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The Ascent to Truth
Merton defines Christian mysticism, especially as expressed by the Spanish Carmelite St. John of the Cross, and he offers the contemplative experience as an answer to the irreligion and barbarism of our times. “For those...curious about mysticism...this is an excellent book” (Catholic World).
360 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1951
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About the author
Thomas Merton
554 books1,901 followersThomas 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.
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.
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September 20, 2012
Wow! did not know what I was getting into with this book but enjoyed it. It's an explanation/defense of the theology behind the mysticism of St John of the Cross. heavy doses of Thomas Aquinas and the Spanish mystic, mixed with (what I've come to so look forward to) Merton's keen insights. Thomas Merton is always able to theorize on a complex idea for pages and the capture the essence in a few powerful lines. I enjoy both and have never been disappointed.
In a nutshell - 'mysticism' as expressed by St John of the Cross is good theology. And in fact if we don't get hung up on the words around it, we may find it much like Peter on the water, 'the next step' so to speak. After I've learned everything there is to know about God - have I captured Him in my thoughts? Have I attained all that He calls me to by my right thinking? Jesus told the fisherman, 'go out into the deep water for a catch'. I believe there's always somewhere deeper to go with God. It is the never-ending story, and I found my name written there.
Thinking and reason and faith and the Word are the the heart of this 'mysticism' not special knowledge and visions. Really they all are saying (St John, Aquinas, Merton) this:
Think of a door. The word door brings to mind a pretty solid thing.
A door is not a fish, yet you can't push open the word door. A concept, a tool that works for what we need it to do. Three things here:
1) lean not on your own understanding (proverbs)
2) "...did not consider equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself." (Philippians) I want God but He won't be boxed up, clutched by me, so I make room for Him to work in me.
3) get out of the boat and on to the water - 'put yourself in a place where real faith happens' Bonhoeffer
A door is open, a door is shut, a door swings like this and it's path and speed are predictable.
But take the door of it's hinges - now how does it move? I can use the concept of the swinging door to illustrate something based on what everybody knows. But God and the cross of Christ are without peer.
The Kingdom of God is within you, The Kingdom of God is small like a mustard seed, The Kingdom of Gos is throughout like yeast in the bread.
In a nutshell - 'mysticism' as expressed by St John of the Cross is good theology. And in fact if we don't get hung up on the words around it, we may find it much like Peter on the water, 'the next step' so to speak. After I've learned everything there is to know about God - have I captured Him in my thoughts? Have I attained all that He calls me to by my right thinking? Jesus told the fisherman, 'go out into the deep water for a catch'. I believe there's always somewhere deeper to go with God. It is the never-ending story, and I found my name written there.
Thinking and reason and faith and the Word are the the heart of this 'mysticism' not special knowledge and visions. Really they all are saying (St John, Aquinas, Merton) this:
Think of a door. The word door brings to mind a pretty solid thing.
A door is not a fish, yet you can't push open the word door. A concept, a tool that works for what we need it to do. Three things here:
1) lean not on your own understanding (proverbs)
2) "...did not consider equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself." (Philippians) I want God but He won't be boxed up, clutched by me, so I make room for Him to work in me.
3) get out of the boat and on to the water - 'put yourself in a place where real faith happens' Bonhoeffer
A door is open, a door is shut, a door swings like this and it's path and speed are predictable.
But take the door of it's hinges - now how does it move? I can use the concept of the swinging door to illustrate something based on what everybody knows. But God and the cross of Christ are without peer.
The Kingdom of God is within you, The Kingdom of God is small like a mustard seed, The Kingdom of Gos is throughout like yeast in the bread.
September 8, 2009
No greater joy for a Christian seeking to deepen his practice of the faith than quiet time with Thomas Merton.
Reading Selections:
The Ascent To Truth -- Thomas Merton
A Pattern of Development in Life and In Contemplation
Our nature imposes on us a certain pattern of development which we must follow if we are to fulfill our best capacities and achieve at least the partial happiness of being human…it can be stated very simply: We must know the truth, and we must love the truth we know, and we must act according to the measure of our love…Contemplation reproduces the same essential outline of this pattern, but on a much higher level. For contemplation is a work of grace, The Truth to which it unites us is not an abstraction but Reality and Life itself. The love by which it unites us to this Truth is a gift of God and an only be produced within us by the direct action of God.
Mystical Contemplation
The true nature of mystical contemplation is first of all a supernatural experience of God as He is in Himself. This experience is a free gift of God in a more special sense than are all the other graces required for our sanctification, although it forms a part of the normal supernatural organism by which we are sanctified. Essentially mystical experience is a vivid conscious participation of our soul and its faculties in the life, knowledge and love of God Himself. This participation is ontologically possible only because sanctifying grace is imparted to us as a new “being” superadded to our nature and giving it the power to elicit acts which are entirely beyond its own capacity.
Blaise Pascal on The Psychology of Illusion
A Man can pass his whole life without boredom, merely by gambling each day with a modest sum. Give him, each morning, the amount of money he might be able to win each day, on a condition that he must not gamble: you make him miserable! You may say that what he seeks is the amusement of gaming, not the winnings. All right let him play for nothing. There will be no excitement, he will be bored to death.
So it is not just amusement that he seeks, An amusement that is tame, without passion, only bores him. He wants to get worked up and to delude himself that he is going to be happy if he wins a sum that he would actually refuse if it were given him on condition that he must not gamble. He needs to create an object for his passions and to direct upon his object his desire, his anger and his fear -- like children who scare themselves with their own painted faces.
Saint Gregory of Nyssa I
All that man pursues in this life has no existence except in his mind, not in reality: opinion, honor, dignities, glory, fortune: all these are the work of this life’s spiders…but those who rise to the heights escape, with the flick of a wing from the spiders of this world. Only those who, like flies, are heavy and without energy remain caught in the glue of this world and are taken and bound, as though in nets, by honors, pleasures, praise and manifold desires, and thus they become the prey of the beast that seeks to capture them.
Distraction
Men are condemned to physical or spiritual movement because it is unbearable for them to sit still. Blaise Pascal: “We look for rest and overcome obstacles to obtain it. But if we overcome these obstacles, rest becomes intolerable, for we begin to think of the misfortunes that are ours, or of those that threaten to descend upon us.” Man was made for the highest activity, which is, in fact, his rest. That activity, which is contemplation, is immanent and it transcends the level of sense and of discourse. Man’s guilty sense of his incapacity for this one deep activity which is the reason for his very existence, is precisely what drives him to seek oblivion in exterior motion and desire. Incapable of the divine activity which alone can satisfy his soul, fallen man flings himself upon exterior things, not so much for their own sake as for the sake of the agitation which keeps his spirit pleasantly numb….Pascal: “Distraction is the only thing that consoles us for our miseries and yet it is , in itself, the greatest of our miseries.”
Discernment and Detachment
The Christian contemplation of nature is characterized in the ascetic gift of discernment, which is one penetrating glance, apprehend what creatures are and what they are not. This is the intellectual counterpoise of detachment in the will. Discernment and detachment (krisis and apatheia) are two characters of the mature Christina soul. They are not yet the mark of a mystic but they bear witness that one is traveling the right way to mystical contemplation and the stage of beginners has passed….The presence of discernment and detachment is manifested by a spontaneous thirst for what is good -- charity, union with the will of God -- and an equally spontaneous repugnance with what is evil. The man who has this virtue no longer needs to be exhorted by promises to do what is right or deterred from evil by threat of punishment.
The Tragedy Of Man
Our tragedy consists in this: that although our reason may be capable of showing us clearly the futility of what we desire, we continue to desire it for the sake of the desire. Passion itself is our pleasure. Reason then becomes he instrument of passion. Its perverted function is to create idols -- that is fictions --to which we can dedicate the worship of love and hatred, joy and anguish, hope and fear.
