Thomas Merton - The Ascent to Truth

Copyright 1951 by The Abbey of Our Lady of Gethsemani
Copyright renewed 1979 by Hie Trustees of Merton Legacy Trust

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Ex Parte Ordinis
Nihil Obstat: Fr. M. Maurice Malloy, O.C.S.O.
Fr. M. Paul Bourne, O.C.S.O.
Imprini Potest Fr. M. Dominique Nogues, O.C.S.O., Abbot General
Nihil Obstat: John M. A. Fearns, S.T.D., Censor librorum
Imprimatur: Francis Cardinal Spellman, Archbishop of New York

The Nihil Obstat and Imprimatur are offical declarations that a book or pamplet is free of doctrinal or moral error. No implication is contained therein that those who have granted the Nihil Obstat Imprimatur agree with the contents, opinions or statements expressed.

The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:
Merton, Thomas, 19151968.
The ascent to truth.
(A Harvest book.)
Bibliography: p.
I. Contemplation. I. Title.
[BV5091.C7M41981] 1978 248.3'4 80-26736
ISBN 0-15-602772-0

e ISBN 978-0-547-53707-8

v2.1017

To Our Lady of Mount Carmel

In His hands He hideth the light
and commandeth it to come again.
He sheweth His friend concerning it,
that it is his possession,
and that he may ascend to it.

Job xxxvi, 3233

As soon as the reader has penetrated to the substance of this book, he will understand why it is dedicated to Our Lady of Mount Carmel. It is chiefly concerned with the doctrine of the Carmelite theologian, Saint John of the Cross. Then again, under her title (among others) of Our Lady of Mount Carmel the Blessed Virgin is venerated as patroness of contemplatives and, above all, of those who try to share with others the fruits of their contemplation. The whole aim of the Order founded in her honor is to enable its members to reach the height of contemplation under her guidance and to bring others to that same end, aided by her intercession.

There is no member of the Church who does not owe something to Carmel. But there are few who owe more to the saints of Carmel and to its Queen than does the author. Above all, this book was written, so to speak, under her direction and tutelage. Difficult technical problems and other obstacles which had delayed its writing for two years suddenly vanished after the feast of Saint John of the Cross in 1950 when, among other graces, the author came by a precious relic of the great Mystic of Carmel. From then on, it was relatively smooth sailing, and the author is left with the impression that his finished manuscript reached the publication stage in a manner totally unexpected, not because of his abilities but rather in spite of his limitations.

The dedication of this book is also a special expression of gratitude and of brotherly affection for all those Discalced Carmelites with whom the author is united by bonds of friendship, including Father Franois de Sainte Marie, Friar of Avon in France, and all the members of three Carmels in particularthe convents in Louisville, San Francisco, and New York. That these have been singled out does not imply exclusion of other Carmelites, both Regular and Tertiaries; for all are one with the author in the pursuit of Divine Union. May their prayers make up for the defects of this book, which is intended for the glory of Christ, through Our Lady, and ensure that it does not fall short of her desires.

To end here would perhaps leave the reader with the impression that the book was solely inspired from on high and that the author owed nothing to any human instructor. This would be a false impression and quite contrary to the spirit of Catholicism, besides being an injustice to living writers to whom I am much indebted. The first of these is Jacques Maritain who, in his longest and greatest work, Degrees of Knowledge, has given us an orderly and luminous treatment of the whole ascent to truth. I refer the reader to everything that has been said by Jacques Maritain, here and elsewhere, about scientific and philosophical knowledge. It forms the necessary groundwork for the doctrine which I here propose: I am particularly indebted to Part Two of the Degrees of Knowledge and to the little book, Frayer and Intelligence the latter written by him in collaboration with Raissa Maritain. Another excellent book, which gives a simple but lucid outline of the questions which have most exercised me in the present work, is The Dark Knowledge of God by Monsignor Charles Journet of the Fribourg Seminary, Switzerland.

Needless to say, I am also in everlasting debt for the aid given me by the friendship, inspiration, and prayers of Jacques and Rassa Maritain. I cannot omit my indebtedness in this same regard to my friends, Dr. Daniel C. Walsh and Sister M. Thrse, S.D.S. Finally, of course, I express my gratitude to Professor E. Allison Peers of the University of Liverpool, the translator of Saint John of the Cross, whose translation I have quoted even more extensively here than elsewhere.

It gives me great joy to feel that by virtue of the present book, whatever may be its failings, the charity of Christ has united me with these and numberless other guides, advisers, and friends, under the peaceful shadow of Our Ladys mantle.

FR. M. LOUIS MERTON, O.C.S.O.

Abbey of Our Lady of Gethsemani

The only thing that can save the world from complete moral collapse is a spiritual revolution. Christianity, by its very nature, demands such a revolution. If Christians would all live up to what they profess to believe, the revolution would happen. The desire for unworldliness, detachment, and union with God is the most fundamental expression of this revolutionary spirit. The one thing that remains is for Christians to affirm their Christianity by that full and unequivocal rejection of the world which their Baptismal vocation demands of them. This will certainly not incapacitate them for social action in the world, since it is the one essential condition for a really fruitful Christian apostolate.

The human race is facing the greatest crisis in its history, because religion itself is being weighed in the balance. The present unrest in five continents, with everyone fearful of being destroyed, has brought many men to their knees. This should not lead us into the illusion that the world is necessarily about to return to God. Nevertheless, the exposure of the nineteenth-century mythsunlimited progress and the omnipotence of physical sciencehas thrown the world into confusion. Many are spontaneously turning to the only evident hope for spiritual and moral integrationan order based on philosophical and theological truth, one which allows free expression to the fundamental religious instinct of man. So vast is this movement that a psychoanalyst as important as Carl Jung can make the following declaration:

I have treated many hundreds of patients, the larger number being Protestants, a smaller number Jews and not more than five or six believing Catholics. Among all my patients in the second half of my life... there has not been one whose problem in the last resort was not that of finding a religious outlook on life. It is safe to say that every one of them fell ill because he had lost that which the living religions of every age have given their followers and none of them has really been healed who did not regain his religious outlook.