Monica Furlong. MERTON: A BIOGRAPHY. Harper & Row, 1980.
A very interesting story of one man's life, someone who died before I was aware of him, in 1968. A writer who chose to live as a monk in 1940/50s America. Who, after Nuremberg, began to question choosing to live by the law of obedience. Who became famous for his spiritual writings and his literary work and then as a voice for peace during the Vietnam War. Who was seemingly kept imprisoned in Gethsemani by his abbot. When he was finally allowed to travel, visited the Dali Lama, the Buddhist statues in Ceylon (Sri Lanka), spoke on the links between Marxism and monasticism, and died within minutes of leaving the stage, from an accident possibly involving an electric fan.
The biographer relies almost exclusively on Merton's own writings, published and unpublished, and on interviews with people who knew him. She concludes that his death was not a suicide. There is no mention of the subsequent "conspiracy theory" which suggests that, as an anti-war writer, he may have been targeted by his own country.
I am glad to learn of this one man's struggles. I am now excused from feeling I should read his writing. Not interested in theology, Catholicism, or abstractions.
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