Raids on the Unspeakable

Thomas Merton

New Directions Publishing, 1966 - Literary Collections - 182 pages

Here this concern finds expression in poetic irony and in meditations intentionally dour.

In these brief, challenging pieces, Father Merton does not offer consolation or easy remedies. He looks candidly and without illusions at the world of his time. Though he sees dark horizons, his ultimate answer is one of Christian hope. To vary the perspective, he writes in many forms, using parable and myth, the essay and the meditation, satire and manifesto, prose poetry and even adaptations from a medieval Arab mystic (Ibn Abbad) to humanize and dramatic his philosophical themes.

The themes of Raids on the Unspeakable are as old as the myths of Prometheus and Atlas, and as timely as the human evils of today. They range from the "Message" written for an international congress of poets to the beautiful yet disturbing Christmas meditation, "The Time of the End Is the Time of No Room." And there are essays inspired by the world of three significant contemporary writers: Flannery O'Connor, the French novelist Julien Green, and the playwright Eugène Ionesco. A number of Father Merton's own drawings are also included in the book—not as "illustrations," but as "signatures" or :"abstract writings," which stand in their own right as another personal statement.

What people are saying

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - josephquinton - LibraryThing

A GATHERING OF MERTON'S PROSE, WITH AN OCCASIONAL POEM. WE FORGET HE WAS AN ACOMPLISHED POET, HIS PROSE REFLECTS THIS. THIS BOOK IS ILLUSTRATED WITH SOME OF HIS DRAWINGS (WASHES). THE FIRST PIECE IS ...

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - JBreedlove - LibraryThing

Parts were insightful but most of the book was unrelated to anything I can identify with. Along with capitalized Religious words was an invented mythology and a contrived convention that was a waste of words. Surely not on of Merton's best. Or am I just beyond or deaf mythology now?

Contents

• I: 1
• II: 9
• III: 27
• IV: 37
• V: 45
• VI: 53
• VII: 65
• VIII: 79
• IX: 91
• X: 111
• XI: 125
• XII: 141
• XIII: 155
• XIV: 165
• XV: 179

About the author

Thomas Merton (1915-1968) entered the Cistercian Abbey of Gethsemani in Kentucky, following his conversion to Catholicism and was ordained Father M. Louis in 1949. During the 1960s, he was increasingly drawn into a dialogue between Eastern and Western religions and domestic issues of war and racism. In 1968, the Dalai Lama praised Merton for having a more profound knowledge of Buddhism than any other Christian he had known. Thomas Merton is the author of the beloved classic The Seven Storey Mountain.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Raids on the Unspeakable; Volume 213 of A New Directions paperbook; New Directions books. 213
• Author: Thomas Merton
• Publisher: New Directions Publishing, 1966
• ISBN: 0811201015, 9780811201018
• Length: 182 pages
• Subjects: Literary Collections / Essays; Religion / Christian Life / Inspirational