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Passion for Peace

Name: Passion for Peace
Author: William H. Shannon
ISBN: 9780824514945

by William H. Shannon

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Overview

This comprehensive volume contains Thomas Merton's principal writings on non-violence, war, and racism. Much of what he wrote between 1961 and 1968 is prophetic and speaks penetratingly to our time. Wars and rumors of war are still with us. Justice and love remain a dream. In most of these articles, it's as if Merton is actually writing in the 1990s. He is speaking to us - reminding us of the essential oneness that roots the equal dignity of all peoples. Merton's writings on social issues flowed from a deep contemplative vision. Editor William Shannon puts each essay in context and reveals how this vision developed. We see a side of Merton's character that does not come through in his other books: his passion for peace and the ardor with which he pleaded for it in a world where people so desperately yearn for it. Passion for Peace is a book of testament, vision, and hope.

This comprehensive volume contains Thomas Merton's principal writings on non-violence, war and racism. Much of what he wrote between 1961 and 1968 is prophetic and speaks penetratingly to our time. He is speaking to us--reminding us of the essential oneness that roots the equal dignity of all peoples.

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Editorials

Ray Olson

William H. Shannon, the biographer ("Silent Lamp" [1992]) of the great American Catholic apostle of nonviolence and racial justice, Thomas Merton, here restores to print Merton's essays on those matters and provides the briefest of context-setting headnotes to each. Introductorily, Shannon notes how much soul searching and courage it took for Merton to speak out against the cold war and its perversions, as he saw them, of society, the economy, language, and religion, at a time when his own Catholic Church was, if not silent about war, liable to cheer on armed American aggression. These particular writings of Merton's are, besides being stirring reminders of the Christian duty to prosecute peace, documents of importance to American history as much as or more than to Christian history.