Dancing in the Water of Life

The Journals of Thomas Merton #5

by Thomas Merton, Robert E. Daggy

The sixties were a time of restlessness, inner turmoil, and exuberance for Merton during which he closely followed the careening development of political and social activism – Martin Luther King, Jr., and the March on Selma, the Catholic Worker Movement, the Vietnam war, and the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Volume 5 chronicles the approach of Merton’s fiftieth birthday and marks his move to Mount Olivet, his hermitage at the Abbey of Gethsemani, where he was finally able to fully embrace the joys and challenges of solitary ‘In the hermitage, one must pray of go to seed. The pretense of prayer will not suffice. Just sitting will not suffice . . . Solitude puts you with your back to the wall (or your face to it!), and this is good’ (13 October, 1964).

Genres: Theology, Christianity, Religion, Spirituality, Nonfiction, Biography, Autobiography

384 pages, Paperback

First published May 29, 1997

About the author

Thomas Merton, religious name M. Louis, was an American Trappist monk, writer, theologian, mystic, poet, social activist and scholar of comparative religion. In December 1941 he entered the Trappist Abbey of Gethsemani and in May 1949 he was ordained to priesthood. He was a member of the convent of the Abbey of Our Lady of Gethsemani, near Bardstown, Kentucky, living there from 1941 to his death.
Merton wrote more than 50 books in a period of 27 years, mostly on spirituality, social justice and a quiet pacifism, as well as scores of essays and reviews. Among Merton's most enduring works is his bestselling autobiography The Seven Storey Mountain (1948). His account of his spiritual journey inspired scores of World War II veterans, students, and teenagers to explore offerings of monasteries across the US. It is on National Review's list of the 100 best nonfiction books of the century.
Merton became a keen proponent of interfaith understanding, exploring Eastern religions through his study of mystic practice. His interfaith conversation, which preserved both Protestant and Catholic theological positions, helped to build mutual respect via their shared experiences at a period of heightened hostility. He is particularly known for having pioneered dialogue with prominent Asian spiritual figures, including the Dalai Lama XIV; Japanese writer D.T. Suzuki; Thai Buddhist monk Buddhadasa Bhikkhu, and Vietnamese monk Thich Nhat Hanh. He traveled extensively in the course of meeting with them and attending international conferences on religion. In addition, he wrote books on Zen Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism, and how Christianity is related to them. This was highly unusual at the time in the United States, particularly within the religious orders.

Reviews

[Judith Shadford · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not surprisingly, these journals just get better and better as Merton tells the truth--about his frustrations, lousy health, prodigious reading and writing, keeping all his questions circling around his life, adding more questions and more maturity. I read the entries, especially on those dates that I remember, his response to Viet Nam, the Kennedy assassination, the civil rights movement--dissecting the central issues and, 50 years farther along the line--he was absolutely right. And charming, funny, delightful...

[Nick Jordan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have no idea how to rate these. Five volumes into Merton's Journals surely weeds out casual readers, and so all of us who read are going to be fascinated. Here in particular are the move to the hermitage and the differentiation from the Catholic Peace Movement and its tactics.

[Gabriela Francisco · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading Merton brings me peace

[Jamie Brame · Rating 5 out of 5]

Like other reviewers, I agree that anyone who has waded this far into Merton's journals is pretty much a Merton reader! Each journal becomes easier to read, at least for me. The first volume took me forever to get through, but once Merton gets into the monastery, another journalist emerges, and the longer he is at Gethsemani, the more interesting the journals become. While Volume 4 seemed like a long rant against Dom James, Volume 5 finds him a little less angry at, although no less critical of, his abbot, and thus gives us more depth and insight into his deep spiritual life. It's good to see him a bit more gracious to his fellow monks and a lot more critical of the church as a whole, especially the setup of the Catholic Church as a whole. Looking forward to what comes next!

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Realization of Solitude

Merton finally gets permission to live full time at the hermitage. He experiences an almost romantic time early on. But solitude does not resolve the problems he sees in the world with the escalation of war in Vietnam, continued threats of atomic war, and the Roman Catholic Church’s response to the problems via the Second Vatican Council. HIs struggles continue with Dom James Fox, whom he sees as an obstacle to his spiritual life.

[Maria Iliffe-Wood · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love reading Thomas Merton’s interior life. So human. So reassuring.

[Dovofthegalilee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Obviously volume 5- I've read a good deal of Merton's works and poems and yet for some reason I read his journals slowly having taken years to get to the end of this one. I'm glad for that because I feel as though I've shared many of his same valleys & mountain tops. At this stage of his life he's becoming more transparent, his body has many ailments his mind wrestles with the choices that he's made and opportunities that have passed him by. He speaks about sex more in this volume than all of the others combined and even then it is scant but he lets us know that he's human and we're fortunate that some editor within the church didn't edit it out.

[Jonathan]

None