Engaging Thomas Merton: Spirituality, Justice, and Racism

Engaging Thomas Merton: Spirituality, Justice, and Racism

Author: Daniel Horan

Publisher: Orbis Books

Published: 2023-11-10

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781626985445

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Engaging Thomas Merton is based on contemporary engagements with the work and legacy of Thomas Merton that highlight the enduring relevance of his thought in addressing the pressing concerns of our time.


Man of Dialogue

Man of Dialogue

Author: Gregory K. Hillis

Publisher: Liturgical Press

Published: 2021-11-15

Total Pages: 320

ISBN-13: 0814684602

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How Catholic was Thomas Merton? Since his death in 1968, Merton’s Catholic identity has been regularly questioned, both by those who doubt the authenticity of his Catholicism given his commitment to ecumenical and interreligious dialogue and by those who admire Merton as a thinker but see him as an aberration who rebelled against his Catholicism to articulate ideas that went against the church. In this book, Gregory K. Hillis illustrates that Merton’s thought was intertwined with his identity as a Catholic priest and emerged out of a thorough immersion in the church’s liturgical, theological, and spiritual tradition. In addition to providing a substantive introduction to Merton’s life and thought, this book illustrates that Merton was fundamentally shaped by his identity as a Roman Catholic.


The Franciscan Heart of Thomas Merton

The Franciscan Heart of Thomas Merton

Author: Daniel P. Horan

Publisher: Ave Maria Press

Published: 2014-09-22

Total Pages: 288

ISBN-13: 1594714231

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Daniel Horan, O.F.M., popular author of Dating God and other books on Franciscan themes—and expert on the spirituality of Thomas Merton—masterfully presents the untold story of how the most popular saint in Christian history inspired the most popular spiritual writer of the twentieth century, and how together they can inspire a new generation of Christians. Millions of Christians and non-Christians look to Thomas Merton for spiritual wisdom and guidance, but to whom did Merton look? In The Franciscan Heart of Thomas Merton, Franciscan friar and author Daniel Horan shows how, both before and after he became a Trappist monk, Merton’s life was shaped by his love for St. Francis and for the Franciscan spiritual and intellectual tradition. Given recent renewed interest in St. Francis, this timely resource is both informative and practical, revealing a previously hidden side of Merton that will inspire a new generation of Christians to live richer, deeper, and more justice-minded lives of faith.


The Seeker and the Monk

The Seeker and the Monk

Author: Scott Sophfronia

Publisher: Broadleaf Books

Published: 2021-03-16

Total Pages: 217

ISBN-13: 1506464963

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What if we truly belong to each other? What if we are all walking around shining like the sun? Mystic, monk, and activist Thomas Merton asked those questions in the twentieth century. Writer Sophfronia Scott is asking them today. In The Seeker and the Monk, Scott mines the extensive private journals of one of the most influential contemplative thinkers of the past for guidance on how to live in these fraught times. As a Black woman who is not Catholic, Scott both learns from and pushes back against Merton, holding spirited, and intimate conversations on race, ambition, faith, activism, nature, prayer, friendship, and love. She asks: What is the connection between contemplation and action? Is there ever such a thing as a wrong answer to a spiritual question? How do we care about the brutality in the world while not becoming overwhelmed by it? By engaging in this lively discourse, readers will gain a steady sense of how to dwell more deeply within--and even to love--this despairing and radiant world.


A White Catholic's Guide to Racism and Privilege

A White Catholic's Guide to Racism and Privilege

Author: Daniel P. Horan

Publisher: Ave Maria Press

Published: 2021-09-03

Total Pages: 224

ISBN-13: 164680077X

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Winner of a 2022 Association of Catholic Publishers Excellence in Publishing Award: General Interest (Third Place). Growing up, Fr. Daniel P. Horan, O.F.M., never thought much about race, racism, or racial justice except for what he read in history books. His upbringing as a white, middle-class Catholic shielded him from seeing the persistent, pervasive racism all around him. Horan shares what he has since learned about uncovering and combatting racial inequity in our nation and in our Church, urging us to join the fight. In the spring and summer of 2020, US cities erupted in protests and racial tensions ran high following several high-profile killings of Black women and men at the hands of white police officers. As America watched and listened, many of us became dislodged from our comfortable assumptions about race. Horan recognized this unnerving dynamic as a doorway to the awakening and spiritual conversion he has been undergoing for much of his adult life. In A White Catholic’s Guide to Racism and Privilege, Horan speaks prophetically to what has become a gnawing unease for so many. With candid critique and reflection, Horan helps us makes sense of crucial issues such as: The difference between what sociologists call common-sense racism and systemic racism. What is meant by white privilege and how is contributes to racial injustices. The Catholic Church’s teachings about racism, how those can still be developed, and what those teachings require of us. Combatting racism in our everyday lives. As a white man, Horan shows his fellow white Catholics how to become actively anti-racist and better allies to our Black brothers and sisters as we work against racism in our culture and in the Church. He offers us the hope and surety of the Gospel, the wisdom of Catholic tradition, and some practical ways to educate ourselves and advocate for justice. Each chapter includes a substantial suggested-reading list. This book is perfect for individual or group study.


