The Social Thought of Thomas Merton
The Way of Nonviolence and Peace for the Future
Overview
Designed for College Students Taking Courses in Peace Studies, Social Thought and Christian Ethics
This new edition traces the evolution of Thomas Merton's social thought, particularly as it evolved toward a way of nonviolence and peacemaking grounded in contemplation and Christian love.
It identifies the social context that shaped Merton, including civil rights and racism, the Vietnam War, and a growing nuclear threat.
And it explores the religious influences and experiences that shaped Merton, including Catholic social teaching—particularly Pope John XXIII's encyclical Pacem in Terris (Peace on Earth)—the words and actions of Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr., the practice of contemplation and Zen, and Merton's own life as a Trappist monk.
Product Details
Copyright: Sept. 17, 2009
Format: Paperbound
Size: 5.375 x 8.25
Length: 158 pages
Item number: 7021
ISBN: 978-1-59982-017-0
ISBN-10: 1-59982-017-X
Customer Reviews
By Bruce J. Malina, professor of New Testament, Creighton University
Professor Martin Albl has written a very useful book for those about to undertake their first cross-cultural journeys into the world of the Bible. Access to that Eastern Mediterranean world is through considerate reading. And considerate reading requires imaginative scenarios so that the ancient writer can make sense to a modern reader. Professor Albl presents some fundamental scenarios to assist the modern reader in the task of becoming a considerate reader. Without scenarios of the sort found in this book, the modern reader remains inattentive to the intellectual dangers of ethnocentrism, and can only read modern meanings, identified with the word of God, into the biblical documents.
Editorial Reviews
The Bookwatch, July, 2009
There are certain individuals whose work is studied for decades to come, and Thomas Merton is one of those people. The Social Thought of Thomas Merton: The Way of Nonviolence and Peace for the Future presents the thoughts of a Catholic man who embraced the ways of peace and Zen and presented an enlightened version of Catholicism. Merton's teachings and thoughts form much of what many Catholic leaders today, and The Social Thought of Thomas Merton is a must-read for any Catholic theologian or philosopher.
Review by James A. Cox, editor-in-chief, Midwest Book Review
