The Environmental Vision of Thomas Merton

by Monica Weis

Overview

Nature was always vital in Thomas Merton's life, from the long hours he spent as a child watching his father paint landscapes in the fresh air, to his final years of solitude in the hermitage at Our Lady of Gethsemani, where he contemplated and wrote about the beauty of his surroundings. Throughout his life, Merton's study of the natural world shaped his spirituality in profound ways, and he was one of the first writers to raise concern about ecological issues that have become critical in recent

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780813130040
Publisher:	University Press of Kentucky
Publication date:	06/24/2011
Series:	Culture of the Land
Pages:	216
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.20(h) x 0.80(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Monica Weis, a Sister of St. Joseph, is professor of English at Nazareth College in Rochester, New York. She is the author of Thomas Merton's Gethsemani: Landscapes of Paradise, a nonfiction finalist in the 2005 Kentucky Literary Awards. She lives in Rochester, New York.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations viii

Foreword ix

Acknowledgments xiii

List of Abbreviations xv

List of Illustrations viii

Foreword ix

Acknowledgments xiii

List of Abbreviations xv

Introduction: Dancing with the Raven 1

Chapter 1 Encountering Rachel Carson: Environmentalist and Provocateur 9

Chapter 2 Learning to See: Becoming Awake 22

Chapter 3 "Spots of Time": Moments of Awakening 48

Chapter 4 Seeing Differently: Recognizing the Holy in the Ordinary 66

Chapter 5 Merging Inner and Outer Landscapes: Prayer, Poetry, and Photography 93

Chapter 6 Merton's Evolving Ecological Consciousness 126

Afterword. Woodland Deer: An Ecological Journey in Miniature 157

Notes 167

Bibliography 177

Permissions 185

Index 187

Editorial Reviews

This book carefully chronicles his environmental development, sets it in the context of all his work, and will be a helpful aid for individuals.

Choice

[A] masterful book, sure to be a rock-solid point of departure for any further forays into this very important topic.

Southern Register

Monica Weis's delightful The Environmental Vision of Thomas Merton is a superb guide to the ecological themes of Merton's life and writings.

Christian Century

The Environmental Vision of Thomas Merton explores the powerful influence of nature on Merton's spiritual development and ecological consciousness, specifically illuminating his journey from mere delight in nature to a committed responsibility for its welfare — a movement that placed him ahead of his time on environmental issues and unique in his approach to our relationship with nature.

Appalachian News-Express

The Environmental Vision of Thomas Merton... draws masterfully upon... personal correspondence and private note keeping to show how Merton's enjoyment of nature grew into a deeply spiritual experience, eventually becoming inextricably part of his monastic prayer life and propelling him to unite his voice with those speaking out against abuse of the earth.

The Southern Register

The idea at the center of Monica Weis's new book — that Thomas Merton, who was ahead of his time on so many social issues, had become an environmentalist before he died in 1968 — is definitely intriguing. [Weis] traces Merton's "evolving ecological consciousness" [...] through the last five years of his life [...] she produces convincing evidence that, at the time of his death, Merton was well on his way toward being the spiritual conscious of the environmental movement.

June 24, 2011 - Michael McGregor

Reminds all of us that authentic 'private' spiritual/religious convictions have profound public, social implications. Beautifully produced and illustrated, engagingly written, Weis's work makes an important contribution to the study of literature and the environment in the twenty-first century.

Isle

With her special inroads into his life and his writings, for Merton was a writer long before he was a monk, [Weis] has produced this well researched book giving insight into Merton's love of nature and the natural world.

Homestead.org

"This well-written survey of Merton's appreciation of the natural environment is a welcome addition to the scholarship pursuing a more complete understanding of his enormous legacy."—Cistercian Studies Quarterly

From the Publisher

Readers of Thomas Merton's writings are certainly all too aware of his frequent and detailed reference to nature especially in his journal writings. This book is in the first scholarly study of Merton's writings on nature, and Weis does a masterful job of situating them within trends seen in other nature writers and poets, making connections across literary and theological boundaries and demonstrating Merton's evolving ecological consciousness at the very beginnings of the ecological movement. It is a groundbreaking book.

Dr. Paul M. Pearson

Making use of both primary and secondary sources, Monica Weis explores the amazing growth of Thomas Merton's ecological consciousness, especially during his 27 years as a monk of Gethsemani in Kentucky. This well-written survey of Merton's appreciation of the natural environment is a welcome addition to a more complete understanding of Thomas Merton's enormous legacy.

Br. Patrick Hart

A very welcome addition to the Merton library... Monica Weis deserves the accolades that come with making a meaningful contribution to the body of Merton scholarship.

Merton Journal

The Environmental Vision of Thomas Merton ... shows how the writings of one profound man continue to challenge us to see with new eyes.

Rochester Catholic Courier

In this wise and luminous book, Monica Weis shares the fruits of her research in a comprehensive synthesis filled with vivid details from Merton's journals, poetry and other writings. In prose both lyrical and logical, Weis traces Merton's appreciation and affinity for nature from his early life in France through his final years in his hermitage. She shows that protecting the natural world was an integral part of Merton's social consciousness, and the challenge of his environmental vision is as powerful and as pertinent in today's world of ecological crisis as it was during Merton's own lifetime.

Patrick F. O'Connell

Thomas Merton saw the hidden praise of God in the world of nature but understood that to sense that presence required a contemplative and poetic eye. Merton had both the eye and the poetic vocabulary as Monica Weis shows in this sensitive and perceptive study.

Lawrence S. Cunningham

As Weis journeys through the physical landscapes of Merton's life, she begins to detect more of the growing awareness of God's presence in Merton's story and how it shaped him (and how it shapes us too).

Christian Perspectives on Science & Technology

Monica Weis, a Sister of St. Joseph, explains how Merton evolved from a nature enthusiast... to one of the world's most respected ecological stewards.

Louisville Courier Journal