Excerpts from the International Thomas Merton Society General Meeting (2005) and the American Benedictine Academy Convention (2008): [From] Thomas Merton, Monk and Prophet of Peace: The Opening Address at the 2005 International Thomas Merton Society General Meeting

Abstract

Excerpts from the International Thomas Merton Society General Meeting (2005) and the American Benedictine Academy Convention (2008): [From] Thomas Merton, Monk and Prophet of Peace: The Opening Address at the 2005 International Thomas Merton Society General Meeting1 John Eudes Bamberger …[F]rom my first contact with Merton’s writings, I viewed him as a prophetic voice for our times. In fact, I believe that Merton himself, already before he entered the monastery, was convinced he had a special gift to speak in God’s name to his age. That is what accounts for his beginning to write an autobiography already at the age of twenty‐four, shortly after his conversion. This conviction led him to break with a tradition of centuries and to overcome the initial resistance of his superiors, by publishing a journal, The Sign of Jonas, about his day‐to‐day experiences and reflections as a Trappist monk not long after publication of his life story. He continues to speak to us today in circumstances that, in many respects, are marked by the issues he identified half a century ago as crucial for the future of our world. His life and writings that have brought us together here in the cause of Christian faith and world peace are a living indication of his role as one who speaks in the name of the God of peace and justice. His concern for these issues was a fruit of the faith that grew out of his monastic life and contemplative prayer. Rightly to understand his approach to the issues of peace and non‐violence, it is essential to advert to the fact that his chief, daily efforts were expended in what the monastic tradition calls, “the work of the heart,” that is, the prolonged struggle with the passions and contemplative assimilation of the truths of faith. Through this interior labor he became, as Gordan Zahn notes, a man “ahead of his time” because he was “in tune with his time.” Merton viewed his times in the light of history. This perspective permitted him to observe with keen penetration that “somewhere in the last fifty years we have crossed a mysterious limit set by Providence and have entered a new era…There has been a violent disruption of society and a radical overthrow of that modern world which goes back to Charlemagne.” Based on his contemplative experience he viewed the issues of war and violence in the broadest of contexts, as a crisis of the spirit as he stated in 1962: The present world crisis is not merely a political and economic conflict. It goes deeper than ideologies. It is a crisis of [humanity’s] spirit. It is a great religious and moral upheaval of the human race, and we do not really know half the causes of this upheaval. We cannot pretend to have a full understanding of what is going on in ourselves and in our society…The moral evil in the world is due to [humanity’s] alienation from the deepest truth, from the springs of spiritual life within [one]self. Anyone who reads some of the many books and articles written about Merton the man and his thought, will soon realize that he was uncommonly sensitive to the social forces at work in his world and so was able to interpret its condition and spiritual needs with an exactitude of insight. It will also be apparent that he was a many‐sided personality, richly complex, not always obviously consistent in his opinions. Footnotes 1. The other keynote speaker was John Dear, S.J. See The Merton Annual: Studies in Culture, Spirituality, and Social Concerns, Vol. 19 (Louisville, NY: Fons Vitae, 2007), pp. 24‐38 © 2009 Association for Religion and Intellectual Life