From the Monastery to the World: The Letters of Thomas Merton and Ernesto Cardenal

by Thomas Merton, Ernesto Cardenal, Robert Hass (Introduction)

Thomas Merton and Ernesto Cardenal were both poets and priests, wholly committed to a life of spiritual contemplation which was never far from the gritty work that lead them to risk life and reputation in order to raise worldwide consciousness concerning issues of social justice and the abuse of human rights. From the Monastery to the World collects the complete correspondence between these spiritual men and dedicated activists, translated into English for the first time.The letters in this book, written between Merton and Cardenal from 1959–1968, give us fascinating insights into the early spiritual and political awakenings of eventual Sandinista and exponent of liberation theology Ernesto Cardenal, who was then a novice leaving the Trappist Monastery in Kentucky where he first met Merton. While making the long trip home to Nicaragua to build a utopian artist's commune on the Island of Solentiname, Cardenal rubs elbows with some of Latin America's greatest writers and artists of that time.In From the Monastery to the World, Cardenal is still a hungry pupil, years away from becoming the internationally renowned poet–statesman and Nicaraguan Minister of Culture. Here we see the poet and monk Thomas Merton as a wise, patient, and sometimes even humbled mentor, during the years when he was still shaping and collecting the raw materials for such writings "The Way of Chuang Tzu", "Raids on the Unspeakable", and "Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander".Merton and Cardenal's correspondence grants readers an audience to conversations between two men deeply connected by their vigorous endeavors toward spiritual freedom, voracious intellectual appetites, and artistic exploration despite the cultural differences, language barriers, and geographic distances which divide them.

Genres: Religion, Theology, Spirituality

356 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 15, 2017

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

[Raymond Browne · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story of a friendship, teacher and disciple, insightful and inspiring. For Merton fans a must and for those who know Fr. Ernesto simply by name, a must also.

[Edward · Rating 3 out of 5]

This exchange of letters between Merton and Cardenal were written between 1959 and 1968 and covered most of that tumultous decade of assassinations (the Kennedys, Martin Luther King Jr.), the Viet Nam war and political violence in Latin America. Merton was well known for his writings, especially his SEVEN STORY MOUNTAIN, and wrote to Cardenal from his Trappist monastery in Kentucky. Cardenal came from an middle-class Nicaraguan family and had spent two years in Merton’s monastery as a novice before returning in Nicaragua where he became a priest and attempted to create a spiritual community among the peasants.

Cardenal was very active in liberation theology, an activity that drew strong disapproval from Pope John Paul and eventually resulted in Cardenal’s dismissal from the priesthood. Merton identified with this urge to find authentic meaning in the poor, undistracted by wealth and status. He expresses in one letter that “the future belongs to South America: and I believe it. It will belong to North America, too, but only onen one condiion: that the United States beomes able to learn from South and Latin America and listen to the voice that has so long been ignored, which is a voice of the Andes and of the Amazon (not the voice of the cities which alone is heard, and is comparatively raucous and false). There is much to be done and much to pray for.”

Specifically, Merton had hoped to join Cardenal in his formation of a new religious community in Nicaraguan, but he needed permission from his Trappist order, and that didn’t happen. His immediate superior, Dom James wanted to keep Merton where he was. The context for this was the Catholic Church, in tandem with the United States, was firmly anti-communist, and after Cuba, any kind of revolutionary or radical changes in Latin America were highly suspect.

Merton’s mood darkened, or at least became more questioning, as the end of the decade approached, and ironically so would Merton’s life end in an l968 accident while he was attending an interfaith conference in Thailand. with Hindu and Buddhist monks and scholars. He wrote in a l966 letter, “My life is one of deepening contradictions and frequent darkness, the chief effect of which is to produce much interior solitude.” He questions the future of his monastery, feeling it is too concerned with making money and supporting itself, at the expense of true spirituality. He felt compelled to speak out against racism and the Viet Nam war which made him no friends among conservative religious circles. At the same time he felt his efforts were futile, but he had to continue to speak out.

Cardenal was always grateful to receive Merton’s letters; the two often exchanged views on promising new writers, and Cardenal continued to inform Merton of his efforts to establish Solentiname, his center on Lake Nicaragua, later burned down by the Somoza government. In the end, I think it was a struggle between hope and despair for both them. While Merton died at age 53, Cardenal died in 2020 at the age of 95. These letters reveal how man inflenced the other.

[Lynne · Rating 3 out of 5]

For living "contemplative" lives, these two men were highly active, highly public, super busy....this is NOT how I would visualize a contemplative life!!

That said, Merton certainly saw where the United States society/politics were headed...