The First Commandment
Saint John of the Cross regarded the First Commandment as a summary of the entire ascetic and mystical life, up to and including Transforming Union. He tells us in fact that his works are simply an explanation of what is contained in the commandment to “love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy strength.” …Saint John of the Cross: “Herein is contained all the spiritual man ought to do, and all that I have here to teach him, so that he may truly attain God, through union of the will, by means of charity. For herein man is commanded to employ all his faculties and desires and operations and affections of his soul in God so that all the ability and strength of his soul may serve for no more than this.”…this is simply the imitation of Christ “who in His life had no other pleasure than to do the will of his Father. We must renounce and completely reject every pleasure that presents itself to the senses, if it be not purely for the honor and glory of God.
Acquired vs. Infused Wisdom
Acquired wisdom is the fruit of man’s own study and his thought and infused wisdom or contemplation which is a gift of God….Acquired wisdom can do nothing to bring a man to divine union with God, divine union is a vocation and, if faithful, a destiny…The whole ascetical and mystical life is a reproduction of the life of Christ on earth because it completely empties and “annihilates” the soul in order to unite it to God.
Saint Teresa of Avila I
My opinion has always been and always will be that every Christian should try to consult some learned person, if he can, and the more learned the person the better, Those who walk in the way of prayer have the greater need of learning and the more spiritual they are, the greater is their need. Let us not make the mistake that learned men who do not practice (contemplative) prayer are not suitable directors for those who do…if a person who practices prayer consults learned men, the devil will not deceive him with illusions, except by his own desire; for I think the devils are very much afraid of learned me who are humble and virtuous, knowing these will find them out and defeat them.
Notes on Christian Mystical Experience
In mystical experience God is apprehended as unknown.. A knowledge that registers itself in the soul passively without an idea…the intelligence needs light but contemplation obscures the clear knowledge of divine things, it hides them in a cloud of unknowing …God communicates Himself to the soul passively and in darkness….the only proximate means of union with God is faith…no vision, no revelation, however sublime is worth the smallest act of faith….
Three Statements On Unknowing
1. Acquired conceptual knowledge of God should not be discarded as long as it helps a man toward Divine Union. And it continues to help a man toward Divine Union as long as it does not interfere with the infused, passive, mystical experience of God in obscurity.
2. It is not so much the presence of concepts in the mind that interferes with the obscure mystical illumination of the soul as the desire to reach God through concepts . There is therefore no question of rejecting all conceptual knowledge of God, but of ceasing to rely on concepts as a proximate means of union with Him.
3. You are not supposed to renounce this desire of clear conceptual knowledge of God unless you are actually receiving infused prayer -- or unless you are so advanced in then mystical life that your can enter into the presence of God without active thought of Him.
Explaining God
If you begin by juggling with a system of clear ideas which you think delimit and circumscribe the Being of God you will by that very fact, begin judging God according to the measure of your ideas…Like Job’s friends, you set yourself up as a theological advocate of God. You justify His ways to men not according to what He is, but according to what your system says He ought to be. In the end you find yourself apologizing to the world for God and demonstrating that, after all, He is not to be blamed for being what He is because it can be shown that He generally acts like a just prudent and benevolent man. Or rather to help him ascend a few degrees in the estimation of men, you present Him to them as a well-disposed and democratic millionaire. The word for this is blasphemy. It is also atheism because a God who depends on your ideas for His justification cannot possibly exist.
The Certitude Of Scholastic Philosophy And Theology
Catholic philosophy and speculative theology…are in strict truth, sciences…they are not the pragmatic rationalization of vague spiritual desires. On the levels of both philosophy and theology. Catholic thought has a value that is speculative and absolute. That is to say, it arrives at conclusions about God which are endowed with a genuine scientific certitude, because they can be proved by clear demonstration to proceed with inexorable logic form the basic principles which are self evident, in the case of philosophy, and revealed by God, in the case of theology…Yet no matter how great may be the certitude of scholastic philosophy and theology, they both culminate in a knowledge of God tamquam ignotum. They know him in his transcendence. They know him as unknown….the physicist deals with energy in such a way that it becomes subject to his control…although the existence of God ends in absolute certitude, we cannot put our minds in possession of an object which we can determine, master, possess or command….our knowledge of God makes him master of the soul that knows Him….When he knows us we are. When he knows us not, we are not.
Christian Contemplation
Christian contemplation is precipitated by crisis within crisis and anguish within anguish. It is born of spiritual conflict. It is a victory that suddenly appears I the hours of defeat. It is the providential solution of problems that seem to have no solution. It is the reconciliation of enemies that seem to be irreconcilable. It is a vision in which Love, mounting into the darkness which no reasoning can penetrate, unites in one bond all the loose strands that intelligence alone cannot connect together, and with this cord draws the whole being of man into a Divine Union, the effects of which will someday overflow into the world outside him.
Concepts and Intelligence
The true spiritual crisis which sometimes leads to faith, the crisis within crisis that must always prepare the way for contemplation, must first of all have an intellectual element. It must be borne of thought. It must spring from a respect for the validity of concepts and of reasoning. It accepts the work of intelligence. But it also sees that concepts and intelligence have their limitations. At the same time it realizes that the spirit is not necessarily bound by these limitations. And this is where the crisis begins…. I believe that Christ is God, that he is the word of God Incarnate. I believe that in Christ a human nature was assumed by the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, in such a way that it does not subsist in a proper human personality of its own but has its being from Him, subsists in Him…I believe that the man Christ is a Divine Person, the Son of God. And I believe that by the grace which He has purchased for us all by His death on the Cross and which He has made available for all by His Resurrection form the dead, and communicated to all who are baptized. He has given me a share in that divine sonship. Spiritually therefore I am living by the life of the Son of God. My life is “hidden with Christ in God.” So much I believe….These are concepts and they are joined in intelligible judgments. I can penetrate their meaning by an analysis of them which compares their revealed content with the content of other propositions revealed by God or even with propositions known to reason. And yet they remain mysteries to me. No amount of analysis can make them clearly evident to my intelligence….Nevertheless, the love of God endows man’s spirit with a kind of instinctive realization that somehow these mysteries of faith are meant to be penetrated and appreciated. In a certain sense theyare given us to be understood Faith seeks understanding, not only in study by above all in payer. Fides quaerit intellect…And Saint Paul explained to the Christian converts of Corinth that although he spoke “the wisdom of God in a mystery, a mystery which is hidden,” nevertheless the Spirit of God would manifest hidden wonders of this wisdom. “To us God hath revealed them by His Spirit…We have received not the spirit of the world but he Spirit that is of God: that we may know the things that are given us from God .(I Cor 2:7, 10, 12).
Contemplation: A Gift Of Self To God
The passage from philosophical understanding to faith is marked by a gift of our self to God. The moment of transition is the moment of sacrifice. The passage from faith to that spiritual understanding which is called contemplation is also a moment of immolation. It is the direct consequence of a more complete and radical gift of ourselves to God. Contemplation is a an intensification of faith that transforms belief into something akin to vision. Yet it is not “vision” since contemplation, being pure faith, is even darker than faith itself….For at the very moment we give ourselves to God, God gives himself to us. He cannot give Himself completely to us unless we give ourselves completely to Him: but we cannot give ourselves completely to Him unless He first gives Himself in some measure to us…We can only give ourselves to God when Christ , by His grace, dies and rises spiritually within us.
St. John of The Cross And Scripture
St. John of The Cross does not merely illustrate his doctrine by use of scripture, he proves it by scripture…He finds his doctrine in the Bible. He can say, as Jesus said, that his doctrine is not merely his won but he doctrine of the Father who sent him….”He who speaks within the divine scripture is the Holy Spirit.”