Becoming Brave

Becoming Brave

Author: Brenda Salter McNeil

Publisher: Brazos Press

Published: 2020-08-18

Total Pages: 179

ISBN-13: 1493423991

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Foreword INDIES 2020 Book of the Year Award (BRONZE Winner for Religion) "[A] powerful work. . . . Provides a road map for any Christian seeking greater racial justice."--Publishers Weekly Reconciliation is not true reconciliation without justice! Brenda Salter McNeil has come to this conviction as she has led the church in pursuing reconciliation efforts over the past three decades. McNeil calls the church to repair the old reconciliation paradigm by moving beyond individual racism to address systemic injustice, both historical and present. It's time for the church to go beyond individual reconciliation and "heart change" and to boldly mature in its response to racial division. Looking through the lens of the biblical narrative of Esther, McNeil challenges Christian reconcilers to recognize the particular pain in our world so they can work together to repair what is broken while maintaining a deep hope in God's ongoing work for justice. This book provides education and prophetic inspiration for every person who wants to take reconciliation seriously. Becoming Brave offers a distinctly Christian framework for addressing systemic injustice. It challenges Christians to be everyday activists who become brave enough to break the silence and work with others to dismantle systems of injustice and inequality.


Life and Holiness

Life and Holiness

Author: Thomas Merton

Publisher: Colchis Books

Published:

Total Pages: 104

ISBN-13:

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This is intended to be a very simple book, an elementary treatment of a few basic ideas in Christian spirituality. Hence it should be useful to any Christian, and indeed to anyone who wants to acquaint himself with some principles of the interior life as it is understood in the Catholic Church. Nothing is here said of such subjects as “contemplation” or even “mental prayer.” And yet the book emphasizes what is at once the most common and the most mysterious aspect in the Christian life: grace, the power and the light of God in us, purifying our hearts, transforming us in Christ, making us true sons of God, enabling us to act in the world as his instruments for the good of all men and for his glory. This is therefore a meditation on some fundamental themes appropriate to the active life. It must be said at once that the active life is essential to every Christian. Clearly the active life must mean more than the life which is led in religious institutes of men and women who teach, care for the sick, and so on. (When one is talking of the “active life” as opposed to the “contemplative life,” this is the usual reference.) Here action is not looked at in opposition to contemplation, but as an expression of charity and as a necessary consequence of union with God by baptism.


No Man is an Island

No Man is an Island

Author: Thomas Merton

Publisher: Shambhala Publications

Published: 2005

Total Pages: 306

ISBN-13: 1590302532

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This volume is a stimulating series of spiritual reflections which will prove helpful for all struggling to find the meaning of human existence and to live the richest, fullest and noblest life. --Chicago Tribune


On Eastern Meditation

On Eastern Meditation

Author: Thomas Merton

Publisher: New Directions Publishing

Published: 2012-06-20

Total Pages: 51

ISBN-13: 081121995X

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A great introduction to the religions of the East by a monk from the West. Merton’s biographer, George Woodcock, once wrote that “almost from the beginning of his monastic career, Thomas Merton tentatively began to discover the great Asian religions of Buddhism and Taoism.” Merton, a longtime social justice advocate, first approached Eastern theology as an admirer of Gandhi’s beliefs on non-violence. Through Gandhi, Merton came to know the great Hindu text the Bhagavad Gita and in time came to have dialogues with the Dalai Lama and Taoist leader D. T. Suzuki. Merton then became deeply interested in Chuang Tzu and Zen thought. On Eastern Meditation, edited by Bonnie Thurston (author of Merton and Buddhism), gathers the best of his Eastern theological writings into a gorgeously designed gift book edition.