Thomas Merton's Gethsemani: Landscapes of Paradise

by Patrick Hart (Afterword), Jonathan Montaldo (Introduction), Harry L. Hinkle (Photographer)

For twenty-seven years, renowned and beloved monk Thomas Merton (1915-1968) belonged to Our Lady of Gethsemani, a Trappist monastery established in 1848 amid the hills and valleys near Bardstown, Kentucky. In "Thomas Merton's Gethsemani," dramatic black-and-white photographs by Harry L. Hinkle and artful text by Merton scholar Monica Weis converge in a unique experience for lovers of Merton.

Hinkle was allowed unprecedented access to many areas inside the monastery and on its grounds that are generally restricted. His photographs invite the reader to experience the various knobs, lakes, woods, and hermitages Merton sought out for times of solitude and contemplation and for reading and writing. These unique images, each accompanied by a passage from Merton's writings, evoke personal reflection and a deeper understanding of how and why Merton came to recognize himself as a part of his Kentucky landscape.

Woven throughout the book, Weis's text explores Merton's fascination with nature not only at Gethsemani, but during his early childhood, throughout his spiritual conversion to Roman Catholicism, and while a member of the Trappist community. She examines how Merton's lifelong interaction with nature subtly revealed and informed his profound spiritual experiences and his writing about contemplation. "Thomas Merton's Gethsemani" replicates Merton's path on his solitary hikes in the woods and conveys the wonder of the landscapes that inspired him.

Genres: Photography, Religion, Art, Nonfiction, Spirituality

176 pages, Hardcover

First published June 10, 2005

Reviews

[Marianne · Rating 4 out of 5]

A beautiful, thoughtfully composed book which I found hard to look away from, and which satisfied me.

[Cynthia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading this at Gethsemani was especially wonderful. I met Monica Weis when I won her book at a book draw at a conference and I'm so grateful to have had this book to read while at the Abbey. I am very impressed with the gentle way in which she takes us by the hand and talks to us (as this is how it feels) about Thomas Merton and his views on nature and the abbey in Kentucky where he would spend many of his years. There are interesting tidbits of his life, of which I was unaware, that Weis inserted very gracefully while staying the course to help us understand Merton's connection to this place. The photographs (a few by Merton, but most by Harry Hinkle) were lovely and the pairing of the photographs with writings by Merton worked well. While I respect Merton and have appreciated reading more by and about him from this book, I think this book stands alone in that the aesthetics of the combined force of the narrative, photographs, and excerpts of text. The overall impression was an experience that worked together seamlessly to produce a whole that was quite moving. It did give me a different perspective on Merton that I found helpful, since I am neither Catholic nor very religious so his writings that are more religious in nature are not especially interesting to me. His other writings sometimes, to me, seem overly dense and somewhat stilted. The choices here work well for the purpose. The only downside was the introduction by another author whose "loose ladies" comment made me hope he wasn't going to write anything else in the book. He didn't, I moved on to Weis's narrative, Hinkle's photograph's, and Merton's excerpts, and I was pleased.

[Jen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has little snippets of Merton's life with helpful context, photography, and quotes from his writings. This book is more biographical than anything else.

"The stormy weeks have all gone home like drunken hunters,
Leaving the gates of the grey world wide open to December." The Regret, Collected Poems, 33

"The great work of sunrise again today. The awful solemnity of it. the sacredness. Unbearable without prayer and worship. I mean unbearable if you really put everything else aside and see what is happening! Many, no doubt, are vaguely aware that it is dawn: but they are protected rom the solemnity of it by the neutralizing worship of their own society, their own world, in which the sun no longer rises and sets." Turning Toward the World, May 31, 1961.

[Mandy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Strangely, when I interned at University Press of Kentucky, I wrote the blurb for the jacket of this book. After it was printed, I saw it on a rich person's coffee table once and then never again.

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gorgeous pictures and accompanying analysis of Merton's home. The two silence retreats I've completed at Gethsemani have been renewing and lovely, in large part because of the beauty of the land, and this book captures that nicely.