Happiness
Our happiness must come, metaphysically speaking, from outside ourselves. That does not mean that perfect happiness consists in a psychological exteriorization of ourselves in created things. Far from it! But even our happiness comes from a being other than our own spirit, beatitude cannot objectively be considered as he perfection which we receive from that Being, even though he be God. To be happy we must be taken out of ourselves and raised above ourselves, not only to a higher level of creation but to the uncreated essence of God. God and God alone is our beatitude…Perfect beatitude, which is union with God in a clear vision of the Divine Essence, is something which exceeds the capacity of any created nature to achieve...Our cooperation with his grace is demanded of us. There must be action on both sides. He will not give himself to us unless we give ourselves to Him.
The Social Character of The Solitary Contemplative
No matter how solitary a man may be, if he is a contemplative his contemplation has something of a social character. He receives it through the Church. All true and supernatural contemplation is a share in God’s revelation of Himself in the world in Christ. The Church is the Mystical Body of Christ, prolonging His Incarnation manifesting Him still in the world. She is in full possession of his revelation. She alone dispenses the treasures of His grace.
The Humble Contemplative
God tells Moses to seek the advice of his brother Aaron: “What about your brother, Aaron the Levite? I know he can speak well. He is already on his way to meet you, and his heart will be glad when he sees you. You shall speak to him and put words in his mouth; I will help both of you speak and will teach you what to do.” Having heard these words Moses took courage…for this is characteristic of a humble soul which dares not to treat with God alone and cannot be completely satisfied without human counsel and guidance. And this is the will of God, for he draws near to those who come together to treat concerning truth in order to expound an confirm it in them upon a foundation of natural reason….the last thing many men would look for in a mystic would be a positive need for the advice and guidance of other men. Yet this is precisely one of the characteristic of a truly interior soul.
The Role of Asceticism
Without asceticism, the mystical life is practically out of the question. But asceticism does not need to find expression in strenuous exercises of mortification, still less spectacular and extraordinary macerations. On the contrary the true path of asceticism is a path of simplicity and obscurity, and there is no true Christian self-denial that does not begin first of all with a whole-hearted acceptance and fulfillment of the ordinary duties of one’s state in life.
Reason And The Mystical Life
Mystical prayer is a gift of God to a soul purified by ascetic discipline. This is only achieved when all the passions and faculties are controlled by reason. Mystical prayer depends, per accidens,(per se - per accidens. Latin phrases meaning "through itself" and "by accident," used by medieval philosophers to distinguish essential and accidental features of substances) On the right ordering of the soul by reason. Reason is the key to the mystical life.
The Harmful Consequences Of Created Pleasure
(Under Christian asceticism) we must never allow our will to seek any created pleasure for pleasure’s sake…if the will does not pass through that pleasure to rest in God rather than in the pleasure itself, then, while not necessarily being formally sinful , it will have harmful consequences for the soul because it will cause it to rest in created pleasure and will thus blind it to the supernatural light that should lead us, by the way of the Cross, to union with God.
Sanctity And Self-Knowledge
The success or failure of a man’s spiritual life depends on the clarity with which he is able to see and judge he motives of his moral acts…the first step to sanctity is self-knowledge.
Reading Selections:
The Ascent To Truth -- Thomas Merton
A Pattern of Development in Life and In Contemplation
Our nature imposes on us a certain pattern of development which we must follow if we are to fulfill our best capacities and achieve at least the partial happiness of being human…it can be stated very simply: We must know the truth, and we must love the truth we know, and we must act according to the measure of our love…Contemplation reproduces the same essential outline of this pattern, but on a much higher level. For contemplation is a work of grace, The Truth to which it unites us is not an abstraction but Reality and Life itself. The love by which it unites us to this Truth is a gift of God and an only be produced within us by the direct action of God.
Mystical Contemplation
The true nature of mystical contemplation is first of all a supernatural experience of God as He is in Himself. This experience is a free gift of God in a more special sense than are all the other graces required for our sanctification, although it forms a part of the normal supernatural organism by which we are sanctified. Essentially mystical experience is a vivid conscious participation of our soul and its faculties in the life, knowledge and love of God Himself. This participation is ontologically possible only because sanctifying grace is imparted to us as a new “being” superadded to our nature and giving it the power to elicit acts which are entirely beyond its own capacity.
Blaise Pascal on The Psychology of Illusion
A Man can pass his whole life without boredom, merely by gambling each day with a modest sum. Give him, each morning, the amount of money he might be able to win each day, on a condition that he must not gamble: you make him miserable! You may say that what he seeks is the amusement of gaming, not the winnings. All right let him play for nothing. There will be no excitement, he will be bored to death.
So it is not just amusement that he seeks, An amusement that is tame, without passion, only bores him. He wants to get worked up and to delude himself that he is going to be happy if he wins a sum that he would actually refuse if it were given him on condition that he must not gamble. He needs to create an object for his passions and to direct upon his object his desire, his anger and his fear -- like children who scare themselves with their own painted faces.
Saint Gregory of Nyssa I
All that man pursues in this life has no existence except in his mind, not in reality: opinion, honor, dignities, glory, fortune: all these are the work of this life’s spiders…but those who rise to the heights escape, with the flick of a wing from the spiders of this world. Only those who, like flies, are heavy and without energy remain caught in the glue of this world and are taken and bound, as though in nets, by honors, pleasures, praise and manifold desires, and thus they become the prey of the beast that seeks to capture them.
Distraction
Men are condemned to physical or spiritual movement because it is unbearable for them to sit still. Blaise Pascal: “We look for rest and overcome obstacles to obtain it. But if we overcome these obstacles, rest becomes intolerable, for we begin to think of the misfortunes that are ours, or of those that threaten to descend upon us.” Man was made for the highest activity, which is, in fact, his rest. That activity, which is contemplation, is immanent and it transcends the level of sense and of discourse. Man’s guilty sense of his incapacity for this one deep activity which is the reason for his very existence, is precisely what drives him to seek oblivion in exterior motion and desire. Incapable of the divine activity which alone can satisfy his soul, fallen man flings himself upon exterior things, not so much for their own sake as for the sake of the agitation which keeps his spirit pleasantly numb….Pascal: “Distraction is the only thing that consoles us for our miseries and yet it is , in itself, the greatest of our miseries.”
Discernment and Detachment
The Christian contemplation of nature is characterized in the ascetic gift of discernment, which is one penetrating glance, apprehend what creatures are and what they are not. This is the intellectual counterpoise of detachment in the will. Discernment and detachment (krisis and apatheia) are two characters of the mature Christina soul. They are not yet the mark of a mystic but they bear witness that one is traveling the right way to mystical contemplation and the stage of beginners has passed….The presence of discernment and detachment is manifested by a spontaneous thirst for what is good -- charity, union with the will of God -- and an equally spontaneous repugnance with what is evil. The man who has this virtue no longer needs to be exhorted by promises to do what is right or deterred from evil by threat of punishment.
The Tragedy Of Man
Our tragedy consists in this: that although our reason may be capable of showing us clearly the futility of what we desire, we continue to desire it for the sake of the desire. Passion itself is our pleasure. Reason then becomes he instrument of passion. Its perverted function is to create idols -- that is fictions --to which we can dedicate the worship of love and hatred, joy and anguish, hope and fear.
The First Commandment
Saint John of the Cross regarded the First Commandment as a summary of the entire ascetic and mystical life, up to and including Transforming Union. He tells us in fact that his works are simply an explanation of what is contained in the commandment to “love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy strength.” …Saint John of the Cross: “Herein is contained all the spiritual man ought to do, and all that I have here to teach him, so that he may truly attain God, through union of the will, by means of charity. For herein man is commanded to employ all his faculties and desires and operations and affections of his soul in God so that all the ability and strength of his soul may serve for no more than this.”…this is simply the imitation of Christ “who in His life had no other pleasure than to do the will of his Father. We must renounce and completely reject every pleasure that presents itself to the senses, if it be not purely for the honor and glory of God.
