Thomas Merton and the Monastic Vision

Merton was an amazing person, and this is a great study of him.

I am always amazed at how people, who never even met Merton one time, seem to, somehow, know all about him. Incredible -- literally. Also, this author is arrogant and denigrating. For one example: Merton's affair with "M" was not just an adolescent crush fueled primarily by hormones. Merton wrote about the affair (among many wonderful and beautiful things): "For the first time in my life I know that I can love and that I am loveable." Doesn't sound like a lark to me.

Lawrence S. Cunningham, himself a monk of Getsemani, where Merton spent most of his monastic life, understands the nature of his confrere's spirituality better than most commentators. He deals with Merton from the inside; no gossip, no personal opinions about Merton's admittedly highly idiosyncratic way of living out his vocation, just a clear, well-organised and altogether fascinating look at the man in the context of his relationship with God as it was lived out in his Cistercian community. Marred only by one or two slips that have somehow got past the copy editor, this is a must for anyone who is seriously interested in understanding one of the 20th century's most influential spiritual thinkers.

This biography does not only give the basics of Thomas Merton's life story, but vividly shows how all he did was intimitely intertwined with his monastic vocation.