ISBN: 1-931816-01-8
ISBN 13: 978-1-931816-01-4
$13.95, 168 pages
$11.16 Online Price
(Quality paperback)

For Immediate Release...

Contact: Anna Hourihan
Tel: (530) 549-4757
Email: info@vedanticshorespress.com
 

New Merton Documents Discovered:
Will We Learn More About
this Catholic Monk and Writer's Character?

Robert Giroux, the well-known book editor and publisher, recently discovered over 3,000 pages of documents from his friend Thomas Merton, the Catholic monk and writer, and donated them to the Merton Center at Bellarmine University in Louisville, Kentucky.

In light of the book, The Death of Thomas Merton, a Novel by Paul Hourihan, which contradicts the common view of Merton as a "spiritual master," will this new collection support the traditional image, or will it justify the portrayal of him in Hourihan's novel? Until all of these documents are accessible, we will never know.

Hourihan's fact-based novel is a penetrating study of what could have occurred on the last day of the life of Thomas Merton, the Catholic hero of the 1950s and 60s. Merton wrote on mystical themes, and was held to be a mystic. While reading biographies of his life, the author came to a different conclusion. Dr. Hourihan, who had studied great mystics and mysticism for the greater part of his life, and had experienced spiritual transformation himself, had a sound basis for making this evaluation. To correct this false image he was moved to reveal sides of Merton's character, which the Catholic establishment has naturally not seen fit to explore.

The question logically arises: how could Merton write so convincingly about the contemplative life and mysticism if he wasn't himself a true contemplative or mystic? To write on spirituality is one thing but quite another to live it. Merton had a great capacity to absorb ideas and then, as a gifted writer, to convey them. However, one of the signs of a profound mystical experience is the transformation of character. Did this happen to Merton? There is no indication of a fundamental change as noted in the book. It seems that any apparent change he underwent was due to external restraints rather than to a permanent internal shift that one would expect after 23 years as a monk.

Even so, Dr. Hourihan's objective was not to expose Merton personally―he was a congenial, likable, and at times a great man―but to uphold the uniqueness of the mystical tradition in the world, which seems so little understood in the West, in both Catholic and Protestant circles.

Although this is a novel and the protagonist is a character based on Merton, it has disturbed the Merton establishment, most likely due to the fact-based content. One of their criticisms is "the author suggests that traditional Christian paths to God are mistaken & Eastern religions, especially India's Vedanta philosophy was the path that Merton should have followed." Hourihan does put forward, and Merton himself discovered, that we have a lot to learn from the East regarding spirituality and the inner life, just as the East is learning from the West on matters of science and technology. In his book, Silent Lamp: The Thomas Merton Story, Monsignor Shannon sums up Merton's spiritual insights* that prepared him to understand the Eastern outlook. These were: the importance of the experience of God; the limitation of words to articulate the experience of God; and a growing intuition of the unity of all reality―which also summarize some of the basic principles of the Vedanta philosophy, along with the universality of religious truth. Since Merton already believed in much of the Vedantic principles, it's not far-fetched to suggest, as the author does, that he should perhaps have followed that path more consciously.

The book is not anti-Catholic so much as anti-organized religion. It is true that some of the author's views on Catholicism, derived from his own Catholic upbringing, are reflected here, but that does not obscure the truth-content that gives this novel its force. Along the way we find that the truth about Merton becomes the truth about many other things as well, among them―the nature of spirituality, itself; and why Eastern philosophy has attracted so many people in the last 40 years with Thomas Merton himself one of the forerunners!

If Thomas Merton was not a true mystic or spiritual master, it is a serious offence to present him as such and the truth should be told. We read in the Upanishads, "Truth alone conquers, not untruth." Our hope is that the recent Merton discovery will help provide an objective and balanced view of his character and contributions.

-30-