THOMAS MERTONwww.litpress.org/ThomasMerton

INSATIABLE WANDERER | INSIGHTFUL THINKER COURAGEOUS SOCIAL COMMENTATOR

COMPELLING SPIRITUAL GUIDE

100 years

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IN THE SCHOOL OF PROPHETSThe Formation of Thomas Merton’s Prophetic Spirituality

Ephrem Arcement, OSBThe distinctive prophetic quality of Thomas Merton’s spirituality, shaped by figures ranging from the Hebrew prophets to Thich Nhat Hanh, emerges from this fresh examination of the works Merton read, responded to, and celebrated in his own writing. In the School of Prophets examines the final decade

of Merton’s life, mainly through the lens of his journals and letters, and helps to fill a gap in contemporary Merton

studies. William Blake and various Latin American poets; novelists Boris Pasternak, Albert Camus, and William Faulkner; existentialists Søren Kierkegaard and Gabriel Marcel; monks of the Egyptian desert; and Bernard of Clairvaux number among those who helped shape Merton’s prophetic

consciousness, leading him to reexamine what it means to be both a human being and a

contemplative monk of the twentieth century.

Ephrem Arcement, OSB, is a monk of St. Joseph Abbey in Louisiana. He earned his PhD in spirituality from The Catholic University of America, Washington, DC, and currently teaches courses in Scripture and spirituality at St. Joseph Seminary College. His first book, Intimacy in Prayer: Wisdom from Bernard of Clairvaux, appeared in 2013.

THOMAS MERTONEarly Essays, 1947–1952Edited by Patrick F. O’Connell

Preface by Jonathan MontaldoThis volume gathers together twelve essays that Thomas Merton wrote for various journals between 1947 and 1952, the years that saw the publication of his best-selling autobiography The Seven Storey Mountain, his ordination to the priesthood, and his initial appointment as spiritual and intellectual guide of the young monks at the Abbey of Gethsemani. The collection makes available a previously little recognized and underutilized resource for understanding and appreciating a crucial transitional phase in

Merton’s life as both monk and writer.

Patrick F. O’Connell is professor of English and theology at Gannon University in Erie, Pennsylvania.

2 LITURGICAL PRESS | 1-800-858-5450

Available March 2015CS265P, 978-0-87907-265-0 Paperback, 230 pp., 5 1⁄2 x 8 1⁄2, $24.95 CS265E, 978-0-87907-497-5 eBook, $21.99 BCS265P, Paperback & eBook Bundle, $31.49

Available May 2015CS266P, 978-0-87907-266-7 Paperback, 160 pp., 5 1⁄2 x 8 1⁄2, $19.95 CS266E, 978-0-87907-496-8 eBook, $17.99 BCS266P, Paperback & eBook Bundle, $24.49

New

volume of twelve essays

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AT PLAY IN CREATION Merton’s Awakening to the Feminine Divine Christopher Pramuk In this series of deeply meditative retreat conferences, Christopher Pramuk leads the reader through a sustained meditation on Wisdom-Sophia, the feminine face of God’s presence alive in the world, who speaks and sings in the writings of Thomas Merton. With the sensitivity of a poet and the intellectual acuity of a seasoned teacher and Catholic theologian, Pramuk invites readers to taste and see for themselves the hidden presence of Christ and the dynamism of Love at play in creation; the biblical and mystical tradition from East to West calls this presence Sophia. Looking beyond Merton to seek out her presence in the silent and broken landscapes of our world today, Pramuk shows Sophia above all to be the bearer of hope in an age of unspeakable violence and planetary destruction.

Christopher Pramuk is associate professor of theology at Xavier University in Cincinnati, Ohio. He is the author of Sophia: The Hidden Christ of Thomas Merton and Hope Sings, So Beautiful: Graced Encounters across the Color Line; he is also a contributor to Give Us This Day, published by Liturgical Press. The recipient of the Catholic Theological Society of America’s 2009 Catherine Mowry LaCugna Award, he has also received the International Thomas Merton Society’s 2011 Thomas Merton Award and several best essay awards from the Catholic Press Association.

