From Active to Contemplative (part 3)

Sixth Thursday of Lent

     Congratulations to Stuart Nelson for correctly identifying Thomas Merton as the most famous contemplative of the twentieth century. Five gold stars gets a candy bar.  One other person got it right but did not put in their name. In the future, everyone, when you make a response, do put your name on it. 

      Thomas Merton (1915-1968), born in France, grew up mostly in New York, but also had stints in France, Cambridge, England and Rome. He attended Columbia University earning B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. degrees in English and was the prize student of Mark van Doren, a professor of considerable literary fame. Merton then taught English for two years at St. Bonaventure University. An agnostic in his early years, Merton converted to Catholicism and decided to go all in. He became a monk. He joined a strict monastic order, the Trappists, who take a permanent vow of silence. He remained for almost the entirety of the rest of his life in the Trappist monastery in Gethsemane Kentucky. Recognizing his intellect and literary talent, his abbot allowed him to write and publish. In 1948 his autobiography, The Seven Storey Mountain was published and became a best seller.  Merton would write another 50 books and innumerable essays and articles, mostly on the contemplative life.

     Merton opposed the Vietnam war from its beginning in 1964 and wrote extensively and effectively against it. Though never leaving the monastery or breaking silence, he became a controversial figure allied with the anti-war movement and also wrote advocating pacifism.

     Merton also became increasingly involved in interfaith dialogue, particularly concerning Buddhist monasticism. In 1968 his abbot allowed him to attend a conference in Bangkok, Thailand on Buddhist and Christian monasticism. The Dalai Lama was one of the speakers. Alone in his hotel room after one of the sessions, Merton was electrocuted by a short circuited fan. 

     In 1999 I suggested to one of my Elon Religious Studies majors that she write a paper on Merton. The student, Jena Tenley, who later went on to Ph.D. studies in Religion at Emory University, became disturbed at the circumstances of Merton's death. There was no autopsy. Merton was found lying on his bed with an electric fan on top of him. There was also a bloody gash in the back of his head. Jena theorized that he had been murdered, possibly by agents of the U.S. government, because of his anti-war writings. I had never heard anything like that and thought her theory to be rather fanciful. 

    In 2016 the Roman Catholic theologian and spiritual writer Matthew Fox published a study contending that Merton was assassinated by the CIA. A few others have also written with that view. It is unlikely that we will ever find out for sure exactly how Merton died.

      Merton's writings interested me in the contemplative life, though to be sure I would never want to become a monk. For that matter, I would never become a Catholic. Although his lifestyle would seem horribly confining to us, Merton considered himself privileged. He loved the silence and the solitude. He loved being totally engaged with what was going on in the world, while living totally apart from it. He loved prayer. He found immense joy in contemplation. 

      Here is one quite small way in which Merton has affected me. Have you ever noticed that I date things by the Christian Year rather than the standard months and days. I got that from Merton in his book The Sign of Jonas which is his diary of his first year in the monastery, 1941. All his diary entries are dated by the Christian Year.

    In future posts I will talk about two other contemplatives, one whom most of you knew, Don Schoene. The other, whom I have never met, and who is something of a mystery woman to me, and is an in-law of mine. 

      Enough for now. The movie review will wait for tomorrow. 

Faithfully, 

Christian