religious experience encyclopedia introduction

books:

Passion For Peace: The Social Essays

3 reviews
Thomas Merton

Crossroad Classic, 1997

Working for Social Justice
A great book that lists many essays of Merton during the 60's, including some that orignally appeared in the Catholic Worker Newspaper. Many on non-violence, others on important figures of that time. I especially enjoyed the piece on Malcolm X.

The Thomas Merton Encyclopedia

2 reviews

Orbis Books, 2006

A "must-have" companion to any serious-minded scholar of Merton's writings
Packed with 350 entries and 50 black-and-white illustrations, The Thomas Merton Encyclopedia is the cornerstone guide to the life and thought of one of modern America's leading spiritual and literary thinkers. Written by the founding president and two past presidents of the International Thomas Merton Society, The Thomas Merton Encyclopedia lists its entries in alphabetical order. Entries are ...

The Inner Experience: Notes on Contemplation

2 reviews
Thomas Merton, William H. Shannon

HarperOne, 2004

Merton at Midstream
THE INNER EXPERIENCE is a recently edited and published work which reflects Merton's thinking on the subject of contemplation about 1959 - eleven years after the publication of both THE SEVEN STOREY MOUNTAIN and WHAT IS CONTEMPLATION? The most interesting chapters in the book, in my opinion, are Chapter 5 which attempts to describe the various kinds of contemplation as well as Chapter 7 dealing ...

The Hidden Ground of Love: The Letters of Thomas Merton on Religious Experience and Social Concerns

1 review

Harcourt, 1993

Love is Merton's Hidden Ground
What is so amazing about this volume is that it covers only part of Thomas Merton's letters. These are on Religious Experience and Social Concerns. Merton was truly all things to all people, but through it all, he is still completely himself. His unique voice is evident in all his correspondence where he is by turns serious and funny, kind and generous. Some of these letters read like ...

The Hidden Ground of Love - The Letters of Thomas Merton on Religious Experience and Social Concerns
Thomas Merton

Farrar Straus Giroux, 1985

Evelyn Waugh, at the start of Thomas Merton's monastic career, advised him to "write serious letters", and also urged him to make an art of it. This advice flowered in the sixties, especially after his monastic superiors ordered him to cease publishing anything on war and peace. "Monk concerned with peace. Bad image", Merton seethed in a letter, and launched his series of privately circulated mimeographed "Cold War Letters", one-third of which ...

Thomas Merton: An Introduction

1 review
William H. Shannon

Saint Anthony Messenger Press, 2005

Fresh, Inspiring, Practical
Though this is a book about Merton, a word about its author, William H. Shannon, is in order before getting to the content. In addition to being a professor emeritus of religious studies, Shannon is the founding president of the International Thomas Merton Society, general editor of Merton's published letters, and author of numerous books on spirituality. So, one finds the expected level of ...

The Inner Experience: Notes on Contemplation

7 reviews
Thomas Merton, William H. Shannon

HarperOne, 2003

The Inner Experience.
The introduction by editor William Shannon is certainly helpful in terms of explaining what this text is. It was something of a labor of love for Merton who recurrently fine-tuned it for a period of several years. Unless you are interested in the process of bringing such a work to publication, you might be better served to simply leap into Merton's thoughts, which begin uneasily with "A ...