Witness to freedom : the letters of Thomas Merton in times of crisis / selected and edited by William H. Shannon.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Merton, Thomas, 1915-1968

Contributor:

Shannon, William H. (William Henry), 1917-2012.

Gotham Book Mart Collection (University of Pennsylvania)

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Merton, Thomas, 1915-1968--Correspondence.

Merton, Thomas.

Merton, Thomas, 1915-1968.

Trappists--United States--Correspondence.

Trappists.

United States.

Genre:

Autobiographies.

Penn Provenance:

Gotham Book Mart (former owner) (Gotham Book Mart Collection copy)

Physical Description:

xii, 352 pages ; 24 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 1994.

Summary:

These letters deal with periods of serious crisis in Merton's life and vocation, about which many rumors and half-truths were circulated during his lifetime. They give readers, for the first time in his own words, the true details and the behind-the-scenes facts. Things came to a head in 1959 when Merton petitioned the Vatican, asking for an indult of exclaustration, or release, not from the Trappist Order, but for "a more solitary primitive existence in a monastic life" outside the United States. Abbot James Fox made a trip to Rome and the indult was not granted. Later Merton, who despised Communism and advocated Gandhian non-violence, was forbidden to publish anything against war and nuclear aggression - as if it was inappropriate for a monk to oppose war.

Notes:

Includes index.

Local Notes:

Gotham Book Mart Collection copy has dustjacket retained.

ISBN:

0374291918 :

OCLC:

30594669