Intimate Merton: His Life from His Journals
Thomas Merton, Patrick Hart, Jonathan Montaldo, Patrick Hart (Editor)Books.org participates in affiliate programs including Bookshop.org and the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. We may earn a commission from qualifying purchases made through links on this page, at no additional cost to you.
Overview
In this diary-like memoir, composed of his most poignant and insightful journal entries, The Intimate Merton lays bare the steep ways of Thomas Merton's spiritual path. Culled from the seven volumes of his personal journals, this twenty nine year chronicle deepens and extends the story Thomas Merton recounted and made famous in The Seven Storey Mountain. This book is the spiritual autobiography of our century's most celebrated monk — the wisdom gained from the personal experience of an enduring spiritual teacher. Here is Merton's account of his life's major challenges, his confrontations with monastic and church hierarchies, his interaction with religious traditions east and west, and his antiwar and civil-rights activities. In The Intimate Merton we engage a writer's art of "confession and witness" as he searches for a contemporary, authentic, and global spirituality.
Recounting Merton's earliest days in the monastery to his journey east to meet the Dalai Lama, The Intimate Merton captures the essence of what makes Thomas Merton's life journey so perennially relevant.
Synopsis
In this diary-like memoir, composed of his most poignant and insightful journal entries, The Intimate Merton lays bare the steep ways of Thomas Merton's spiritual path. Culled from the seven volumes of his personal journals, this twenty nine year chronicle deepens and extends the story Thomas Merton recounted and made famous in The Seven Storey Mountain. This book is the spiritual autobiography of our century's most celebrated monk — the wisdom gained from the personal experience of an enduring spiritual teacher. Here is Merton's account of his life's major challenges, his confrontations with monastic and church hierarchies, his interaction with religious traditions east and west, and his antiwar and civil-rights activities. In The Intimate Merton we engage a writer's art of "confession and witness" as he searches for a contemporary, authentic, and global spirituality.
Recounting Merton's earliest days in the monastery to his journey east to meet the Dalai Lama, The Intimate Merton captures the essence of what makes Thomas Merton's life journey so perennially relevant.
Merton Seasonal
My suspicion is that bookshelves the world over will bend - at least temporarily - from the weight of this latest offering from Patrick Hart and Johnathan Montaldo, editors of The Intimate Merton: His Life from His Journals, before the book achieves the best-seller status it deserves and flies out of the stores...With the publication of this stunning diary-like memoir, the gravitational pull of Thomas Merton's legacy will have no end in sight.
Editorials
Anne Lamott
A lot of my spiritual seeking began with Thomas Merton. He is an incredible source of light and comfort and humor. You meet a great spirit in this book.Kenneth Woodward
Merton's real autobiography is in his personal journals. They reveal an uncaged mind ceaselessly churned by contemporary events and culture...To those of us who devoured his bestselling books on contemplative prayer, it seemed that Merton had all the important questions answered. But in the journals we find him turning old answers into new questions. —NewsweekNew York Times Book Review
Brilliant social, political, and personal commentaries.Doris Donnelly
My suspicion is that bookshelves the world over will bend - at least temporarily - from the weight of this latest offering from Patrick Hart and Johnathan Montaldo, editors of The Intimate Merton: His Life from His Journals , before the book achieves the best-seller status it deserves and flies out of the stores...With the publication of this stunning diary-like memoir, the gravitational pull of Thomas Merton's legacy will have no end in sight. —The Merton SeasonalMerton Seasonal
With the publication of this stunning, diary-like memoir, the gravitational pull of Thomas Merton's legacy will have no end in sight.Frank McCourt
I... rejoice in this rich volume, The Intimate Merton. It is a book I will keep by my bed for the spiritual nourishment and the pure joy in the writing.Newsweek
Merton's real autobiography is in his personal journals. They reveal an uncaged mind ceaselessly churned by contemporary events and culture...To those of us who devoured his bestselling books on contemplative prayer, it seemed that Merton had all the important questions answered. But in the journals we find him turning old answers into new questions.New York Times Book Review
...brilliant social, political, and personal commentaries.Merton Seasonal
My suspicion is that bookshelves the world over will bend - at least temporarily - from the weight of this latest offering from Patrick Hart and Johnathan Montaldo, editors of The Intimate Merton: His Life from His Journals, before the book achieves the best-seller status it deserves and flies out of the stores...With the publication of this stunning diary-like memoir, the gravitational pull of Thomas Merton's legacy will have no end in sight.Tjurunga
The value of abridgement depends on the quality of the editors. Here we could ask for nothing more....[Patrick Hart and Jonathan Montaldo] produced a readable and moving condensation of Merton's journals that will doubtlessly attract a wide and appreciative readership.Frank McCourt
I rejoice in this rich volume. . . It is a book I will keep by my bed for the spiritual nourishment and the pure joy in the writing.Anne Lamott
A lot of my spiritual seeking began with Thomas Merton. He is an incredible source of light and comfort and humor. You meet a great spirit in this book.Dianne Aprile
In this sensitively culled and skillfully edited collection of diary passages, even the best-read student of Merton will come away knowing him better, appreciating him more...This book may be of even greater interest to the newcomer to Merton, the Catholic author and social activist who is arguably one of the best-read literary religious writers of our time. —The Courier-JournalPublishers Weekly
"A path through the woods" is the description Hart and Montaldo Merton's last secretary and a Merton lecturer, respectively give to this condensation of the diaries faithfully kept by Merton before and throughout his 27 years as a Trappist monk at Our Lady of Gethsemani monastery in Kentucky. "Woods" serves as metaphor for Merton's full body of autobiographical work, encompassing the journals published during his life and the seven volumes that remained unpublished for 25 years after his death in 1968. This manageable portrait of Merton's inner and outer life, beginning in 1939, is condensed from the seven volumes and will likely suffice for all but Merton scholars and the most devoted aficionados. Merton's restlessness, his frustration with censorship of his anti-war writings and his affinity for nature are portrayed here. Readers are privy to his dreams and his experiences of divine and human love, including details of his secretive love affair. The volume ends as abruptly as his life, cut short at age 53 by accidental electrocution in Bangkok, where he was exploring Asian religions. The path cleared by Hart and Montaldo, worthy guides to this terrain, is a boon for busy readers, who will turn to Merton's journals not only for information about his life but to learn, from his spiritual self-scrutiny, more about themselves. Dec. Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.Library Journal
This is a one-volume condensation of Merton's journals, which have been published over the last few years; its seven chapters correspond to the seven volumes of Merton's complete journals. Hart, who was Merton's last secretary, and Montaldo (Entering the Silence) have maintained all of Merton's central themes--including the controversial ones, like the relationship with the nurse identified as "M." and Merton's doubts about his vocation. Unfortunately, owing to deletions, the transitions are sometimes abrupt and jarring, and footnotes from the original identifying persons and terms have been removed. But this is certainly not an attempt to sanitize Merton's journals; all of Hart and Mantaldo's condensing is intended to make their riches available to those who do not want to wade through all seven volumes. A nice selection of photographs is included. Because Merton is probably the most widely selling American spiritual writer, this title is sure to be in great demand. For most libraries.--Augustine J. Curley, O.S.B., Newark Abbey, NJ Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.Marvin Barrett
Independent of the overall story line, the journals contain some of Merton's finest writing.— Parabola