Acquired vs. Infused Wisdom
Acquired wisdom is the fruit of man’s own study and his thought and infused wisdom or contemplation which is a gift of God….Acquired wisdom can do nothing to bring a man to divine union with God, divine union is a vocation and, if faithful, a destiny…The whole ascetical and mystical life is a reproduction of the life of Christ on earth because it completely empties and “annihilates” the soul in order to unite it to God.
Saint Teresa of Avila I
My opinion has always been and always will be that every Christian should try to consult some learned person, if he can, and the more learned the person the better, Those who walk in the way of prayer have the greater need of learning and the more spiritual they are, the greater is their need. Let us not make the mistake that learned men who do not practice (contemplative) prayer are not suitable directors for those who do…if a person who practices prayer consults learned men, the devil will not deceive him with illusions, except by his own desire; for I think the devils are very much afraid of learned me who are humble and virtuous, knowing these will find them out and defeat them.
Notes on Christian Mystical Experience
In mystical experience God is apprehended as unknown.. A knowledge that registers itself in the soul passively without an idea…the intelligence needs light but contemplation obscures the clear knowledge of divine things, it hides them in a cloud of unknowing …God communicates Himself to the soul passively and in darkness….the only proximate means of union with God is faith…no vision, no revelation, however sublime is worth the smallest act of faith….
Three Statements On Unknowing
1. Acquired conceptual knowledge of God should not be discarded as long as it helps a man toward Divine Union. And it continues to help a man toward Divine Union as long as it does not interfere with the infused, passive, mystical experience of God in obscurity.
2. It is not so much the presence of concepts in the mind that interferes with the obscure mystical illumination of the soul as the desire to reach God through concepts . There is therefore no question of rejecting all conceptual knowledge of God, but of ceasing to rely on concepts as a proximate means of union with Him.
3. You are not supposed to renounce this desire of clear conceptual knowledge of God unless you are actually receiving infused prayer -- or unless you are so advanced in then mystical life that your can enter into the presence of God without active thought of Him.
Explaining God
If you begin by juggling with a system of clear ideas which you think delimit and circumscribe the Being of God you will by that very fact, begin judging God according to the measure of your ideas…Like Job’s friends, you set yourself up as a theological advocate of God. You justify His ways to men not according to what He is, but according to what your system says He ought to be. In the end you find yourself apologizing to the world for God and demonstrating that, after all, He is not to be blamed for being what He is because it can be shown that He generally acts like a just prudent and benevolent man. Or rather to help him ascend a few degrees in the estimation of men, you present Him to them as a well-disposed and democratic millionaire. The word for this is blasphemy. It is also atheism because a God who depends on your ideas for His justification cannot possibly exist.
The Certitude Of Scholastic Philosophy And Theology
Catholic philosophy and speculative theology…are in strict truth, sciences…they are not the pragmatic rationalization of vague spiritual desires. On the levels of both philosophy and theology. Catholic thought has a value that is speculative and absolute. That is to say, it arrives at conclusions about God which are endowed with a genuine scientific certitude, because they can be proved by clear demonstration to proceed with inexorable logic form the basic principles which are self evident, in the case of philosophy, and revealed by God, in the case of theology…Yet no matter how great may be the certitude of scholastic philosophy and theology, they both culminate in a knowledge of God tamquam ignotum. They know him in his transcendence. They know him as unknown….the physicist deals with energy in such a way that it becomes subject to his control…although the existence of God ends in absolute certitude, we cannot put our minds in possession of an object which we can determine, master, possess or command….our knowledge of God makes him master of the soul that knows Him….When he knows us we are. When he knows us not, we are not.
Christian Contemplation
Christian contemplation is precipitated by crisis within crisis and anguish within anguish. It is born of spiritual conflict. It is a victory that suddenly appears I the hours of defeat. It is the providential solution of problems that seem to have no solution. It is the reconciliation of enemies that seem to be irreconcilable. It is a vision in which Love, mounting into the darkness which no reasoning can penetrate, unites in one bond all the loose strands that intelligence alone cannot connect together, and with this cord draws the whole being of man into a Divine Union, the effects of which will someday overflow into the world outside him.
Concepts and Intelligence
The true spiritual crisis which sometimes leads to faith, the crisis within crisis that must always prepare the way for contemplation, must first of all have an intellectual element. It must be borne of thought. It must spring from a respect for the validity of concepts and of reasoning. It accepts the work of intelligence. But it also sees that concepts and intelligence have their limitations. At the same time it realizes that the spirit is not necessarily bound by these limitations. And this is where the crisis begins…. I believe that Christ is God, that he is the word of God Incarnate. I believe that in Christ a human nature was assumed by the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, in such a way that it does not subsist in a proper human personality of its own but has its being from Him, subsists in Him…I believe that the man Christ is a Divine Person, the Son of God. And I believe that by the grace which He has purchased for us all by His death on the Cross and which He has made available for all by His Resurrection form the dead, and communicated to all who are baptized. He has given me a share in that divine sonship. Spiritually therefore I am living by the life of the Son of God. My life is “hidden with Christ in God.” So much I believe….These are concepts and they are joined in intelligible judgments. I can penetrate their meaning by an analysis of them which compares their revealed content with the content of other propositions revealed by God or even with propositions known to reason. And yet they remain mysteries to me. No amount of analysis can make them clearly evident to my intelligence….Nevertheless, the love of God endows man’s spirit with a kind of instinctive realization that somehow these mysteries of faith are meant to be penetrated and appreciated. In a certain sense theyare given us to be understood Faith seeks understanding, not only in study by above all in payer. Fides quaerit intellect…And Saint Paul explained to the Christian converts of Corinth that although he spoke “the wisdom of God in a mystery, a mystery which is hidden,” nevertheless the Spirit of God would manifest hidden wonders of this wisdom. “To us God hath revealed them by His Spirit…We have received not the spirit of the world but he Spirit that is of God: that we may know the things that are given us from God .(I Cor 2:7, 10, 12).
Contemplation: A Gift Of Self To God
The passage from philosophical understanding to faith is marked by a gift of our self to God. The moment of transition is the moment of sacrifice. The passage from faith to that spiritual understanding which is called contemplation is also a moment of immolation. It is the direct consequence of a more complete and radical gift of ourselves to God. Contemplation is a an intensification of faith that transforms belief into something akin to vision. Yet it is not “vision” since contemplation, being pure faith, is even darker than faith itself….For at the very moment we give ourselves to God, God gives himself to us. He cannot give Himself completely to us unless we give ourselves completely to Him: but we cannot give ourselves completely to Him unless He first gives Himself in some measure to us…We can only give ourselves to God when Christ , by His grace, dies and rises spiritually within us.
St. John of The Cross And Scripture
St. John of The Cross does not merely illustrate his doctrine by use of scripture, he proves it by scripture…He finds his doctrine in the Bible. He can say, as Jesus said, that his doctrine is not merely his won but he doctrine of the Father who sent him….”He who speaks within the divine scripture is the Holy Spirit.”
Happiness
Our happiness must come, metaphysically speaking, from outside ourselves. That does not mean that perfect happiness consists in a psychological exteriorization of ourselves in created things. Far from it! But even our happiness comes from a being other than our own spirit, beatitude cannot objectively be considered as he perfection which we receive from that Being, even though he be God. To be happy we must be taken out of ourselves and raised above ourselves, not only to a higher level of creation but to the uncreated essence of God. God and God alone is our beatitude…Perfect beatitude, which is union with God in a clear vision of the Divine Essence, is something which exceeds the capacity of any created nature to achieve...Our cooperation with his grace is demanded of us. There must be action on both sides. He will not give himself to us unless we give ourselves to Him.
