This book is really two books, two volumes, but neither book is like any other Merton book you may have read.
Volume I, “Insights”, includes original works by Merton, only published in the Merton Annual. Why do I dare say that it is not like anything you may have read by Merton?
We are all familiar with his works written with a common theme such as Faith and Violence or New Seeds or Contemplations. We are also familiar with his volumes of journals, grouped by time period, or his letters, grouped by addressee.
“Insights” is different. These works, which have only been published in the Merton Annual over a period of more than three decades, are a virtual “sampler” of Merton works. As David Odorisio points out in the introduction to “Insights”.
“The essays included in Volume One serve as a kind of roving overview of Merton’s corpus filling in gaps and lacunae here and there, but also noting the periodic lapses or historical ‘intervals’ that appear in between each essay.”
They show his progress as a writer from:
– a teenager in England
– through early adulthood after college at Columbia
– through that brief period where he was on the threshold to answering his vocation as a Catholic priest
– as a Novice Master writing pamphlets for his charges
– in his earlier more typical “orthodox” writings in the 1950’s
– to the beginnings of his writing on social issues in the early 1960’s
– to his writings on Eastern religions towards the end of his life
The gathering of these writings under one cover shows not only the progress and fluidity in his writing style, but also the diversity of works that he was capable of penning.
Volume II, “Interviews”, originated by Victor Kramer, Merton scholar and founding editor of the Merton Annual, as an “oral history.” The second volume contains interviews with those who knew Merton or were instrumental in establishing his legacy. He and several other Merton scholars interviewed individuals who knew Merton personally or who played significant roles in the years following his death in establishing his legacy. Once again, these interviews were, with few exceptions, only published in the Merton Annual and their gathering together under one cover serves to be a “mind-expanding” experience not only for Merton devotees but for the first-time reader of Merton.
It is rare for the reader to peek behind the name of the author and see his personal life, motivations, both conventional and not. Those readers who are familiar with Merton works, have already had such a peak from himself in his journals, and to some extent by others in his letters. But the interviews specifically focus on giving us a thorough understanding of the man, Father Louis, through the eyes of those who talked and/or corresponded with him, who lived with him, who visited with him, who prayed or studied with him, and may have even shared a beer and some barbecue with him. The personal insights are sharp, insightful, and touching once we see Merton through the eyes of these people, it only increases our appetite to read more of his writings.
Thomas Merton Quotes from these volumes:
“Is dedicated life cold storage? Is a dedicated woman one who has been placed in cold storage, who has been place out of circulation, who has been removed from life, who has been frozen?…My idea of dedication implies that one has one initial conversion at the beginning of religious life and then no other, except the conversions that are pre-determined, predictable and set up according to the pattern of the annual retreat—the retreat master comes and defines for you your annual conversion which is simply a return to the original conversion.”
– Thomas Merton, “Comments on the Religious Life today”
“It is more important to have one convent with five people in it who are alive than to have a whole country of convents with people who are half dead or live a kind of living death which can sometimes happen in religion.”
– Thomas Merton, “Comments on the Religious Life today”
“Jesus stood entirely outside of all Jewish politics, because his Kingdom was not of this world. But his actions could be twisted to look like political revolutionism. And yet he was a “freedom fighter” in a different way. His death and resurrection were the culminating battle in his fight to liberate us from all forms of tyranny, all forms of domination by anything or anyone except the Spirit, the Law of Love, the ‘purpose and grace’ of God. ”
– Thomas Merton, ” “He is Risen”
“As Cardinal Newman so rightly said, the greatest victories of the Church were all won before Constantine, in the days when there were no Christian armies and when the true Christian soldier was the martyr, whose witness to Christ was nonviolent. It was the martyrs who conquered Rome for Christ with a conquest that has been stable for twenty centuries. How long were the crusaders able to hold Jerusalem?”
– Thomas Merton, “Christian Perspectives in World Crisis”
TABLES OF CONTENTS
Volume 1 Table of Contents
Preface
Acknowledgements, Appreciations, and Copyright
An Introduction in Intervals: Insights from The Merton Annual (1988-2022)
By David Odorisio
Part One – Pre-Monastic Writings
On Remembering Monsieur Delmas
Edited with an Introduction by Patrick F. O’Connell
The Black Sheep
Forward by Paul Pearson
The Man in the Sycamore Tree: A Fragment of an Early Novel
Editor’s Note by Patrick Hart, O.C.S.O.
Letters to Pat
Edited with an Introduction by Paul M. Pearson
Application for Conscientious Objector Status – March 1941
Introduction by Jim Forest
Vocation to the Lay Apostolate
Editor’s Note by Patrick F. O’Connell
Part Two – Monastic Matters
The School of the Spirit
Foreword by Patrick Hart, O.C.S.O.
Monastic Courtesy
Editor’s Note by Patrick Hart, O.C.S.O.
A Balanced Life of Prayer
Foreword by Patrick Hart, O.C.S.O.
