When I left the University of Michigan doctoral program for a while, a professor told me to read the works of Thomas Merton. The professor saw Merton as the Patron Saint of those of us who were searching for spiritual wholeness. But was that professor right?
In her biography of Merton, Monica Furlong argues that Merton was a tormented man, running from an experience he was ashamed of. As a young rake, he had dallied with a female outside his social class. After she became pregnant and delivered a son, he abandoned them both. Both died in a London raid.
It was only late in his life that Merton, asserts Furlong, was capable of compassion for himself. He stopped running and halted long enough to start, yes, searching for his own answers.
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