The Social Character of The Solitary Contemplative
No matter how solitary a man may be, if he is a contemplative his contemplation has something of a social character. He receives it through the Church. All true and supernatural contemplation is a share in God’s revelation of Himself in the world in Christ. The Church is the Mystical Body of Christ, prolonging His Incarnation manifesting Him still in the world. She is in full possession of his revelation. She alone dispenses the treasures of His grace.
The Humble Contemplative
God tells Moses to seek the advice of his brother Aaron: “What about your brother, Aaron the Levite? I know he can speak well. He is already on his way to meet you, and his heart will be glad when he sees you. You shall speak to him and put words in his mouth; I will help both of you speak and will teach you what to do.” Having heard these words Moses took courage…for this is characteristic of a humble soul which dares not to treat with God alone and cannot be completely satisfied without human counsel and guidance. And this is the will of God, for he draws near to those who come together to treat concerning truth in order to expound an confirm it in them upon a foundation of natural reason….the last thing many men would look for in a mystic would be a positive need for the advice and guidance of other men. Yet this is precisely one of the characteristic of a truly interior soul.
The Role of Asceticism
Without asceticism, the mystical life is practically out of the question. But asceticism does not need to find expression in strenuous exercises of mortification, still less spectacular and extraordinary macerations. On the contrary the true path of asceticism is a path of simplicity and obscurity, and there is no true Christian self-denial that does not begin first of all with a whole-hearted acceptance and fulfillment of the ordinary duties of one’s state in life.
Reason And The Mystical Life
Mystical prayer is a gift of God to a soul purified by ascetic discipline. This is only achieved when all the passions and faculties are controlled by reason. Mystical prayer depends, per accidens,(per se - per accidens. Latin phrases meaning "through itself" and "by accident," used by medieval philosophers to distinguish essential and accidental features of substances) On the right ordering of the soul by reason. Reason is the key to the mystical life.
The Harmful Consequences Of Created Pleasure
(Under Christian asceticism) we must never allow our will to seek any created pleasure for pleasure’s sake…if the will does not pass through that pleasure to rest in God rather than in the pleasure itself, then, while not necessarily being formally sinful , it will have harmful consequences for the soul because it will cause it to rest in created pleasure and will thus blind it to the supernatural light that should lead us, by the way of the Cross, to union with God.
Sanctity And Self-Knowledge
The success or failure of a man’s spiritual life depends on the clarity with which he is able to see and judge he motives of his moral acts…the first step to sanctity is self-knowledge.
July 23, 2023
Reading this book requires some effort as it is one of Merton’s drier works in which he fuses the 13th century scholastic philosophy of Thomas Aquinas with the writings of the 16th century Spanish author, St. John of the Cross. Merton, I think, is attempting to show how St. John’s writing about mystical states of mind does not contradict in any way, the rational foundations of Aquinas.
In explaining this, he uses the example of Moses ascending the mountain to meet Yahweh, but when he arrives at the summit all he sees is an impenetrable cloud. The ascent of the mountain corresponds to the logical and conceptual effort to rationally explain the existence of God. But the actual experience of some kind of union with the Godhead goes beyond reason’s ability to penetrate the “cloud”, a mystical experience.
There is extensive qualification in this book, much of it involving paradox. Merton points out that God can never really be known unless he is also loved. And to love God is to do his will which leads into the question of Christian behavior One can follow Aquinas’ philosophical abstractions but there is no way that an individual can “think” his way to an mystical encounter, even though God may be theorized as pure actuality and intelligence. It is crucial for intelligence, then, to recognize its own limitations. A mystical sense of reality is one that rational speculation cannot achieve.
Recognizing one’s limitations is to practice humility. Merton quotes a Hindu spiritual master, Ramakrishna who said, “He who thinks his guru is a mere man will never progress in the spiritual life.” That somewhat puzzling statement means, I think, that anyone who sets himself on a level with any other human, will always find something to criticize and will never any humility. I would take this to suggest there is an element of wisdom in anyone, no matter how insignificant they may seem to be.
Merton acknowledges that St. John of the Cross has his critics, chiefly because anyone who writes trying to explain the unexplainable can be confusing. But Merton always reminds the reader that the greatest mystics, including John, have been characterized by their human warmth and common sense, all part of preparing oneself to enter the cloud of contemplation. What happens then is dependent, not on the human, but on a divine gift. If it is forthcoming, it’s entirely and freely given. All the individual can do is to prepare himself.
In explaining this, he uses the example of Moses ascending the mountain to meet Yahweh, but when he arrives at the summit all he sees is an impenetrable cloud. The ascent of the mountain corresponds to the logical and conceptual effort to rationally explain the existence of God. But the actual experience of some kind of union with the Godhead goes beyond reason’s ability to penetrate the “cloud”, a mystical experience.
There is extensive qualification in this book, much of it involving paradox. Merton points out that God can never really be known unless he is also loved. And to love God is to do his will which leads into the question of Christian behavior One can follow Aquinas’ philosophical abstractions but there is no way that an individual can “think” his way to an mystical encounter, even though God may be theorized as pure actuality and intelligence. It is crucial for intelligence, then, to recognize its own limitations. A mystical sense of reality is one that rational speculation cannot achieve.
Recognizing one’s limitations is to practice humility. Merton quotes a Hindu spiritual master, Ramakrishna who said, “He who thinks his guru is a mere man will never progress in the spiritual life.” That somewhat puzzling statement means, I think, that anyone who sets himself on a level with any other human, will always find something to criticize and will never any humility. I would take this to suggest there is an element of wisdom in anyone, no matter how insignificant they may seem to be.
Merton acknowledges that St. John of the Cross has his critics, chiefly because anyone who writes trying to explain the unexplainable can be confusing. But Merton always reminds the reader that the greatest mystics, including John, have been characterized by their human warmth and common sense, all part of preparing oneself to enter the cloud of contemplation. What happens then is dependent, not on the human, but on a divine gift. If it is forthcoming, it’s entirely and freely given. All the individual can do is to prepare himself.
February 11, 2023
Let's start off with the obvious: I have no idea what to make of Merton as an individual. I have neither the time nor interest to become a Merton scholar and his public reputation is all over the place. What I do know is that this is a solid book on mysticism. Other reviewers have more than adequately covered what topics and authors are discussed in the 300 or so pages. What I will add is that Merton recognized the weakness of Christianity in the 1940's and 50's (which we rather foolishly look back on as some sort of age of faith) and that America's prosperity would not fulfill our deepest needs. No system, no philosophy will save us.
Faith in God. Not "proof" of God; He is beyond our understanding, much more our syllogisms. Descartes did us a strange favor in his radical skepticism by ironically proving anyone who wishes to love another must start with an act of faith that the other even exists to love in the first place. So it is with God. My own conversion did not initiate after double checking all of the proofs in my graduate paper defining God, but with a deep desire and interior knowledge that there is something, or more accurately someone, who exists beyond me, greater than me, and with love for me. Accept that, and much else could be accepted. Rationally, no less. That rationality is quite important to Merton. Even in the depths of the dark night most of us never experience, where a soul comes into contact directly with God Himself, rationality still plays a role. It doesn't take much to overwhelm us emotionally, and spirits far less than God awe us. See St. John in the Apocalypse when he is confronted with an angel.
Not every spirit is an angel. Far, far too many people are getting into contact with these other beings. We need a guide to discern what on earth a mystic is dealing with, and God gave us two: reason and the Church. The Church wisely discourages people from putting faith in dreams, visions, or voices.
"if you have a vision in which you think you see God clearly, you have not seen God."
The first third of the book clears the weeds of the inadequacies of modern skepticism and the dangers of false mysticism. The rest of the book, concerning an actual encounter with God, our Creator, our Redeemer, Love...it's simply beautiful.
