Thomas Merton: Prophet of Renewal (review)

A wise person once said: "When the student is ready, the teacher will appear." A basic theme of Merton: Prophet of Renewal is the timeliness of Merton's appearance on the monastic and ecclesial scene in the mid-twentieth century. It was a providential moment in the history of the Church and of the Cistercian Order, marking the end of a four-hundred-year era dominated by the spirit and theology of the Council of Trent with its tendency toward rigidity, legalism, clericalism, and defensiveness. It ushered in a new era: that of the Second Vatican Council. The Council witnessed a development in the life of the Church unparalleled in modern history. It was a pastoral Council seeking to update the Church and make the Gospel of Jesus Christ once again an influential force in a world that seemed to be leaving it behind. Thomas Merton embraced the Council wholeheartedly and, in his concern to see its directives implemented, placed at the service of his monastic Order and the Church his considerable gifts as a writer and a spiritual guide. His wisdom and insights helped many people (maybe more lay people than monks?) to grasp the crucial importance of the renovation envisioned by the Council: new ways of thinking and speaking about Christian Faith and the way we live it.

The eight chapters of this book represent the published version of eight conferences that Dom John Eudes gave to a Cistercian monastery in France in the late summer of 2000. The book leaves no doubt of the strong conviction Merton had that he was called by God to the prophetic role. His mission was to open up "new horizons for an old journey," as he expressed it in No Man Is An Island. It was an "old journey," for it respected the past, but it also searched for new horizons that would make that past grow and mature through living dialogue with the issues and concerns of contemporary life.

While written for monks, this is a book that reaches far beyond a monastic audience. Dom John Eudes makes clear that Merton's reflection on renewal of monastic life spills over into an understanding of the renewal that is needed in the Church. "[Merton] has had a large effect beyond the cloister and continues to fill an important reforming function in regard to the whole Church" (p. 13). Merton once described himself—in a letter to Pope John XXIII—as "a progressive with a deep respect and love for tradition." Authentic tradition, he believed, must be faithful to the wisdom handed down to us, yet at the same time open to the insights and intuitions of the contemporary world.

If there was a wonderful timeliness in Merton's appearing on history's screen, I would want to add that there is a certain timeliness about the appearance of Thomas Merton: Prophet of Renewal. It is now nearly forty years since Merton's death and nearly sixty since his best-selling autobiography appeared. Over those years much has been written about Gethsemani's famous monk, too much, perhaps. Some of it is good; a lot of it mediocre. Dom John Eudes's book deserves a hearty welcome. Without question it belongs among the best. It abounds in refreshing insights into Merton that emerged from the author's relationship to Merton, first as one of his students, then as a fellow-monk, and finally as a collaborator in evaluating the young men who came seeking admission to the monastery. In the light of that unique relationship, this book offers helpful hints for getting the most out of reading Merton's writings. It is not that he writes of new topics. The themes he discusses (the writer, the reformer, the prophet, the contemplative self, the self-giving love so essential to contemplative living) are themes familiar to anyone with some acquaintance with Merton's writings. What Dom John Eudes has done is to place such familiar themes in new contexts that yield new...