Signs of Peace: The Interfaith Letters of Thomas Merton

by William Apel, Paul M. Pearson (Preface)

During the last decade of his life, Thomas Merton corresponded with numerous people around the globe about world religions and the need for interfaith understanding. Initiating contact with figures like Zen scholar D.T. Suzuki, Thich Nhat Hanh, and Rabbi Abraham Heschel, he sought not only to expand his understanding of other faiths, but to find like-minded friends who might share his dream of a global community of the spirit. Such people, whom he called living "sacraments" or signs of peace, were those "able to unite in themselves and experience in their own lives all that is best and most true in the numerous spiritual traditions."

Genres: Religion, Spirituality, Nonfiction

202 pages, Paperback

First published October 30, 2006

Reviews

[Joshua Steen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Here I get a glimpse of what true interfaith friendship looks like: neither a reduction of one's convictions, nor an attempt to convert the other. It is a deep appreciation and understanding of another's relationship with the Divine--a holy envy--while seeking ways to integrate Truth into your understanding of God. Because we know that God is Truth, anywhere that Truth appears, God is there also. Merton, I think, understood this better than many ever do. He had deep interfaith friendships with Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Quakers, Protestants, and more all while retaining Catholic convictions. But there is something that binds him and his interfaith friends together: all these individuals criticized fundamentalism in their respective traditions, all were intimately involved in the world's suffering and social problems of their day, all felt claustrophobic in one narrow religion and sought to build bridges, all opposed war, all saw the inherent oneness of humanity, all were often rejected by the traditions they loved, all emphasized LOVE as the answer to humankind's searchings. I feel more at home, I feel safer, I feel more seen by Merton and his company of interfaith friends than I ever do in Christian bubbles. It comforts me to know they all felt on the fringe of their traditions, too. They all felt lonely in their pursuits of Truth--real Truth, which is God. I've felt this way often in my Christian environment while I search desperately for Truth everywhere it appears. Now, this oneness they shared is not to say that their faiths were all the same, or that they all believed the same things. But there seems to be an eternal thread they all see. I see it, too. This, I believe, is God. "The hidden ground of Love" as Merton calls it. If we have the deep roots into this hidden ground of Love, we are able to explore for Truth while remaining firmly planted. Interfaith dialogue is not an indication of disbelief--rather, it is proof of faith. If only we all had strong enough roots to see God in the face of our sibling who does not see God the same way.
"The absolute rootedness of your faith makes you free to understand other faiths." - Amiya Chakravarty to Thomas Merton
"You are so deeply Christian that you cannot help touching the vital springs of other religions." - John Wu
"Settling for the God in front of God creates an idolatry of religion putting my God before your God--a source of division that divides us all. In contradiction to this great divide, Merton and Aziz honored the Holy One who stands behind (or above) all institutional formulations of doctrines and dogmas. They knew of a God who exists behind and beyond all organized religion. Both had experienced the true Reality that lies behind all rhetoric. This is what Aziz meant when he wrote that Merton had shared a religious perspective based on poverty of spirit rather than scholarship and erudition. Only at this deep level of experience could ultimate spiritual Truth be found." - William Apel