The Environmental Vision of Thomas Merton by Monica Weis, SSJ (review)

Building on her previous work on the role of nature in Thomas Merton’s spirituality, Monica Weis offers the first book-length scholarly treatment of Merton’s environmental thought, contributing both to studies of Thomas Merton and ecological spirituality. This work adds to the growing body of scholarship exploring various dimensions of Merton’s life and writings, illuminates a previously under-examined aspect of his work, and further enriches our understanding of Merton’s spirituality. It also performs the important task of retrieving from a “classic” figure in Christian spirituality resources to inform and sustain a vital, ecologically responsible spirituality at a time when Earth’s resources are under severe strain.

Weis interprets Merton’s views toward nature as evolving in several dimensions: appreciation for the aesthetic beauty of landscape, nature as a place of intense encounter with God’s presence, and finally, a commitment to ecological justice. She locates the foundations of Merton’s environmental awakening in two primary areas: his early life in France and his encounter with Rachel Carson’s book Silent Spring, a seminal work for the environmental movement published in 1962. Chapter One is devoted entirely to analyzing the letter Merton was moved to write to Carson after he read Silent Spring. In the January 12, 1963 letter, included in the book, Merton praises Carson for the timeliness and persuasiveness of her book. Her work, he says, is a valuable tool for “the diagnosis of the ills of our civilization” (14).

Weis calls this letter “a turning point in the ecological consciousness of Thomas Merton” (9). She speculates about why Merton would include Carson among the collection of prominent literary, political, and religious figures with whom he corresponded. Why did he devote attention to her study of DDT at a time when he was concerned with a number of other significant social issues? Weis calls his reading of Carson’s work “an epiphanic event,” a moment of profound spiritual insight similar to his famous Fourth and Walnut experience (10). Weis lists several points of resonance between Merton and Carson, claiming that he found her to be a “kindred spirit” who helped him see that the violent destruction of some small part of the natural world arises from the same destructive logic that is at the root of war, racism, and the threat of nuclear holocaust. According to Weis, the letter to Carson reveals an expanding vision of the world that is fundamental to Merton’s spiritual growth. While Merton had been speaking out on a number of social issues by that time, Carson’s work enabled him to enlarge his vision of justice to include the “the nonhuman as well as the human” (19). Just as he had been integrating his monastic vocation with the responsibility to speak prophetically for civil rights and against war, reading Carson’s work helped him see “how human justice is related to ecojustice” (19). In fact, in Weis’s reading, it is the monastic vocation, along with his early life experiences, that prepared Merton for his encounter with Silent Spring and for his expanding sense of environmental responsibility. Merton’s training in contemplation during his twenty years at Gesthemani are likened to Carson’s “intense training in observation” as a scientist which resulted in a “vision of the interdependence of all creation.” Similarly, Weis claims, “Merton’s monastic life, which also involved intense training in awareness, led to an expanded vision of our complete dependence on God, our interdependence with each other, and the challenge of acting in nonviolent ways toward all creation” (19). The sense of responsibility for the Earth shared by these two figures emerges from “attentiveness to their surroundings and commitment to a coherent vision of the cosmos” (20).

In Chapter Two, Weis treats the early life experiences mentioned above. She credits his father Owen, a painter, with helping young Tom to learn to see and appreciate color and light. Merton’s surroundings among the mountains...