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Thomas Merton
(Writer)
[January 31, 1915 - December 10, 1968]

Profile created November 30, 2007

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Thirty Poems (1944)

Man In the Divided Sea (1946)

The Seven Storey Mountain (1948)
A modern-day Confessions of Saint Augustine, The Seven Storey Mountain is one of the most influential religious works of the twentieth century. This edition contains an introduction by Merton's editor, Robert Giroux, and a note to the reader by biographer William H. Shannon. It tells of the growing restlessness of a brilliant and passionate young man whose search for peace and faith leads him, at the age of twenty-six, to take vows in one of the most demanding Catholic orders--the Trappist monks. At the Abbey of Gethsemani, "the four walls of my new freedom," Thomas Merton struggles to withdraw from the world, but only after he has fully immersed himself in it. The Seven Storey Mountain has been a favorite of readers ranging from Graham Greene to Claire Booth Luce, Eldridge Cleaver, and Frank McCourt. And, in the half-century since its original publication, this timeless spiritual tome has been published in over twenty languages and has touched millions of lives.

Seeds of Contemplation (1949)

The Tears of the Blind Lions (1949)

Waters Of Siloe (1949)
An examination of the roots of the Cistercian Order, founded in 1098, its development and waning, and the seventeenth-century reforms by the Abbé de Rancé, which began the second flowering that continues today. Throughout, Merton illuminates the purposes of monasticism. Index; photographs.

The Ascent to Truth (1951)
Merton defines Christian mysticism, especially as expressed by the Spanish Carmelite St. John of the Cross, and he offers the contemplative experience as an answer to the irreligion and barbarism of our times.

Bread in the Wilderness (1953)
The Psalms, which Thomas Merton called "one of the most valid forms of prayer for men of all time," are the most significant and influential collection of religious poems ever written, summing up the theology of the Old Testament and serving as daily nourishment for the devout. Bread in the Wilderness sets forth Merton's belief that "the Psalms acquire, for those who know how to enter into them, a surprising depth, a marvelous and inexhaustible actuality. They are bread, miraculously provided by Christ, to feed those who have followed Him into the wilderness." Merton's goal in this moving book is to help the reader enter into the Psalms: "The secret is placed in the hands of each Christian. It only needs to be discovered and fulfilled in our own lives." The new ND Classic edition of Bread in the Wilderness faithfully reproduces the beautiful, large-format original 1953 New Directions books, created by the celebrated designer Alvin Lustig and lavishly illustrated throughout with photographs of a remarkable medieval crucifix at Perpignan, France.

The Sign of Jonas (1953)
Begun five years after he entered the Abbey of Our Lady of Gethsemani, The Sign of Jonas is an extraordinary view of Merton’s life in a Trappist monastery, and it serves also as a spiritual log recording the deep meaning and increasing sureness he felt in his vocation: the growth of a mind that finds in its contracted physical world new intellectual and spiritual dimensions.

The Last of the Fathers: Saint Bernard of Clairvaux and the Encyclical Letter 'Doctor Mellifluus' (1954)
Merton presents one of the most significant encyclical letters of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, together with an introduction to the life and teachings of the great mystic.

No Man Is an Island (1955)
Here, in one of his most popular of his more than thirty books, Thomas Merton provides further meditations on the spiritual life in sixteen thoughtful essays, beginning with his classic treatise "Love Can Be Kept Only by Being Given Away." This sequel to Seeds of Contemplation provides fresh insight into Merton's favorite topics of silence and solitude, while also underscoring the importance of community and the deep connectedness to others that is the inevitable basis of the spiritual life—whether one lives in solitude or in the midst of a crowd.

Praying the Psalms (1956)
Living Bread (1956)

The Silent Life (1957)
Thomas Merton wrote The Silent Life a decade after he took orders. In his Prologue, Merton describes the book as "a meditation on the monastic life by one who, without any merit of his own, is privileged to know that life on the inside . . . who seeks only to speak as the mouthpiece of a tradition centuries old." It is a remarkable work-one that combines a lucid and informative description of the nature and forms of monasticism, communal and solitary, with a passionate defense of the contemplative's quest for God. The intense beauty of Merton's meditation, radiating from beneath its surface calm, makes The Silent Life a classic of its kind.

Thomas Merton, a Trappist monk, is perhaps the foremost spiritual thinker of the twentieth century. His diaries, social commentary, and spiritual writings continue to be widely read after his untimely death in 1968.

