Thomas Merton: Early Essays, 1947-1952 Volume 266
This volume gathers together twelve essays that Thomas Merton wrote for various journals between 1947 and 1952, the years that saw the publication of his best-selling autobiography The Seven Storey Mountain, his ordination to the priesthood, and his initial appointment as spiritual and intellectual guide of the young monks at the Abbey of Gethsemani. The essays, most of which have never been reprinted, focus above all on aspects of the contemplative life but also consider the spiritual dimensions of literature and the social implications of Christian life.

Issued to coincide with the one hundredth anniversary of his birth, this collection brings to fruition at long last Merton’s own original plan of publishing these essays as a group and so makes available a previously little recognized and underutilized resource for understanding and appreciating a crucial transitional phase in his life as both monk and writer.  
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Thomas Merton: Early Essays, 1947-1952 Volume 266
This volume gathers together twelve essays that Thomas Merton wrote for various journals between 1947 and 1952, the years that saw the publication of his best-selling autobiography The Seven Storey Mountain, his ordination to the priesthood, and his initial appointment as spiritual and intellectual guide of the young monks at the Abbey of Gethsemani. The essays, most of which have never been reprinted, focus above all on aspects of the contemplative life but also consider the spiritual dimensions of literature and the social implications of Christian life.

Issued to coincide with the one hundredth anniversary of his birth, this collection brings to fruition at long last Merton’s own original plan of publishing these essays as a group and so makes available a previously little recognized and underutilized resource for understanding and appreciating a crucial transitional phase in his life as both monk and writer.  
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Thomas Merton: Early Essays, 1947-1952 Volume 266

Thomas Merton: Early Essays, 1947-1952 Volume 266

Thomas Merton: Early Essays, 1947-1952 Volume 266
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Thomas Merton: Early Essays, 1947-1952 Volume 266

Thomas Merton: Early Essays, 1947-1952 Volume 266

Overview

This volume gathers together twelve essays that Thomas Merton wrote for various journals between 1947 and 1952, the years that saw the publication of his best-selling autobiography The Seven Storey Mountain, his ordination to the priesthood, and his initial appointment as spiritual and intellectual guide of the young monks at the Abbey of Gethsemani. The essays, most of which have never been reprinted, focus above all on aspects of the contemplative life but also consider the spiritual dimensions of literature and the social implications of Christian life.

Issued to coincide with the one hundredth anniversary of his birth, this collection brings to fruition at long last Merton’s own original plan of publishing these essays as a group and so makes available a previously little recognized and underutilized resource for understanding and appreciating a crucial transitional phase in his life as both monk and writer.  

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780879072667
Publisher: Liturgical Press
Publication date: 05/19/2015
Series: Cistercian Studies , #266
Edition description: Reprint
Pages: 192
Product dimensions: 5.40(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Patrick F. O’Connell is professor of English and theology at Gannon University in Erie, Pennsylvania. A founding member and former president of the International Thomas Merton Society, he edits The Merton Seasonal and is coauthor of The Thomas Merton Encyclopedia. He has edited eight previous volumes of Thomas Merton’s monastic conferences for the Monastic Wisdom Series, most recently The Cistercian Fathers and Their Monastic Theology (2016), and he is also editor of Merton’s Selected Essays (2013) and Early Essays: 1947–1952 (2015).




Jonathan Montaldo has served as director of the Thomas Merton Center at Bellarmine University and is a past president of the International Thomas Merton Society. His editions of Thomas Merton's works include Entering the Silence: Thomas Merton's Journals, Volume 2; The Intimate Merton: His Life from His Journals (with Patrick Hart); Dialogues with Silence: Thomas Merton's Prayers & Drawings; A Year with Thomas Merton; Thomas Merton In His Own Words; Choosing to Love the World: Thomas Merton on Contemplation; and the eight-volume series Bridges to Contemplative Living with Thomas Merton (with Robert G. Toth).

Table of Contents

Foreword vii

Acknowledgments xiii

Introduction xv

Part 1 Articles from The Commonweal

"Poetry and the Contemplative Life" (July 4, 1947) 3

"The Trappists Go to Utah" (August 29, 1947) 17

"Active and Contemplative Orders" (December 5, 1947) 28

"A Christmas Devotion" (December 26, 1947) 39

"Is Mysticism Normal?" (November 4, 1949) 47

"Self-Denial and the Christian" (March 31, 1950) 60

Part 2 Articles from Other Periodicals

"Death of a Trappist" (Integrity: November 1947) 75

"A Trappist Speaks on People, Priests and Prayer" (The Messenger of the Sacred Heart: April 1948) 84

"Contemplation in a Rocking Chair"(Integrity: August 1948) 91

"The Contemplative Life: Its Meaning and Necessity" (The Dublin Review: Winter 1949) 103

"The Primacy of Contemplation" (Cross and Crown: March 1950) 116

"Christ Suffers Again" (Action Now! March 1952) 133

Appendix 1 Textual Notes 136

Appendix 2 "States of Life" John Fearon, O.P 146

Merton Journal Entries: January 22, 24, 26, 1949 161

Bibliography 167

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