Loneliness as a Key to the Merton Story

"7 Owen Merton would hang on for a little while, enduring surgery, but Tom knew then: I sat there in the dark, unhappy room, unable to think, unable to move, with all the innumerable elements of my isolation crowding in upon me from every side: without a home, without a family, without a countr...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Cistercian studies quarterly 2005-10, Vol.40 (4), p.395
Main Author: Hinson, E Glenn
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Loneliness
Merton, Thomas (1915-1968)
Spirituality
Theological schools
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:"7 Owen Merton would hang on for a little while, enduring surgery, but Tom knew then: I sat there in the dark, unhappy room, unable to think, unable to move, with all the innumerable elements of my isolation crowding in upon me from every side: without a home, without a family, without a country, without a father, apparently without any friends, without any interior peace or confidence or light or understanding of my own-without God, too, without God, without heaven, without grace, without anything. [...]I don't have the time or the energy to discuss such matters. "31 Admitted to Clare College, Cambridge, as an exhibitioner just before his eighteenth birthday, he lived the life of a prodigal, convinced from study of Freud, Adler, and Jung that "the cause of all my unhappiness was sex-repression!"32 He behaved so badly that his English guardian advised him not to return from the United States when he went to New York for the summer. "54 As he understood this calling, his loneliness in God connected him with the world at its very center in God. [...]the farther he extended his pipeline out into the world, the deeper he had to drill his well-all the way into the aloneness of God that is united with all that is.
ISSN:1062-6549