Thoughts In Solitude (1958)
Thoughtful and eloquent, as timely (or timeless) now as when it was originally published in 1956, Thoughts in Solitude addresses the pleasure of a solitary life, as well as the necessity for quiet reflection in an age when so little is private. Thomas Merton writes: "When society is made up of men who know no interior solitude it can no longer be held together by love: and consequently it is held together by a violent and abusive authority. But when men are violently deprived of the solitude and freedom which are their due, the society in which they live becomes putrid, it festers with servility, resentment and hate."

Thoughts in Solitude stands alongside The Seven Storey Mountain as one of Merton's most uring and popular works. Thomas Merton, a Trappist monk, is perhaps the foremost spiritual thinker of the twentiethcentury. His diaries, social commentary, and spiritual writings continue to be widely read after his untimely death in 1968.

Secular Journal of Thomas Merton (1959)

Disputed Questions (1960)
These essays explore the coming together of the active and the contemplative life and the relationship of individuals to society. Merton’s writing is both lively and profound as he leads the reader through the hard questions of modern existence.

The Wisdom of the Desert: Sayings from the Desert Fathers of the Fourth Century (1960)
The Wisdom of the Desert was one of Thomas Merton's favorites among his own books—surely because he had hoped to spend his last years as a hermit. The personal tones of the translations, the blend of reverence and humor so characteristic of him, show how deeply Merton identified with the legendary authors of these sayings and parables, the fourth-century Christian Fathers who sought solitude and contemplation in the deserts of the Near East.

The hermits of Screte who turned their backs on a corrupt society remarkably like our own had much in common with the Zen masters of China and Japan, and Father Merton made his selection from them with an eye to the kind of impact produced by the Zen mondo.

An Introduction to Christian Mysticism (1961)
Lectures given at the Abbey of Gethsemani.
The Behavior of Titans (1961)

The New Man (1961)
The New Man shows Thomas Merton at the height of his powers and has as its theme the question of spiritual identity. What must we do to recover possession of our true selves? By way of an answer, Merton discusses how we have become strangers to ourselves by our depence on outward identity and success, while our real need is for a concern with the image of God in ourselves. At a time of retrieval of our religious traditions, Merton's voice is both intelligent and spiritually compelling.Thomas Merton, a Trappist monk, is perhaps the foremost spiritual thinker of the twentiethcentury. His diaries, social commentary, and spiritual writings continue to be widely read after his untimely death in 1968.

Original Child Bomb: Points for Meditation to be Scratched on the Walls of a Cave (1962)

Emblems of a Season of Fury (1963)

Life and Holiness (1963)
In this brief and readily accessible work, Merton offers his thoughts on what it means to be holy in the face of the anxieties of the modern world.

Seeds of Destruction (1964)
Redeeming the Time (1965)
Seasons of Celebration: Meditations on the Cycle of Liturgical Feasts (1965)

Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander (1966)
In this series of notes, opinions, and reflections kept since 1956, Thomas Merton examines some of the most urgent moral issues of the modern era.

Raids on the Unspeakable (1966)

Mystics and Zen Masters (1967)
Thomas Merton was recognized as one of those rare Western minds that are entirely at home with the Zen experience. In this collection, he discusses diverse religious concepts-early monasticism, Russian Orthodox spirituality, the Shakers, and Zen Buddhism-with characteristic Western directness. Merton not only studied these religions from the outside but grasped them by empathy and living participation from within. "All these studies," wrote Merton, "are united by one central concern: to understand various ways in which men of different traditions have conceived the meaning and method of the 'way' which leads to the highest levels of religious or of metaphysical awareness."

Selected Poems of Thomas Merton (1967)

Cables to the Ace or Familiar Liturgies of Misunderstanding (1968)

Faith and Violence: Christian Teaching and Christian Practice (1968)

Zen and the Birds of Appetite (1968)

Contemplative Prayer (1969)
This is Thomas Merton at his contemplative best, applying ancient wisdom to the longings of our age through his thoughtful commentary on Scripture and important writers of the Western spiritual tradition.

My Argument With the Gestapo: A Macaronic Journal (1969)

Geography of Lograire (1969)

The Way of Chuang Tzu (1969)
Chuang Tzu—considered, along with Lao Tzu, one of the great figures of early Taoist thought—used parables and anecdotes, allegory and paradox, to illustrate that real happiness and freedom are found only in understanding the Tao or Way of nature, and dwelling in its unity. The respected Trappist monk Thomas Merton spent several years reading and reflecting upon four different translations of the Chinese classic that bears Chuang Tzu's name. The result is this collection of poetic renderings of the great sage's work that conveys its spirit in a way no other translation has and that was Merton's personal favorite among his more than fifty books. Both prose and verse are included here, as well as a short section from Merton discussing the most salient themes of Chuang Tzu's teachings.

