Thomas Merton and the Noonday Demon

"In Thomas Merton and the Noonday Demon, Donald Grayson transforms a long-neglected cache of letters found in an ancient monastery into a book that offers new insight into the author of these letters, Thomas Merton, the renowned spiritual writer. At the time of their writing, the mid-1950s, he was living as a Trappist monk, at the Abbey of Gethsemani in Kentucky. Having reached an impasse in his monastic vocation he decided to leave Gethsamani for the Monastery of Camaldoli in Italy. Camaldoli at that time, bucolic and peaceful outwardly, was inwardly riven by a pre-Vatican II culture war; whereas Gethsemani, which he tried so hard to leave, became, when he was given his hermitage there in 1965, his place to recover Eden. In walking with Merton on this journey, and reading the letters he wrote and received at the time, we find ourselves asking, as he did, with so much energy and honesty, the deep questions that we may well need to answer in our own lives. Donald Grayston retired in 2004 from Simon Fraser University in Vancouver as director of its Institute for the Humanities. He is a former president of the International Thomas Merton Society. Donald Grayston retired in 2004 from Simon Fraser University in Vancouver as director of its Institute for the Humanities. He is a former president of the International Thomas Merton Society. 'Grayston offers an excellent example of work that emerges when disciplined scholarship, seasoned experience, and refined pastoral awareness are free to converge and collaborate in the creative mind of a writer. "Thomas Merton and the Noonday Demon" both informs and transforms the reader with a pilgrimage that begins with the unexpected discovery of letters in a Camaldolese monastery and goes deep into the most challenging terrain of Merton's spiritual journey . . . and our own.' David Joseph Belcastro, President of the International Thomas Merton Society. 'This book presents a thorough, engaging, and enlightening study of Merton's major periods of instability resulting from his desire for greater solitude. . . . Through this marvellous piece of scholarship, the reader will gain new and fascinating insights into the life, vocation, and struggles of this great twentieth-century spiritual master.' Paul M. Pearson, Director of the Thomas Merton Center."

Publisher -

Language - English

Paperback

Contributors

Author

Donald Grayston

Donald Grayston

Donald Grayston

Published Date -

ISBN - 9780718894160

Dimensions - 22.9 x 15.2 x 1.7 cm

Page Count - 318