Faith in God. Not "proof" of God; He is beyond our understanding, much more our syllogisms. Descartes did us a strange favor in his radical skepticism by ironically proving anyone who wishes to love another must start with an act of faith that the other even exists to love in the first place. So it is with God. My own conversion did not initiate after double checking all of the proofs in my graduate paper defining God, but with a deep desire and interior knowledge that there is something, or more accurately someone, who exists beyond me, greater than me, and with love for me. Accept that, and much else could be accepted. Rationally, no less. That rationality is quite important to Merton. Even in the depths of the dark night most of us never experience, where a soul comes into contact directly with God Himself, rationality still plays a role. It doesn't take much to overwhelm us emotionally, and spirits far less than God awe us. See St. John in the Apocalypse when he is confronted with an angel.
Not every spirit is an angel. Far, far too many people are getting into contact with these other beings. We need a guide to discern what on earth a mystic is dealing with, and God gave us two: reason and the Church. The Church wisely discourages people from putting faith in dreams, visions, or voices.
"if you have a vision in which you think you see God clearly, you have not seen God."
The first third of the book clears the weeds of the inadequacies of modern skepticism and the dangers of false mysticism. The rest of the book, concerning an actual encounter with God, our Creator, our Redeemer, Love...it's simply beautiful.
December 24, 2023
Usually I start a book with “must read” recommendations or “follows from last book” but this one made it to the literal top of my “one of these days” stacks, the stack made while packing/unpacking in 2019 during a move. I read it and enjoyed finishing it, but would probably have benefited by reading the prerequisites first.
Merton reviews the spirituality and mysticism of St. John of the Cross, elucidating some of the more esoteric subjects.
When I started I was a little unprepared for the plunge into the deep end. Being unversed in St. John of the Cross mysticism, and a little weak in Thomistic philosophy, I found the text semantically intricate and bound by some missing required familiarity with cited sources. But from the dizzyingly elevated perspective on the author’s shoulder, I still came away with some very strong and uplifting motifs inside.
The first would be the widening of possibilities for my interior prayer life. This concept of what can be accomplished was a great unexpected reward for the time I spent in the book. Similarly, I learned much (or rather perceived much) more about some of the great thinking of Catholic Church’s Fathers, like St Thomas, St John of the Cross, or St Teresa of Avila. I can only imagine how much my understanding would have been amplified had I been at all familiar with the references. Finally, I was able to grasp Merton’s reasoning behind why a “dark night” of “unknowing” is required to approach God. Despite some deficit of semantics, re-reading revealed the concept that our limited faculties can never bridge the gap to the Infinite; some concepts must be unlearned to move past them.
I give the book three stars - maybe as I only have 3-4 stars worth of knowledge to give.
I vaguely promise to come back and re-read this after earning more stripes in my interior life, and maybe spending more time reading the prerequisite books. Maybe then I’ll adjust my review.
Merton reviews the spirituality and mysticism of St. John of the Cross, elucidating some of the more esoteric subjects.
When I started I was a little unprepared for the plunge into the deep end. Being unversed in St. John of the Cross mysticism, and a little weak in Thomistic philosophy, I found the text semantically intricate and bound by some missing required familiarity with cited sources. But from the dizzyingly elevated perspective on the author’s shoulder, I still came away with some very strong and uplifting motifs inside.
The first would be the widening of possibilities for my interior prayer life. This concept of what can be accomplished was a great unexpected reward for the time I spent in the book. Similarly, I learned much (or rather perceived much) more about some of the great thinking of Catholic Church’s Fathers, like St Thomas, St John of the Cross, or St Teresa of Avila. I can only imagine how much my understanding would have been amplified had I been at all familiar with the references. Finally, I was able to grasp Merton’s reasoning behind why a “dark night” of “unknowing” is required to approach God. Despite some deficit of semantics, re-reading revealed the concept that our limited faculties can never bridge the gap to the Infinite; some concepts must be unlearned to move past them.
I give the book three stars - maybe as I only have 3-4 stars worth of knowledge to give.
I vaguely promise to come back and re-read this after earning more stripes in my interior life, and maybe spending more time reading the prerequisite books. Maybe then I’ll adjust my review.
October 11, 2018
Thomas Merton is one of my all-time favorite authors. I’ve read a lot of his books, but this is the one that finally gave me some clarity in regard to his understanding of the contemplative life and how it’s meant to lead to our greatest goal: “to love God with all our heart, soul, strength, and mind.” Neither morality, virtue, or activism is an end in itself. God is our reward, that is, the experience of union with God which Merton describes as “vivid, conscious participation of our soul and of its faculties in the life, knowledge, and love of God Himself.”
Though this sentiment may be appreciated by many modern-day Christians, in practice it is often denied. For many, “knowing the truth” about God is contained in reciting doctrinal formulations or philosophical abstractions. However, as Merton states, “The Truth man needs is not a philosopher’s abstraction, but God Himself.”
The truth about God is that God is beyond concepts, for God is supraconceptual: “The statements made by faith about God are objectively true. Nevertheless the concepts used in these statements fall infinitely short of the actuality of God’s perfections, so that in their mode of expression they can be said, in some sense, to hide Him as much as they reveal Him.” All of our conceptions rely on what we have objectively seen, but the truth about God has “no relation to any sense of ours” for “we have never seen anything like God.” Thomas Aquinas writes, “The final attainment of man’s knowledge of God consists in knowing that we do not know Him, in so far as we realize that He transcends everything that we understand concerning Him.”
For this reason, God cannot be known by intellect or reason alone. But God can be known and embraced fully through faith and love. Intellect and reason are important, but they must act in service of faith: “faith takes over when reason can say no more.” Merton expands this thought: “We cannot rely on any clear and intelligible concept of God to delimit and to circumscribe His being as He really is in Himself. Faith takes man beyond the limits of his own finite intelligence…. Faith accepts the work of intelligence. But it also sees that concepts and intelligence have their limitations. At the same time it realizes that the spirit is not necessarily bound by these limitations.” Thus, “Reason alone is not our captain. It is enlisted in the service of faith.”
Ultimately, the person who desires to know God must be guided by reason and intellect, yet not bound by them, for they are meant to be in service to the act of faith that reaches beyond their limitations to embrace the God-beyond-concepts-and-words in love. In this way pure faith is “as dark as night to the understanding” in that it “goes beyond all clear conceptual and scientific knowledge of God.” This faith “blinds and dazzles the understanding” and ultimately reveals that “the most important element in the contemplative life is not knowledge but love.” And that, of course, is what God desires the most from us, that we would love God with all our heart, soul, strength, and mind.
This is not an easy book to navigate, but its certainly worth the effort.
Though this sentiment may be appreciated by many modern-day Christians, in practice it is often denied. For many, “knowing the truth” about God is contained in reciting doctrinal formulations or philosophical abstractions. However, as Merton states, “The Truth man needs is not a philosopher’s abstraction, but God Himself.”
The truth about God is that God is beyond concepts, for God is supraconceptual: “The statements made by faith about God are objectively true. Nevertheless the concepts used in these statements fall infinitely short of the actuality of God’s perfections, so that in their mode of expression they can be said, in some sense, to hide Him as much as they reveal Him.” All of our conceptions rely on what we have objectively seen, but the truth about God has “no relation to any sense of ours” for “we have never seen anything like God.” Thomas Aquinas writes, “The final attainment of man’s knowledge of God consists in knowing that we do not know Him, in so far as we realize that He transcends everything that we understand concerning Him.”
For this reason, God cannot be known by intellect or reason alone. But God can be known and embraced fully through faith and love. Intellect and reason are important, but they must act in service of faith: “faith takes over when reason can say no more.” Merton expands this thought: “We cannot rely on any clear and intelligible concept of God to delimit and to circumscribe His being as He really is in Himself. Faith takes man beyond the limits of his own finite intelligence…. Faith accepts the work of intelligence. But it also sees that concepts and intelligence have their limitations. At the same time it realizes that the spirit is not necessarily bound by these limitations.” Thus, “Reason alone is not our captain. It is enlisted in the service of faith.”
