What I Wear Is Pants. What I Do Is Live. How I Pray Is Breathe’: Merton and the Spiritual Life in the Twenty-First Century.” 145-158.

Grayston, Donald. “Public Intellectual, Democratic Dissenter: Thomas Merton on Nuclear Weapons.” 159-179.

Stuart, Angus F. “Thomas Merton and Henry Miller: A Correspondence in Vision.” 180-187.

Clark, Anthony E. “Finding Our Way: Thomas Merton, John Wu and the Christian Dialogue with Early China.” 188-202.

O’Hare, Padraic. “Young Adult Spiritual Lives: Merton, Moran and Monastic Resources.” 203-220.

Raab, Joseph Quinn. “Relevance and Ambivalence: A Bibliographic Review of Thomas Merton’s Centenary (2015).” 221-230.

Raab, Christian, OSB. Rev. of Charter, Customs, and Constitutions of the Cistercians: Initiation into the Monastic Tradition 7 by Thomas Merton, edited by Patrick F. O’Connell. 231-234.

Matthews, Gray. Rev. of Early Essays, 1947-1952 by Thomas Merton, edited by Patrick F. O’Connell. 234-237.

Bosco, Mark, SJ. Rev. of The Letters of Robert Giroux and Thomas Merton, edited by Patrick Samway, SJ. 237-239.

Horan, Daniel P. OFM. Rev. of Thomas Merton and the Noonday Demon: The Camaldoli Correspondence by Donald Grayston. 239-242.

Bamberger, John Eudes, OCSO. Rev. of Make Peace Before the Sun Goes Down: The Long Encounter of Thomas Merton and His Abbot, James Fox by Roger Lipsey. 243-246.

O’Connell, Patrick F. Rev. of The Only Mind Worth Having: Thomas Merton and the Child Mind by Fiona Gardner. 246-251.

Bell, Ian. Rev. of In the School of Prophets: The Formation of Thomas Merton’s Prophetic Spirituality by Ephrem Arcement, OSB. 252-254.

Oyer, Gordon. Rev. of Thomas Merton, Peacemaker: Meditations on Merton, Peacemaking, and the Spiritual Life by John Dear. 254-257.

Gardner, Fiona. Rev. of Merton and Waugh: A Monk, A Crusty Old Man & The Seven Storey Mountain by Mary Frances Coady. 257-260.

Brumfield, Joshua. Rev. of Divine Discontent: The Prophetic Voice of Thomas Merton by John Moses. 260-263.

Bochen, Christine M. Rev. of At Play in Creation: Merton’s Awakening to the Feminine Divine by Christopher Pramuk. 263-268.

Hillis, Gregory K. Rev. of The Unquiet Monk: Thomas Merton’s Questing Faith by Michael W. Higgins. 269-270.

Hillis, Gregory K. Rev. of Pure Act: The Uncommon Life of Robert Lax by Michael N. McGregor. 270-273.

Grateful acknowledgement is expressed to the Merton Legacy Trust and the Thomas Merton Center at Bellarmine University for permission to reproduce the calligraphy of Thomas Merton for the cover artwork.

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