Theological Notebook: On the 40th Anniversary of the Death of Thomas Merton, OCSO

[novak]

Thomas Merton died 40 years ago today, electrocuted by the faulty wiring of his floor fan as he stepped out of his shower at a world-wide conference of monks in Bangkok. The National Catholic Reporter has an article commemorating Merton, which in a Left kind of way seems to magnify the tour Merton made at the end of his life, where he, as one of

Comments

[vesta_venus]

That's really fascinating. I've never read Merton,(Why do all my replies to you always start by confessing I haven't read things?), but I too had heard him described as a former Roman Catholic who went Buddhist towards the end of his life.

He reminds me a bit of St. Francis, not so much in their personalities or theologies, but in how the media needs to simplify them to being a one-dimensional caricature of the complexity for which they stood.

[novak]

That's a good comparison: I frequently introduce Francis as "the most dangerous man you'll ever meet" just to highlight exactly that "taming" of him that occurs, and to draw attention to how challenging he really is.