Book Review: Thomas Merton: Monk on the Edge

Thomas Merton: Monk on the Edge. Edited by Ross Labrie and Angus Stuart. North Vancouver, B C: Thomas Merton Society of Canada, 2012. ISBN 978-1-927512-029. Pp. 196. $25.00. There is an eloquent quiet, a spare spaciousness, to the prolific writings of Catholic philosopher-mystic Thomas Merton. More than four decades after his too-early death--electrocuted by a rotating fan in a Thailand hotel--Merton, born in Europe, has emerged as perhaps the most significant Christian apologist in the American experience since The Great Awakening rocked the eastern seaboard a half century before the first shots at Concord. But unlike those stern-faced latter-day Puritan defenders of the hard logic of damnation and redemption whose dour message can today seem dogmatic, unyielding, narrow, and legalistic, Merton extends a most grace-ful invitation to contemporary seekers, his an approachable generosity at once disciplined and expansive; certainly, a singular compassion that marks a vision born of the quiet harmony of the cloister, but informed by the rancor and discord of the streets, a Christian heart that is both a part and apart from the white noise of post-postmodern America. To quote Michael W. Higgins' helpful essay herein collected on how Merton's monasticism refashions the conception of being a bystander, Merton can best be approached as one whose special insight, moral clarity, and urgency of expression [were] forged in contemplation (17). Like encountering Walden or On the Road for the first time, discovering Merton's meditations has become a fixture in coming of age evolutions--his writings a formidable moment in any spiritual and emotional education, his dense simplicity rendering inevitable a flashpoint epiphany into the grand nature of our apparently shabby post-postmodern world so summarily stripped of mystery by the relentless, soulless certainties of science and technology. When Merton writes, it is as if he speaks--his voice at once tender and stern, intimate and abiding, reassuring and intimidating. (One of the joys of this collection is simply to read the generous quotes from Merton's writings.) Of course, that approach-ability has its drawbacks. Merton can appear simpler than he is. Not entirely Merton's fault, but his signature legacy, his ability to bring together the compassionate theology of post-Vatican II Catholicism with the intricate meditative discipline of Zen Buddhism, is today made problematic because both religious sensibilities have been thinned into cartoonish simplification. Zen has been wildly misappropriated to define winning coaching styles in sports or grand business paradigms or hip stress-busting stretching routines; and the supple complexities of Catholicism have been sadly eclipsed in the public's mind by the Church's long, tragic record of shielding pedophiles and by the efforts, since John Paul's cagey charisma, to repackage Catholicism as theater and spectacle rather than ritual, as evidenced by the crazy street hoopla that defined Pope Francis' recent rock-star tour of Brazil. There is nothing simple about Merton's writings. Like some latter-day prophet, Merton can at once excoriate his cultural environment for its disappointing lapse into greed, violence, and hypocrisy, and console them with a word that will rouse them to individual serenity and, in turn, meaningful community commitment. This admirable collection, gathered with obvious affection and respect, brings together ten essays by some of the most passionate and articulate Merton critics representing Canada's robust Merton industry; indeed the contributors form a veritable Who's Who of Merton scholars north of the border, both theologians of comparative religion and scholars versed in post-war literature, who call themselves collectively the Northern Lights Unlike most such critical companion volumes that package splintered-off bits of newly minted dissertations or partial arguments wrenched from larger soon to be published studies, these essays each offer a compact and unified argument, giving each essay a compelling feel of completeness and coherence. …

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