Contemplation in a World of Action (1971)
The spiritual and psychological insights of these essays were nurtured in a monastic milieu, but their issues are universally human. Merton lays a foundation for personal growth and transformation through fidelity to "our own truth and inner being." His main focus is our desire and need to attain "a fully human and personal identity." This classic is a restored and corrected edition.

The Asian Journal of Thomas Merton (1973)

A Thomas Merton Reader (1974) by Thomas P. McDonnell
This edition brings us Thomas Merton is all his aspects: spiritual writer, poet, peacemaker, man among men, servant of God -- a one-volume synopsis of his quest for truth, drawn not only from his major works but from his lesser-known writings as well.

Ishi Means Man: Essays on Native Americans (1976)

The Collected Poems of Thomas Merton (1977)

Spiritual Direction and Meditation (1986)

The Alaskan Journal of Thomas Merton (1988)

Thomas Merton in Alaska: The Alaskan Conferences, Journals, and Letters (1989)

Contemplative Prayer (1969, 1996)
This is Thomas Merton at his contemplative best, applying ancient wisdom to the longings of our age through his thoughtful commentary on Scripture and important writers of the Western spiritual tradition. Also known as The Climate of Monastic Prayer.
Opening the Bible (2000)

Thomas Merton: Essential Writings (2000), Christine M. Bochen, ed.

Dialogues with Silence: Prayers & Drawings (2001)
Dialogues with Silence contains a selection of prayers from throughout Merton's life--from his journals, letters, poetry, books--accompanied by all 100 of Merton's rarely seen, delightful Zen-like pen-and-ink drawings, and will attract new readers as well as Merton devotees. There is no other Merton devotional like this, and the paperback edition will be elegantly designed and packaged.

Thomas Merton and Thich Nhat Hanh: Engaged Spirituality in an Age of Globalization (2001) by Robert H. King
Advent and Christmas With Thomas Merton (2002)

Seeds (2002)
Thomas Merton is often considered the most prominent Christian contemplative of the twentieth century, but he was also a political activist, social visionary, and literary figure whose writings combine the candor of Thoreau and the moral vision of Gandhi. Here is a remarkably accessible introduction to his work: a collection of a short, vivid excerpts arranged in four parts so as to parallel the journey of a seeking soul in the modern world. "Real and False Selves" distinguishes between our real selves, a deep religious mystery known entirely only to God, and the identities we take on in order to function in society. "The World We Live In" provides a spiritual context to modern life, moving from a stark rejection of its empty promises to a deep compassion for its tragic limitations. "Antidotes to Illusion" reflects on contemplative practices that can serve as the allies of our "real selves" in the battle against illusion: silence, solitude, meditation, prayer, charity, and faith. "Love in Action" explores the role of the contemplative in the modern age and the challenges and pitfalls of living a life of active love. Merton's startling critique of a society driven by technology and rampant acquisition, the politics of "good versus evil," and the self-deluding complacency of the spiritual "lifestyle" demonstrate beyond doubt that his writings are as urgent today as they were in his lifetime.

Seeking Paradise: The Spirit of the Shakers (2003), Paul M. Pearson, ed.
When the Trees Say Nothing (2003), Kathleen Deignan, ed. and John Giuliani, Illustrator
Millions know Thomas Merton as the author of The Seven Storey Mountain, the autobiography that became an international bestseller and a modern spiritual classic. Merton, a prolific spiritual writer and social activist, inspired a generation from the silence and solitude of a Trappist monastery. Decades after his death, he remains a modern spiritual master, a source of wisdom on peace, racial harmony, poverty, alienation, and the engagement of Eastern and Western spiritual traditions.

Now Merton is also revealed as a man whose spirituality is rooted in nature, an environmentalist ahead of his time. His writings on nature serve as a primer on eco-spirituality. He approaches ecology as a spiritual issue, one that exposes the degree of human alienation from the sacredness of the planet.

When The Trees Say Nothing gathers for the first time over 300 of Merton's nature writings, grouping them thematically into sections on the seasons, elements, creatures and other topics. Edited by Merton scholar Kathleen Deignan, the collection is cohesive and accessible, drawing from both Merton's public writings and his recently published private journals. The lyrical writings are enhanced with Deignan's own informative Introduction, along with a Foreword by Thomas Berry, renowned spiritual mentor for the environmental movement.

