Pre-Benedictine Monasticism Initiation into the Monastic Tradition 2
Produktdetaljer
Biografisk notat
Thomas Merton (1915-1968), Catholic convert, Cistercian monk and hermit, poet, contemplative, social critic, and pioneer of interreligious dialogue, was a seminal figure of twentieth-century American Christianity. Patrick F. O’Connell is professor of English and theology at Gannon University in Erie, Pennsylvania. A founding member and former president of the International Thomas Merton Society, he edits The Merton Seasonal and is coauthor of The Thomas Merton Encyclopedia. He has edited eight previous volumes of Thomas Merton’s monastic conferences for the Monastic Wisdom Series, most recently The Cistercian Fathers and Their Monastic Theology (2016), and he is also editor of Merton’s Selected Essays (2013) and Early Essays: 1947–1952 (2015).This absorbing study shows how the scene is set for the Benedictine tradition to develop as well as the contrasts between St. Benedict’s passion for the common life and the more austere and solitary models which seemed to be pointing in another direction. Above all, Merton’s distinctive voice can be heard in the deep but lively and often humorous teaching material found in these pages.CR
Charged with training young monks at Gethsemani Abbey, Thomas Merton combined his literary genius and his love of the monastic tradition to produce Monastic Orientation Notes as the bases of his classes. In this volume, he treats the many and varied forms of monastic life which preceded, and helped to form, the Rule of Saint Benedict.
Preface vii
Introduction xi
Pre-Benedictine Monasticism, Part I 1
Pre-Benedictine Monasticism, Part II 209
Appendix A: Textual Notes 339
Appendix B: Table of Correspondences 359
Appendix C: For Further Reading 363
Acknowledgements 370
Index 371