John Moses - Divine Discontent: The Prophetic Voice of Thomas Merton

DIVINE DISCONTENT

Divine Discontent

The Prophetic Voice of Thomas Merton

John Moses

Foreword by Rowan Williams

First published in Great Britain 2014

Copyright John Moses, 2014

The moral right of the author has been asserted

No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the Publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. Every reasonable effort has been made to trace copyright holders of material reproduced in this book, but if any have been inadvertently overlooked the Publishers would be glad to hear from them.

A Continuum book

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A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN ePub: 978-1-4411-2669-6

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

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In piam memoriam

H.W. and A.E.M.

Copyright Permissions

Excerpts from writings by Thomas Merton are reprinted by permission of the following institutions.

Doubleday: Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander, copyright 1965, 1966 by The Abbey of Gethsemani. Used by permission of Doubleday, an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, a division of Random House LLC.

Farrar, Straus, Giroux: Disputed Questions, copyright 1960 by The Abbey of Our Lady of Gethsemani. Copyright renewed 1988 by Alan Hanson. Used by permission of Farrar, Straus, Giroux. The Letters of Thomas Merton, Volume 1, The Hidden Ground of Love, Edited by William H. Shannon, copyright 1985; The Letters of Thomas Merton, Volume 2, The Road to Joy, Edited by Robert E. Daggy, copyright 1989; The Letters of Thomas Merton, Volume 3, The School of Charity, Edited by Patrick Hart, copyright 1990; The Letters of Thomas Merton, Volume 4, The Courage for Truth, Edited by Christine M. Bochen, copyright 1993; The Letters of Thomas Merton, Volume 5, Witness to Freedom, Edited by William H. Shannon, copyright 1994 by the Merton Legacy Trust. Used by permission of Farrar, Straus, Giroux. The Nonviolent Alternative, copyright 1980 by the Merton Legacy Trust. Used by permission of Farrar, Straus, Giroux.

HarperCollins: The Journals of Thomas Merton, Volume One 19391941, Run to the Mountain, Edited by Patrick Hart, copyright 1995; The Journals of Thomas Merton, Volume Two 19411952, Entering the Silence, Edited by Jonathan Montaldo, copyright 1995; The Journals of Thomas Merton, Volume Three 19521960, A Search for Solitude, Edited by Lawrence S. Cunningham, copyright 1996; The Journals of Thomas Merton, Volume Four 19601963, Turning Toward the World, Edited by Victor A. Kramer, copyright 1996; The Journals of Thomas Merton, Volume Five 19631965, Dancing in the Water of Life, Edited by Robert E. Daggy, copyright 1997; The Journals of Thomas Merton, Volume Six 19661967, Learning to Love, Edited by Christine M. Bochen, copyright 1997; The Journals of Thomas Merton, Volume Seven 19671968, The Other Side of the Mountain, Edited by Patrick Hart, copyright 1998. Copyright of the seven volumes by the Merton Legacy Trust. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers.

The Merton Legacy Trust: Faith and Violence, University of Notre Dame Press, copyright 1968. Thomas Merton/Monk: A Monastic Tribute, Cistercian Press, copyright 1974, 1983. Honorable Reader: Reflections On My Work, Edited by Robert E. Daggy, copyright 1981, 1989; originally published by the Trustees of the Merton Legacy Trust and subsequently published by Crossroad Publishing Company. Used by permission of the Merton Legacy Trust.

New Directions: The Collected poems of Thomas Merton, copyright 1946, 1947 by New Directions Publishing Corp. Reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp. Eighteen Poems, copyright 1985 by the Abbey of Our Lady of Gethsemani. Reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp. The Literary Essays of Thomas Merton, copyright 1960, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1973, 1975, 1978, 1981 by the Trustees of the Merton Legacy Trust, 1959, 1961, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1981 by the Abbey of Gethsemani, Inc. Reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp. The Asian Journal of Thomas Merton, copyright 1975 by the Trustees of the Merton Legacy Trust. Reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp. New Seeds of Contemplation, copyright 1961 by The Abbey of Gethsemani, Inc. Reprinted by permission of the New Directions Publishing Corp. Raids on the Unspeakable, copyright 1966 by The Abbey of Gethsemani, Inc. Reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp.

Contents

I am glad to acknowledge at the outset my indebtedness to Bishop Rowan Williams for the Foreword he has so generously provided; to Dr Paul M. Pearson, the Director and Archivist of the Thomas Merton Center at Bellarmine University, for his invaluable assistance during my visit to the Center in September 2011 and for his continuing help; to Brother Patrick Hart OCSO for the brief conversations I was able to have with him in the course of private visits to the Abbey of Our Lady of Gethsemani in March 2006 and September 2011; and to Caroline Chartres, the Senior Commissioning Editor, and Joel Simons, the Assistant Editor, at Bloomsbury Continuum for their encouragement and critical advice as my manuscript has made its way to publication.

I am glad to acknowledge the permission that has been granted to quote directly from many published works. Every attempt has been made to secure permission to use copyright material, and all such material is acknowledged in the Notes at the back of the book. The photographs that have been used throughout the book have been made available by the Thomas Merton Center and I am grateful yet again for the assistance that has been given.

But my chief word of appreciation must be to Susan, my wife, for whom the beloved monk and more colourful descriptions have been used at times has represented a serious incursion into the rhythm of so many days over the last five years. Thank you.