Signs of Hope: Thomas Merton's Letters on Peace, Race, and Ecology

by Gordon Oyer

Overview

US$30.00 BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Religious RELIGION / Christian Living / Social Issues RELIGION / Christianity / Catholic SIGNS OF HOPE Thomas Merton’s Letters on Peace, Race, and Ecology Gordon Oyer Signs of Hope traces Thomas Merton’s social engagement through his correspondence around themes of peace, race, and ecology with notable individuals, including Dorothy Day, Daniel Berrigan, and Vincent Harding. Each chapter reveals themes from his life of dialogue, his apostolate of friendship, and his probing assessment of critical issues that remain vital for our time. “In the best researched book in amiable prose and most relevant exposition in years about Thomas Merton, Gordon Oyer’s detailed review of Merton’s personal letters that transcend conflicting perspectives on racial justice is ground-breaking!”—Jonathan Montaldo, Bridges to Contemplative Living with Thomas Merton “In Signs of Hope Gordon Oyer distills for the reader timely insights from Thomas Merton’s correspondence into the critical issues of Merton’s day as if Merton were addressing those selfsame issues, here and now in the twenty-first century. Truly prophetic.”—Paul M. Pearson, Director, Thomas Merton Center “Gordon Oyer’s deep foray into Merton’s correspondence is a must read! Meticulously researched and skillfully crafted, Signs of Hope not only illumines the development of Merton’s thinking on urgent issues of his day but also animates our work for social transformation today.”—Christine M. Bochen, editor, Thomas Merton: Essential Writings “Oyer’s warm, compassionate voice and skill as historian locates these letters inside our own urgent social questions with a subtle buoyancy.”—Rose Marie Berger, Senior Editor, Sojourners magazine “Oyer offers a ‘peace and social justice movement history through epistolary’ that puts Merton’s correspondence in critical conversation with our fraught times—and thus with a new generation.”—Ched Myers, co-author, Healing Haunted Histories: A Settler Discipleship of Decolonization Gordon Oyer is the author of Pursuing the Spiritual Roots of Protest: Merton, Berrigan, Yoder, and Muste at the Gethsemani Abbey Peacemakers Retreat, which won the 2015 “Louie” Award from the International Thomas Merton Society for the best contribution to Merton studies. Cover design: Regina Gelfer Cover photo: Thomas Merton Center, Bellarmine University ORBIS LOGO ISBN 978-1-62698-430-1

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781626984301
Publisher:	Orbis Books
Publication date:	10/20/2021
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	5.38(w) x 8.25(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Gordon Oyer is the author of Pursuing the Spiritual Roots of Protest: Merton, Berrigan, Yoder, Muste at the Gethsemane Peacemakers Retreat (Cascade Books, 2014), which won the International Thomas Merton Society’s Louie Award for the best contribution to Merton studies of the previous two years.

Table of Contents

Foreword William Apel ix

Preface xiii

Acknowledgments xvii

Abbreviations xix

Introduction Seeking a Transformed Society through Letters 1

Part I Advancing a Catholic Gospel of Peace

1 Prayer, Perseverance, Peace: The Merton-Day Letters 25

2 Nonviolence: The Merton-Douglass Letters 47

3 Movements and Conscience: The Merton-Forest Letters 66

4 Resistance: The Merton-Daniel Berrigan Letters 91

Part II Reaching across the Racial Divide

5 Racial Justice: The Merton-Green Letters 121

6 Telling Truth: The Merton-Thompson Letters 133

7 Vulnerability: The Merton-Williams Letters 154

8 Whiteness: The Merton-Harding Letters 182

Part III Re-Visioning a Fragmented World

9 Confronting Modern Cultural Dynamics 205

10 An Ecological Consciousness 228

Postscript 249

Bibliography 253

Index 265

Editorial Reviews

In the best researched book in amiable prose and most relevant exposition in years about Thomas Merton, Gordon Oyer’s detailed review of Merton’s personal letters that transcend conflicting perspectives on racial justice is ground-breaking!”—Jonathan Montaldo, Bridges to Contemplative Living with Thomas Merton “In Signs of Hope Gordon Oyer distills for the reader timely insights from Thomas Merton’s correspondence into the critical issues of Merton’s day as if Merton were addressing those selfsame issues, here and now in the twenty-first century. Truly prophetic.”—Paul M. Pearson, Director, Thomas Merton Center “Gordon Oyer’s deep foray into Merton’s correspondence is a must read! Meticulously researched and skillfully crafted, Signs of Hope not only illumines the development of Merton’s thinking on urgent issues of his day but also animates our work for social transformation today.”—Christine M. Bochen, editor, Thomas Merton: Essential Writings “Oyer’s warm, compassionate voice and skill as historian locates these letters inside our own urgent social questions with a subtle buoyancy.”—Rose Marie Berger, Senior Editor, Sojourners magazine “Oyer offers a ‘peace and social justice movement history through epistolary’ that puts Merton’s correspondence in critical conversation with our fraught times—and thus with a new generation.”—Ched Myers, co-author, Healing Haunted Histories: A Settler Discipleship of Decolonization

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