Witness to Freedom: The Letters of Thomas Merton in Times of Crisis

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Macmillan, 1994 - Biography & Autobiography - 352 pages
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.
 

Contents

II War and Freedom
15
Ill Mertons Life and Works
121
IV Religious Thought and Dialogue
259

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