Maverick Philosopher

The Several-Storied Thomas Merton: Contemplative, Writer, Bohemian, Activist

An outstanding essay by Robert Royal on the many Mertons and their uneasy unity in one fleshly vehicle. There is of course Merton the Contemplative, the convert to Catholicism who, with the typical zeal of the convert, took it all the wa...

Why Evelyn Waugh Wanted Thomas Merton to Shut Up

Worth reading and the same goes for some of the comments. Here is an overly harsh comment that yet makes an important point: A. I. Reeves Sonya Roberts • a year ago According to Sonya Roberts on Merton, "we can readily ...

Merton Quotes Evdokimov

Thomas Merton, Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander, p. 308: Evdokimov demands a virile ascesis, not simply gentlemanly retirement into leisure. The monk does not build his monastic city 'on the margin' of the world, but instead of it. ...

Thomas Merton on Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche

I read the seventh and final volume of Thomas Merton's journals, The Other Side of the Mountain, in 1998 when it first appeared. I am currently re-reading it. It is once again proving to be page turner for one who has both a nostalgic ...

Merton, Marilyn, and David Carradine

Thomas Merton, Journal (IV, 240), writing about Marilyn Monroe around the time of her death in 1962: . . .the death was as much a symbol as the bomb – symbol of uselessness and of tragedy, of misused humanity. He’s right of course: M...

The Point of Solitude

Thomas Merton, Journals, vol. 7, p. 276: The point of solitude is to preserve myself from a certain sort of contagion. I would add that being alone is not enough if you are feeding on media dreck 'in solitude.' For then you are exp...

The Tragedy of Thomas Merton

A conservative critique by Michael Baker. It is well worth reading. Part I The discussion of self-absorption gave me serious pause. What is the typical blogger if not self-absorbed? Part II Some other Merton materials

Aquinas Falls from the Pedestal

Thomas Merton, Journals, vol. 5 (1963-1965), p. 295: In the refectory the other day articles on the Council [Vatican II, 1962-1965] were being read and a lot was said about St. Thomas [Aquinas] -- he is no longer on an official pedes...

St. Valentine's Eve at the Oldies: Love and Murder

We'll start with murder. David Dalton (Who Is That Man? In Search of the Real Bob Dylan, Hyperion 2012, pp. 28-29, hyperlinks added!): Most folk songs had grim, murderous content (and subtext). In Pretty Polly a man lures a young gir...

On Forming Societies at Faint Provocation

Paul Brunton, Notebooks II, 154, #56: I am not enamoured overmuch of this modern habit, which forms a society at faint provocation. A man's own problem stares him alone in the face, and it is not to be solved by any association of men...