Turning Toward The World Journals Volume 4

The fourth volume of Thomas Merton's complete journals, one of his final literary legacies, springs from three hundred handwritten pages that capture - in candid, lively, deeply revealing passages -- the growing unrest of the 1960s, which Merton witnessed within himself as plainly as in the changing culture around him.

In these decisive years, 1960-1963, Merton, now in his late forties and frequently working in a new hermitage at the Abbey of Gethsemani, finds himself struggling between his longing for a private, spiritual life and the irresistible pull of social concerns. Precisely when he longs for more solitude, and convinces himself he could not cut back on his writing, Merton begins asking complex questions about the contemporary culture ("the 'world' with its funny pants, of which I do not know the name, its sandals and sunglasses"), war, and the churches role in society.

Thus despite his resistance, he is drawn into the world where his celebrity and growing concerns for social issues fuel his writings on civil rights, nonviolence, and pacifism and lead him into conflict with those who urge him to leave the moral issues to bishops and theologians.

This pivotal volume in the Merton journals reveals a man at the height of a brilliant writing career, marking the fourteenth anniversary of his priesthood but yearning still for the key to true happiness and grace. Here, in his most private diaries, Merton is as intellectually curious, critical, and insightful as in his best-known public writings while he documents his movement from the cloister toward the world, from Novice Master to hermit, from ironic critic to joyous witness to the mystery of God's plan.

Thomas Merton (1915-1968) was a Trappist monk, writer and peace activist. His spiritual classics include New Seeds of Contemplation, The Sign of Jonas, Mystics and Zen Masters and The Seven Story Mountain

In the fourth volume of the acclaimed "Journals of Thomas Merton," the Trappist monk emerges as the political and social activist and maverick mystic that the world has come to love and chronicles his growing concern for social issues.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Thomas Merton (1915-1968) was a Trappist monk, writer, and peace and civil-rights activist.Merton's works have had a profound impact on contemporary religious and philosophical thought.His journals are the last major writings by Merton to appear in print.

Brother Patrick Hart, a monk of Gethsemani and the general editor of the journals, edited volumes one and seven of the Merton Journals.

Jonathan Montaldo, the director of the Thomas Merton Center at Bellarmine College in Louisville, Kentucky, edited volume two of the Merton journals.