LITURGICAL PRESS | www.litpress.org/ThomasMerton

Available December 2014978-0-8146-4816-2 Paperback, 152 pp., 5 x 7, $17.95 978-0-8146-4841-4 eBook, $15.99 B4816, Paperback & eBook Bundle, $22.49

New

In Christopher Pramuk’s marvelous new book, lyrical

theology and thoughtfully grounded spirituality merge into one. . . . Pramuk is now my go-to theologian/poet for a trustworthy rendition of Merton’s legacy. I smell a ‘classic’ about to be born before my grateful eyes.” Jonathan Montaldo

Author of Bridges to Contemplative Living with Thomas Merton

“Pramuk opens us to the divine music hidden in each of our encounters and allows us to glimpse the unseen Reality whom Merton calls Sophia.” Kathleen Duffy, SSJ

Author of Teilhard’s Mysticism: Seeing the Inner Face of Evolution

“Pramuk’s study of Wisdom in Merton is outstanding. This collection of reflections is a feast; Wisdom truly has set her table for us in them.” Michael Plekon, PhD

Baruch College of the City University of New York

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SOUL SEARCHINGThe Journey of Thomas MertonBook with DVDEdited by Morgan Atkinson, with Jonathan MontaldoAward-winning producer Morgan Atkinson’s documentary and the companion book of the same title come together in Soul Searching: The Journey of Thomas Merton book with DVD.

“Merton speaks to each generation about prayer, social concern, interreligious dialogue, and the

search for the true self. Soul Searching helps us meditate on this legacy, and may send many more people back to the books that Merton himself wrote.”

Commonweal

978-0-8146-3264-2 $24.95 Book: Hardcover, 216 pp., 6 1⁄8 x 7 3⁄4 Documentary: DVD, 67 minutesRights: World, English

978-0-8146-1873-8 $19.95 Paperback, 216 pp., 6 x 7 1⁄2Rights: World, English, except Australia and New Zealand

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CS233P, 978-0-87907-133-2 Paperback, 468 pp., 5 1⁄2 x 8 1⁄2, $39.95 CS233E, 978-0-87907-758-7 eBook, $35.99 BCS233P, Paperback & eBook Bundle, $49.49

We are grateful to have this collection of lives of some of the early Cistercian saints compiled by the young Thomas Merton. This volume is a

worthy, long overdue addition to the capacious body of Mertoniana as well as a welcome contribution to hagiography.” Lawrence S. Cunningham The University of Notre Dame

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IN THE VALLEY OF WORMWOODCistercian Blessed and Saints of the Golden AgeThomas Merton

Edited with an introduction by Patrick Hart Foreword by Brian Patrick McGuireShortly after entering the monastic life in December 1941, a relatively unknown Trappist monk called Frater Louis—who would later be known to the world by his given name, Thomas Merton—began to pen biographical sketches of early Cistercian blessed and saints. These were initially collected, printed, and bound inexpensively, with no mention of the author, by the Abbey of Gethsemani. They are now published here for a wide audience for the first time.

This work of the very young Merton perhaps takes on added significance when one considers the writing that lay just ahead of

him at the time. In 1948, his autobiography, The Seven Storey Mountain, was published and soon became an unexpected national bestseller. This long-awaited publication of In the Valley of Wormwood offers a window into Merton’s thinking and his spiritual life just a few years before his phenomenal autobiography would see the light of day.

5LITURGICAL PRESS | www.litpress.org/ThomasMerton

978-0-8146-5390-6 Hardcover, 352 pp., 6 x 9, $29.95 978-0-8146-5713-3 eBook, $19.99 B5390, Hardcover & eBook Bundle, $37.49Rights: World, English

978-0-8146-3706-7 Paperback, 136 pp., 5 3⁄8 x 8 1⁄4 $12.95 (1-5 copies) $10.49 (6-19 copies) $8.95 net (20 or more copies) 978-0-8146-3731-9 eBook, $9.99 B3706, Paperback & eBook Bundle, $14.49

Michael Higgins writes a clear and compelling tale of the monk’s faithful yet

boundary-breaking life. . . . One should turn to this book if seeking an introductory and quick read on the life of Merton—it will provide both an overview and an appropriate analysis of Merton’s early life, his moments of conversion, times of tribulation, and a sliver of his mysterious draw to the East.”