Unique and powerful on its own, When the Trees Say Nothing is enhanced with the art of John B. Giuliani, known for his

On the Banks of Monks Pond: The Thomas Merton/Jonathan Greene Correspondence (2004)
This is a book that might well begin, "Once upon a time… and a place." The time, 1967 and 1968, a period of now mythic cultural significance; the place, central Kentucky, from all appearances far from the epicenters of that cultural upheaval. Yet it was then and there in that other, less centralized community, that Jonathan Greene, a young poet and fledgling publisher from New York City by way of California, met one of the world’s most famous and public hermits, Thomas Merton. The result was the tragically brief friendship and literary collaboration that is celebrated in this volume.

Greene’s introductory memoir sets the scene, describing the unexpectedly rich intellectual and artistic milieu out in the "hinterland" of Kentucky where he was introduced to Merton through mutual friends. Two brief essays on Merton provide further context for the letters that follow, and demonstrate both the breadth of Merton’s literary interests and the depth of Greene’s knowledge of his friend’s writings. Their letters, all too few, coincided with the limited run of Merton’s literary magazine, Monks Pond, and his exchange with Greene (then publishing his own journal, Gnomon) reveals two deeply erudite and abundantly witty minds at work with the earnest joy of language. The longing of the reader that this collaboration might have lasted for many more years is underscored by the poignancy of Greene’s elegiac poem that closes the volume.

Both Greene and Merton have been hermits in their respective fashions, yet both in finding their footing away from the larger world found that their feet were nevertheless on the pathway connecting them to that world, engaging them in the life of the mind and of the spirit. Their words, surviving the silence of decades, are indeed all the better for it.
Peace In The Post-christian Era (2004)

The Inner Experience: Notes on Contemplation (2004), William H. Shannon, ed.
Never before published except as a series of articles (one per chapter) in an academic journal, this book on contemplation was revised by Merton shortly before his untimely death. The material bridges Merton's early work on Catholic monasticism, mysticism, and contemplation with his later writing on Eastern, especially Buddhist, traditions of meditation and spirituality. This book thus provides a comprehensive understanding of contemplation that draws on the best of Western and Eastern traditions.

Merton was still tinkering with this book when he died; it was the book he struggled with most during his career as a writer. But now the Merton Legacy Trust and experts have determined that the book makes such a valuable contribution as his major comprehensive presentation of contemplation that they have allowed its publication.

Thomas Merton: An Introduction (2005) by William H. Shannon
A Book of Hours (2007) by Thomas Merton with Kathleen Deignan, ed. and John Giuliani, Illustrator
Thomas Merton was the most popular proponent of the Christian contemplative tradition in the twentieth century. Now, for the first time, some of his most lyrical and prayerful writings have been arranged into A Book of Hours, a rich resource for daily prayer and contemplation that imitates the increasingly popular ancient monastic practice of "praying the hours". Editor Kathleen Deignan mined Merton's voluminous writings, arranging prayers for Dawn, Day, Dusk, and Dark for each of the days of the week. A Book of Hours allows for a slice of monastic contemplation in the midst of hectic modern life, with psalms, prayers, readings, and reflections.
Echoing Silence: Thomas Merton on the Vocation of Writing (2007), Robert Inchausti, ed.
When Thomas Merton entered a Trappist monastery in December 1941, he turned his back on secular life—including a very promising literary career. He sent his journals, a novel-in-progess, and copies of all his poems to his mentor, Columbia professor Mark Van Doren, for safe keeping, fully expecting to write little, if anything, ever again. It was a relatively short-lived resolution, for Merton almost immediately found himself being assigned writing tasks by his Abbot—one of which was the autobiographical essay that blossomed into his international best-seller The Seven Storey Mountain. That book made him famous overnight, and for a time he struggled with the notion that the vocation of the monk and the vocation of the writer were incompatible. Monasticism called for complete surrender to the absolute, whereas writing demanded a tactical withdrawal from experience in order to record it. He eventually came to accept his dual vocation as two sides of the same spiritual coin and used it as a source of creative tension the rest of his life. Merton’s thoughts on writing have never been compiled into a single volume until now. Robert Inchausti has mined the vast Merton literature to discover what he had to say on a whole spectrum of literary topics, including writing as a spiritual calling, the role of the Christian writer in a secular society, the joys and mysteries of poetry, and evaluations of his own literary work. Also included are fascinating glimpses of his take on a range of other writers, including Albert Camus, Dylan Thomas, Flannery O’Connor, Henry Miller, Henry David Thoreau, James Joyce, and even along with many others.
New Seeds of Contemplation (1961, 2007)
In print for more than forty years, New Seeds of Contemplation has served as a guide to the contemplative life for several generations of spiritual seekers. The word contemplation is itself somewhat problematical, according to Thomas Merton: ?It can become almost a magic word, or if not magic, then ?inspirational,? which is almost as bad.? In this modern Christian classic, Merton reveals contemplation to be nothing other than ?life itself, fully awake, fully active, fully aware that it is alive.? The thirty-nine short ?seeds? that make up this book are intended to awaken and cultivate the contemplative, mystical dimension of the spiritual path for everyone. New Seeds of Contemplation is a revised and expanded version of Merton?s earlier book Seeds of Contemplation.
Thomas Merton: In My Own Words (2007), Jonathan Montaldo, ed.
Thomas Merton is widely acclaimed as one of the most influential American spiritual writers of the past century. Thousands of readers have drawn strength from his words and the witness of his life. His autobiography, The Seven Storey Mountain appears on lists of the 100 most important books of the century.

