American Monks - American Buddhist Monks, American Christian Monks, Thomas Merton, Wayne Teasdale, Ajahn Sumedho, Bhikkhu Bodhi (Paperback)

Chapters: American Buddhist Monks, American Christian Monks, Thomas Merton, Wayne Teasdale, Ajahn Sumedho, Bhikkhu Bodhi, Laurence Mancuso, Justin Marler, James Otis Sargent Huntington, Mathias Barrett, Thanissaro Bhikkhu, Leo Michael Haid. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 55. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Thomas Merton (31 January 1915 10 December 1968) was a 20th century American Catholic writer. A Trappist monk of the Abbey of Gethsemani, Kentucky, he was a poet, social activist and student of comparative religion. In 1949, he was ordained to priesthood and given the name Father Louis. He wrote more than 70 books, mostly on spirituality, social justice and a quiet pacifism, as well as scores of essays and reviews, including his best-selling autobiography, The Seven Storey Mountain (1948), which sent scores of disillusioned World War II veterans, students, even teen-agers flocking to monasteries across US, and was also featured in National Review's list of the 100 best non-fiction books of the century . Merton was a keen proponent of interfaith understanding. He pioneered dialogue with prominent Asian spiritual figures, including the Dalai Lama, D.T. Suzuki, the Japanese writer on the Zen tradition, and the Vietnamese monk Thich Nhat Hanh. Merton has also been the subject of several biographies. On January 31, 1915, Thomas Merton was born in Prades, France, to Owen Merton, a New Zealand painter active in Europe and the United States, and Ruth Jenkins, an American Quaker and artist. He was baptized in the Church of England, in accordance with his father's wishes. Owen Merton, a struggling artist, was often absent during his son's upbringing. In August 1915, the Merton family left Prades for the United States because of the difficulties of World War I. They settled first with R...More: http: //booksllc.net/?id=154306