Kellan Day, Editor faithAlivebooks.com

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SOPHIAThe Hidden Christ of Thomas MertonChristopher PramukWhile numerous studies have celebrated Thomas Merton’s witness as an interfaith pioneer, poet, and peacemaker, there have been few systematic treatments of his Christology as such, and no sustained exploration to date of his relationship to the Russian “Sophia” tradition. This book looks to Thomas Merton as a “classic” theologian of the Christian tradition from East to West and offers an interpretation of his mature Christology, with special attention to his remarkable prose poem of 1962, Hagia Sophia. Bringing Merton’s  mystical-prophetic vision  fully into dialogue with contemporary  Christology, Russian  sophiology, and Zen, as well as figures such as John Henry Newman and Abraham Joshua Heschel, the author carefully but boldly builds the case that Sophia, the same theological eros that animated Merton’s religious imagination in a period of tremendous fragmentation and violence, might infuse new vitality into our own. A study of uncommon depth and scope, inspired throughout by Merton’s extraordinary catholicity.  

“I love this book. Pramuk’s writing is at once deeply insightful and beautifully poetic. . . . It marks a fresh new insight into the depth of Merton’s theological vision.” Catholic Studies

FROM THE PEOPLE OF GOD SERIES

THOMAS MERTONFaithful VisionaryMichael W. HigginsThomas Merton was the consummate post-modern holy one: flawed, anti-institutional, a voice for the voiceless. But he was also a classical traditionalist: centered, obedient, in search of stability. He was a religious thinker of remarkable insight, a social commentator of courage and conviction, and a writer of startling virtuosity. Michael W. Higgins recounts the life of this insatiable wanderer. He explores the various layers of influence and evolution in Merton’s thought and spirituality. This book tells the remarkable story of a life that remains to be understood from its beginnings and long after its premature ending.

1. CASSIAN AND THE FATHERS MW001P, 978-0-87907-001-4 Paperback, 272 pp., $29.95

2. PRE-BENEDICTINE MONASTICISM MW009P, 978-0-87907-073-1 Paperback, 440 pp., $24.95

3. AN INTRODUCTION TO CHRISTIAN MYSTICISM MW013P, 978-0-87907-013-7 Paperback, 440 pp., $39.95

4. THE RULE OF SAINT BENEDICT MW019P, 978-0-87907-019-9 Paperback, 360 pp., $24.95

5. MONASTIC OBSERVANCES MW025P, 978-0-87907-025-0 Paperback, 360 pp., $32.95 MW025E, 978-0-87907-921-5 eBook, $22.99

6. THE LIFE OF THE VOWS MW030P, 978-0-87907-030-4 Paperback, 664 pp., $44.95 MW030E, 978-0-87907-793-8 eBook, $41.99

INITIATION INTO THE MONASTIC TRADITION

Thomas Merton; Edited by Patrick F. O’Connell

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SURVIVAL OR PROPHECY?The Correspondence of Jean Leclercq and Thomas MertonEdited, with an Introduction, by Patrick Hart, OCSO; Foreword by Rembert Weakland, OSB; Afterword by Michael Casey, OCSO

MW017P, 978-0-87907-017-5 Paperback, 184 pp., $21.95

THOMAS MERTONProphet of RenewalJohn Eudes Bamberger, OCSO

MW004P, 978-0-87907-010-6 Paperback, 144 pp, $14.95

TOWARD AN INTEGRATED HUMANITYThomas Merton’s JourneyEdited by M. Basil Pennington, OCSO

CS103, 978-0-87907-603-0 Paperback, 285 pp, $7.95

THE MONASTIC JOURNEY BY THOMAS MERTONEdited by Patrick Hart, OCSO

CS133, 978-0-87907-533-0 Paperback, 186 pp, $24.95

THE LEGACY OF THOMAS MERTONEdited by Patrick Hart, OCSO

CS092, 978-0-87907-992-5 Paperback, 254 pp, $34.95

THOMAS MERTON ON SAINT BERNARDThomas Merton, OCSO

CS009, 978-0-87907-909-3 Paperback, 242 pp, $21.95THOMAS MERTON/

MONKA Monastic TributeEdited by Patrick Hart, OCSO

CS052, 978-0-87907-752-5 Paperback, 278 pp., $12.95

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Explore the layers of influence and evolution in Merton’s thought and spirituality

OPENING THE BIBLE978-0-8146-0408-3 Paperback, 96 pp., $9.95

PRAYING THE PSALMS978-0-8146-0548-6 Paperback, 48 pp., $6.95

SPIRITUAL DIRECTION AND MEDITATION978-0-8146-0412-0 Paperback, 108 pp., $11.95

Thomas Merton

LITURGICAL PRESS | www.litpress.org/ThomasMerton