Merton is distinguished among contemporary spiritual writers by the depth and substance of his thinking. He was able to distill the best writings of theologians, philosophers, and poets over the centuries, from both the West and the East, and presented their ideas in the context of the Christian worldview.

Thomas Merton: In My Own Words provides a portal into the monastic vocation of Thomas Merton and gives us a snapshot of his entire life. His words encourage readers to embrace their own vocation as baptized Christians, as members of the human family, and as people in relationship.

An Introduction to Christian Mysticism Series, Patrick E. O'Connell, ed.
Charged with training young monks at Gethsemani Abbey, Thomas Merton combined his literary genius and his love of the monastic tradition to produce Monastic Orientation Notes as the bases of his classes. In this volume, he treats the many and varied forms of monastic life which preceded, and helped to form, the Rule of Saint Benedict.

Pre-Benedictine Monasticism (2006)
Initiation Into the Monastic Tradition, 3 (2008 release), Patrick E. O'connell, ed.

Bridges to Contemplative Living with Thomas Merton Series, Jonathan Montaldo and Robert G. Toth, eds.

Becoming Who You Already Are (2006)
Bridges to Contemplative Living With Thomas Merton (2006)
Entering the School of Your Experience (2006)
Discovering the Hidden Ground of Love (2007)
Living Your Deepest Desires (2007)
Adjusting Your Life's Vision (2008 release)
Seeing That Paradise Begins Now (2008 release)

The Journals of Thomas Merton
When Thomas Merton died accidentally in Bangkok in 1968, the beloved Trappist monk's will specified that his personal diaries not be published for 25 years -- presumably because they contained his uncensored thoughts and feelings. Now, a quarter of a century has passed since Merton's death, and the journals are the last major piece of writing to appear by the 20th century's most important spiritual writer.

The first of seven volumes, Run to the Mountain offers an intimate glimpse at the inner life of a young, pre-monastic Merton. Here readers will witness the insatiably curious graduate student in New York's Greenwich Village give way to the tentative spiritual seeker and brilliant writer. Merton playfully lists everything from his favorite lines of poetry and songs to the things he most loves and hates.

Thomas Merton was an inveterate diarist; his journals offer a complete and candid look at the rich transformations of his adult life. As Brother Patrick Hart, general editor of the series notes, "Perhaps his best writing can be found in the journals, where he was expressing what was deepest in his heart with no thought of censorship. With their publication we will have as complete a picture of Thomas Merton as we can hope to have."

Other

Striving Towards Being: The Letters of Thomas Merton and Czeslaw Milosz (1996)
"These letters, written from 1958 to 1968, trace the growing friendship and fascinating arguments between the Trappist monk Thomas Merton and Czeslaw Milosz, the poet who was later exiled from his native Poland, yet went on to win the 1980 Nobel Prize in literature. The quest to make sense out of the human condition is the bridge between their worlds of literature and religion, and the two men have a lot to say to one another. Is humanity inherently good? Can art save us from ourselves? Can war be justified? These letters are worth reading strictly for the quality of the writing and the thinking, but they are also valuable as literary biography and cultural history." -- Amazon.com

Works by Thomas Merton(Writer) [January 31, 1915 - December 10, 1968]

Books

Bridges to Contemplative Living with Thomas Merton Series, Jonathan Montaldo and Robert G. Toth, eds.

Other

See also:

Works by
Thomas Merton
(Writer)
[January 31, 1915 - December 10, 1968]