Ultimately, the person who desires to know God must be guided by reason and intellect, yet not bound by them, for they are meant to be in service to the act of faith that reaches beyond their limitations to embrace the God-beyond-concepts-and-words in love. In this way pure faith is “as dark as night to the understanding” in that it “goes beyond all clear conceptual and scientific knowledge of God.” This faith “blinds and dazzles the understanding” and ultimately reveals that “the most important element in the contemplative life is not knowledge but love.” And that, of course, is what God desires the most from us, that we would love God with all our heart, soul, strength, and mind.
This is not an easy book to navigate, but its certainly worth the effort.
Read
February 26, 20252025-02-26
Review 2025.02.005
Reviewers Note: It is the beginning of 2025 and one of the skills I desire to grow in is that of writing book reviews (having never done this before). I am doing this so I can better hone my writing (and reading) skills as I seek to think more critically about the books I am reading. I am sharing on Goodreads for my own personal development. I know this will be something I am always growing in so if you actually read these, please be patient with me as I develop this skill. I will also receive constructive criticism if you desire to help me become a better writer (and reader). I plan to use this disclaimer for the entire 2025 year.
The Ascent to Truth by Thomas Merton
360 Pages
I am not sure where I got the idea but I thought this book was going to be a commentary on “The Ascent of Mount Carmel” by Saint John of the Cross. That is not what it was. He did reference Saint John of the Cross a lot, especially in the second half of the book but this book was about the need for the contemplative. I did not really need convincing. The need is indeed great.
This is the sixth book I’ve read by Thomas Merton. I’m not sure where I would rate this one in the list. I’d probably drop it in the top middle or spot number three. I did a macro-reading of the book but honestly I should go back and do a micro-reading. As an aside, micro-reading is still a skill I am developing and while I feel like I am stumbling towards success, I am still quite far from the finish line. I know that a slower methodical reading with note taking would help me process the book better.
All of his books have been filled with nuggets of wisdom that caused me to pause and think. I love those moments. Before the book even starts, he writes in the prologue “You cannot love Him unless you know Him. And you cannot come to know Him unless you have a little time and a little peace in which to pray and think about Him and study His truth. Time and peace are not easily come by in this civilization of ours.” This was written in the 1950s when the pace of life was much slower than it is now and yet time and peace were not easy to come by. How do we overcome this hectic pace?
It probably comes down to one thing, the love of God. Near the end of the book, the author says “But when the love of God gains possession of a man’s soul, it makes him want to know God, to know how to please God and to discover every possible way of serving Him and giving Him glory.” It is His love that transforms our lives and this world.
If you could not tell by the fact that I’ve read six books by Thomas Merton, I really love his writings. I already have another one of his books queued up to read. So I can highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in growing in their faith and prayer life. And I would recommend micro-reading the book to get the fullest value from it.
Review 2025.02.005
Reviewers Note: It is the beginning of 2025 and one of the skills I desire to grow in is that of writing book reviews (having never done this before). I am doing this so I can better hone my writing (and reading) skills as I seek to think more critically about the books I am reading. I am sharing on Goodreads for my own personal development. I know this will be something I am always growing in so if you actually read these, please be patient with me as I develop this skill. I will also receive constructive criticism if you desire to help me become a better writer (and reader). I plan to use this disclaimer for the entire 2025 year.
The Ascent to Truth by Thomas Merton
360 Pages
I am not sure where I got the idea but I thought this book was going to be a commentary on “The Ascent of Mount Carmel” by Saint John of the Cross. That is not what it was. He did reference Saint John of the Cross a lot, especially in the second half of the book but this book was about the need for the contemplative. I did not really need convincing. The need is indeed great.
This is the sixth book I’ve read by Thomas Merton. I’m not sure where I would rate this one in the list. I’d probably drop it in the top middle or spot number three. I did a macro-reading of the book but honestly I should go back and do a micro-reading. As an aside, micro-reading is still a skill I am developing and while I feel like I am stumbling towards success, I am still quite far from the finish line. I know that a slower methodical reading with note taking would help me process the book better.
All of his books have been filled with nuggets of wisdom that caused me to pause and think. I love those moments. Before the book even starts, he writes in the prologue “You cannot love Him unless you know Him. And you cannot come to know Him unless you have a little time and a little peace in which to pray and think about Him and study His truth. Time and peace are not easily come by in this civilization of ours.” This was written in the 1950s when the pace of life was much slower than it is now and yet time and peace were not easy to come by. How do we overcome this hectic pace?
It probably comes down to one thing, the love of God. Near the end of the book, the author says “But when the love of God gains possession of a man’s soul, it makes him want to know God, to know how to please God and to discover every possible way of serving Him and giving Him glory.” It is His love that transforms our lives and this world.
If you could not tell by the fact that I’ve read six books by Thomas Merton, I really love his writings. I already have another one of his books queued up to read. So I can highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in growing in their faith and prayer life. And I would recommend micro-reading the book to get the fullest value from it.
February 7, 2020
The mystical literature of John of the Cross is known for its literary beauty and spiritual profundity but it is not always accessible. The Ascent to Truth is a clear and reliable guide to understanding him. Merton's Catholic and monastic background together with his literary gifts makes him an excellent expositor of St John. Merton devotes many pages to exploring the place of reason (understood here as spiritual discernment, good sense/moderation and biblical understanding) in the mystical life. This is a helpful corrective to tendencies of some readers of John and practitioners of contemplative prayers that elevate personal experiences over the intellect, almost treating the latter as a hindrance to be bypassed. While recognising the immediacy of mystical union and the passivity of the natural faculties when one is graced with infused contemplation, one never at any point dispenses with the need to stay rooted in the concreteness of the revealed word of God and in Christ. That is to say, a sound grasp of biblical truths is essential in preparing one to receive by faith a deeper apprehension of divine mysteries that go beyond the intellect itself as one reaches out to God in love.
Besides John of the Cross, Merton also draws lessons from the other great spiritual teachers such as John Ruysbroek, Teresa of Avila, Gregory of Nyssa and others that have left us some signposts along the mystical path that help one discern where one might be in the journey, avoid some of the pitfalls and know when one is ready to advance. Though the book gets tedious at times in its seemingly repetitive circling around the book's main theme - reason in the life of contemplation, Merton delights us with some fine touches every now and then such as these:
'Contemplation is one of the indications of spiritual maturity. It is closely allied to sanctity. You cannot save the world merely with a system. You cannot have peace without charity. You cannot have order without saints. Our nature imposes on us a pattern of development which we must follow if we are to fulfil our best capacities and achieve at least the partial happiness of being human. The pattern must be understood and worked out in all its essential elements. But it can be stated very simply: We must know the truth, and we must love the truth we know, and we must act according to the measure of our love.' (pg 8)
'All the deeper instincts of a true theologian warned Saint John of the Cross that the revealed word of God offered him greater security than did experience itself, where there was question of a supernatural order in which the ways were known with certitude by Him alone who had established them.' (pg 124)
Besides John of the Cross, Merton also draws lessons from the other great spiritual teachers such as John Ruysbroek, Teresa of Avila, Gregory of Nyssa and others that have left us some signposts along the mystical path that help one discern where one might be in the journey, avoid some of the pitfalls and know when one is ready to advance. Though the book gets tedious at times in its seemingly repetitive circling around the book's main theme - reason in the life of contemplation, Merton delights us with some fine touches every now and then such as these:
'Contemplation is one of the indications of spiritual maturity. It is closely allied to sanctity. You cannot save the world merely with a system. You cannot have peace without charity. You cannot have order without saints. Our nature imposes on us a pattern of development which we must follow if we are to fulfil our best capacities and achieve at least the partial happiness of being human. The pattern must be understood and worked out in all its essential elements. But it can be stated very simply: We must know the truth, and we must love the truth we know, and we must act according to the measure of our love.' (pg 8)
'All the deeper instincts of a true theologian warned Saint John of the Cross that the revealed word of God offered him greater security than did experience itself, where there was question of a supernatural order in which the ways were known with certitude by Him alone who had established them.' (pg 124)
October 5, 2024
In "The Ascent to Truth", Thomas Merton attempts to condense and explain the writings of the 16th century Carmelite mystic St John of the Cross. Merton's writing in this work is academic and can be quite dense, but his logic is clear enough for a layperson to follow.