Variant Drafts of The Sign of Jonas
Edited by Jonathan Montaldo
“The Monk and Sacred Art” and “Art and Worship”
Editorial Note by Glenn Crider and Victor A. Kramer
The Neurotic Personality in the Monastic Life
Editor’s Note by Patrick Hart, O.C.S.O.
“A Quite Exceptional Convent”: The Regina Laudis Correspondence
Edited with an Introduction by Patrick F. O’Connell
Thomas Merton and Patrick Hart: Correspondence (1964-1968)
Edited with an Introduction by Patrick F. O’Connell
Part Three – Correspondence and Commentary
Do I Want a Small Painting: Ad Reinhardt Correspondence
Introduction and Commentary by Roger Lipsey
The Context of Thomas Merton’s Letter Concerning “The Jesus Prayer’’
Introduction by Thomas Francis Smith
Notes after First Visit and Correspondence 1962-1968
Editor’s Note By Douglas V. Steere
“Three Prayers” Written for Frank Kacmarcik
Some Points from the Birmingham Non-Violence Movement
About Contemplative Life Today
An Editorial Note by Glenn Crider and Victor Kramer
Aesthetic and Contemplative Experience – James Joyce
Transcribed with an Introduction by Paul M. Pearson
Comments about the Religious Life Today
Editor’s Note by Jane Marie Richardson
Prayer and Identity
Commentary by Glenn Crider
He Is Risen
Two Conferences on Prayer: India 1968
“The Pope of the Virgin Mary” and Other Uncollected Marian Writings
Introduction by Patrick F. O’Connell
15: Christian Perspectives in World Crisis
Editorial Note by Patricia A. Burton
Answers For Hernan Lavin Cerda: On War, [etc.]
Editor’s Note by Patrick Hart, O.C.S.O.
Preface to Don Denys Rutledge’s In Search of a Yogi
The Zen Insight of Shen Hui
Editor’s Note by Patrick Hart, O.C.S.O.
Volume 2 Table of Contents
Preface
Acknowledgments, Appreciations, and Copyright
An Introduction in Intervals, Part Two:
Interviews from The Merton Annual (1988–2022) By David M. Odorisio
Part One – Gethsemani Encounters
“A Dedication to Prayer and a Dedication to Humanity”
An Interview about Thomas Merton with James Conner, O.C.S.O.
Merton’s Contributions as Teacher, Writer and Community Member
An Interview with Abbot Flavian Burns, O.C.S.O.
“Truly Seeking God … in Christ”
An Interview with Chrysogonus Waddell, O.C.S.O.
Merton’s Vocation as Monastic & Writer
An Interview with Abbot John Eudes Bamberger, O.C.S.O.
Merton’s Quiet Influence
An Interview with Brother Frederic Collins, O.C.S.O.
“The Great Honesty”: Remembering Thomas Merton
An Interview with Abbot Timothy Kelly, O.C.S.O.
“Aware and Awake and Alive”
An Interview with Brother Paul Quenon, O.C.S.O.
Looking Back to Merton
An Interview with Matthew Kelty, O.C.S.O.
Part Two – Interviews with Other Religious
Thomas Merton: A Monk Who “Succeeded”
An Interview with Dom M. Laurence Bourget, O.C.S.O.
“A Journey into Wholeness”
An Interview with Myriam Dardenne, O.C.S.O.
From Monastic Studies to Monastic Renewal
An Interview with Brendan Collins
“Unadorned Ideal”
An Interview in Two Parts with Methodius Telnack, O.C.S.O.
Daughter of Carmel; Son of Cîteaux: A Friendship Endures
An Interview about Thomas Merton with Angela Collins, O.C.D.
Growing into Responsibility
An Interview with Mary Luke Tobin, S.L.
Life through the Lens of Inner and Outer Freedom
An Interview with Jane Marie Richardson, S.L.
An Interview with Fr. Kilian McDonnell, O.S.B.
An Interview with Fr. Raymond Pedrizetti, O.S.B.
A Single Sacred Community
An Interview with Charles Brandt
Part Three – Interviews with Friends and Scholars
Cultivating a Contemplative Lifestyle
An Interview with James Finley
Remarks Following a 2004 Poetry Reading
An Interview with Ernesto Cardenal
Transcript of the Question and Answer Session for the Poetry Reading of Ernesto Cardenal
“Not Himself, but a Direction”
An Interview with John H. (Jack) Ford
“The Climate of Humor and Freedom”
An Interview with Ron Seitz
An Interview with James Laughlin about Thomas Merton
An Interview with Lawrence Ferlinghetti about Thomas Merton
An Interview with Walker Percy about Thomas Merton
An Interview with W. H. (Ping) Ferry about Thomas Merton
Action at the Center
An Interview with W. H. (“Ping”) Ferry
“A Very Disciplined Person”
An Interview with Canon A. M. Allchin
A Conversation with Dr. Hildegard Goss-Mayr about Thomas Merton
An Interview about Thomas Merton with Dr. Martin E. Marty
Spirituality, Scholarship and Biography
An Interview with Anthony T. Padovano
From Faith to Joy: Studying the Church and Thomas Merton
An Interview with William H. Shannon
Living and Learning with Merton for Decades
An Interview with Victor A. Kramer