At multiple times throughout the book, Merton references the fact that many writings by St John of the Cross, St Teresa of Avila, and other Catholic mystics were not available in English at the time of this book's original publication in 1951. Fortunately for us in the 21st century, many of those works are now available for reference in English translation.
However, Merton uses a practice which was common for academic writing in his time, which is to almost always quote an author in the author's original language without providing translation. It would be a great help to modern readers if this book were republished with translations provided.
Most of the authors whom Merton quotes were writing in Ecclesiastical Latin, but St John of the Cross and St Teresa of Avila did write in Spanish (which Merton highlights as being controversial for spiritual texts of their time period). I can read Latin but not Spanish, so I cannot say whether these 16th century quotations would be difficult for modern readers. Merton's Latin quotations are not lengthy, and while they may use specialized religious vocabulary which might not be familiar to a modern Latin student who had been taught Classical Latin, the grammatical structure of his quotations are generally not complicated.
At multiple times throughout the book, Merton references the fact that many writings by St John of the Cross, St Teresa of Avila, and other Catholic mystics were not available in English at the time of this book's original publication in 1951. Fortunately for us in the 21st century, many of those works are now available for reference in English translation.
However, Merton uses a practice which was common for academic writing in his time, which is to almost always quote an author in the author's original language without providing translation. It would be a great help to modern readers if this book were republished with translations provided.
Most of the authors whom Merton quotes were writing in Ecclesiastical Latin, but St John of the Cross and St Teresa of Avila did write in Spanish (which Merton highlights as being controversial for spiritual texts of their time period). I can read Latin but not Spanish, so I cannot say whether these 16th century quotations would be difficult for modern readers. Merton's Latin quotations are not lengthy, and while they may use specialized religious vocabulary which might not be familiar to a modern Latin student who had been taught Classical Latin, the grammatical structure of his quotations are generally not complicated.
June 24, 2019
This is an intensely difficult book. It is a distillation of a Spanish Saint's teachings on how to best go about mystical prayer, and if you think "mystical" means "spiritually symbolic," like the dictionary does, you're wrong. There is a lot of distinction between the Will and the Reason, for instance, and between Infused Contemplation and Achieved Contemplation and the like.
Merton doesn't care if you like him very much. But if you're interested-- like, very interested-- this is probably one of the things that could get you pretty far on a path to sainthood.
And sometimes, not as a break from, but like a natural conclusion coming out of, the involved technical language, you'll get a passage that swells or flexes or pirouettes like a poem:
"The two ways end in the same affirmation of the negative knowledge of God. It is an affirmation, because it declares that we actually know God. We know Him in all the positive concepts we have of Him and, besides, we know He is infinitely above all those concepts. And in this respect, our, 'way of negation' adds to our positive knowledge."
Merton doesn't care if you like him very much. But if you're interested-- like, very interested-- this is probably one of the things that could get you pretty far on a path to sainthood.
And sometimes, not as a break from, but like a natural conclusion coming out of, the involved technical language, you'll get a passage that swells or flexes or pirouettes like a poem:
"The two ways end in the same affirmation of the negative knowledge of God. It is an affirmation, because it declares that we actually know God. We know Him in all the positive concepts we have of Him and, besides, we know He is infinitely above all those concepts. And in this respect, our, 'way of negation' adds to our positive knowledge."
December 30, 2024
Merton focuses specifically on reason in contemplation. Ascent to Truth is therefore not quite like a stereotypical mystical ascent, like de Avila's Interior Castle. Merton is more focused and, well, more reasonable. That doesn't necessarily mean that Merton replaces or supplants or betters the likes of de Avila and St. John of the Cross, just that it's focused on reason and truth in contemplation. In fact, Merton relies heavily on those two other mystics, using them as a base of operation.
Much of Merton's work also speaks to a person knowledgeable of mystical or contemplative life and works. Nowhere does he explain the Prayer of Quiet, for instance, but that is a term some will read and think nothing of whereas others will think--wait, what is that?
Unlike de Avila and St. John of the Cross, etc., Ascent to Truth is more of an informational guide than a spiritual guide.
Much of Merton's work also speaks to a person knowledgeable of mystical or contemplative life and works. Nowhere does he explain the Prayer of Quiet, for instance, but that is a term some will read and think nothing of whereas others will think--wait, what is that?
Unlike de Avila and St. John of the Cross, etc., Ascent to Truth is more of an informational guide than a spiritual guide.
March 30, 2021
This is Merton's commentary on the teachings of St. John of the Cross as an outline for introducing the contemplative life. Reading Merton is always a spiritual experience within itself. Here Merton explains the nature of the contemplative life who's objective is the tangible experience of God's love wrapped up in life with God. He explains and emphasizes the vital role of reason as essential for faith as well, but also lays out its limitations.
November 3, 2022
Must Read
I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in Theology. It is very easy to read and understand. I found it relatable and a real page turner. So many of the questions I have wrestled with and prayed about we're answered in this book. So happy I read it. 😇
I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in Theology. It is very easy to read and understand. I found it relatable and a real page turner. So many of the questions I have wrestled with and prayed about we're answered in this book. So happy I read it. 😇
November 15, 2025
This is not a read for the faint of heart! While there are gems throughout, he mostly is explaining the theology of St. john of the Cross on the topic of contemplation and the background of Scholastic theology.
July 19, 2017
Deep and difficult, but I did pick up a basic understanding of Christian mysticism.
December 18, 2019
A window to the world inside, where the real is.
February 2, 2022
Much, much deeper than Seven Story Mountain. Take it slow.
June 6, 2023
My second TM book. I found this one quite repetitive after the 200 pages.
February 24, 2024
Really profound meditation of Christian mysticism and contemplation. Certainly helped me to better understand this aspect of my faith.
March 21, 2011
This is one of those books that I didn't read all the way through..... but I gained great joy from the sections I did read. There were several passages in the first quarter of the book that grabbed my attention and reverberated within me. These I wrote down and have posted on FB and other places. It seemed to get a bit dry for me as I went along, so I moved to something else. But then again, I may just not be in the right place to read it all right now. I will most likely pick it up again down the road...
October 7, 2008
Merton's mystical insights, both through the lens of the writings of St. John of the Cross and through his own brilliance, are phenomenal. I recommend this to anyone seeking to deepen their spiritual insights.
September 30, 2015
Merton's book is an excellent, albeit dense, explanation of St. John of the Cross's mystical doctrine. This might not be the best introduction to St. John of the Cross, but it is an effective argument for the importance of the use of reason in the spiritual life.
June 29, 2008
Merton's insight into the human condition and our addiction to the chase and challenge still haunts me. It's a pretty dense book, but there are some serious gems to be found.
June 2, 2008
I still love Merton, but this was a tough read. Apparently, he wasn't too proud of it compared to other books. What's next for me to read by him, I wonder?
Want to read
January 6, 2009I could not finish this book. I've heard it's amust read but I found it tedious....I was sort of bullied into reading it anyway
January 22, 2009
A great book for Spiritual Directors! Also a good book on contemplation.
December 15, 2009
Important and thought provoking
Read
October 7, 2013Okay, this was marked down as 'read' over on Facebook. But if I ever got there, I can't remember. Maybe I never did.
I should read it again.
I should read it again.
July 1, 2022
Well Worth my time.
May 26, 2009
I was expecting a little more vision and insight, and a little less patriarchal dogma.
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