Tuesday, December 10, 2024

*** This is a rough transcript of today’s show ***

It is the 10th of December 2024. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org. I’m Dan van Voorhis.

Today’s story would be fascinating enough if our character were the most famous monk in the 20th century (a claim that can be certainly argued).

It would be fascinating enough if this most famous monk also wrote one of the most popular spiritual autobiographies of the century.

And even more so if this figure had a conspiracy theory about their untimely death on this, the 10th of December, in the ominous year of 1968.

He was Thomas Merton, born in France on the Spanish border in 1915 his parents, Owen and Ruth (from New Zealand and America respectively) would move the family to New York. Upon his mother's death, he traveled back to Europe with his father, who died before Thomas turned 16. He attended Cambridge but lost his scholarship after a year of carousing. He is reported to have fathered a child and was forced to move back to the States with his family.

He attended Columbia in New York and studied literature. A chance encounter with the Catholic Etienne Gilson’s Spirit of Medieval Philosophy and the recommendation from a Hindu monk to read Augustine’s confessions led to his baptism and reception into the Roman Catholic Church.

He would go on to teach at St. Bonaventure before a visit to a monastery in Gethsemani, Kentucky, in 1941. Three days after the U.S. entered WWII, Merton entered the Order of Cistercians there in Gethsemani.

He continued his writing with the encouragement of his superiors, and his 1948 autobiography “The Seven Storey Mountain” became a surprise hit. We can count on a combination of post-war optimism and a relaxation of anti-catholic sentiment in American culture- the same currents that led to the election of John F. Kennedy- helped boost Merton’s reach. The book was praised by Fulton Sheen (the most public-facing Catholic in America) and the novelist Graham Greene, amongst others. Merton would later come to regret some of the book, but it launched him into a level of fame never seen before by a monk in America. The book follows the tradition and structure of Dante’s Divine Comedy with Merton’s own “inferno” of his pre-conversion years, the “purgatory” of his early years in the faith, and then his “paradise” of life in the Kentucky monastery.

He would become associated with the peace and anti-war movements but it is important to see that in this age of increased activism, Merton was calling for a revival of its shy cousin: contemplation. His works on the contemplative life were thoroughly Catholic but he was an ecumenical sort with connections not only to Protestants but monks in the Eastern tradition (although we should note his own journals show him to never waver in his own Catholic conviction).

He would struggle as an author and monk- one devoted to the contemplative life but also one who had a voice that was being heard across the globe. He butted heads with his Superior, who chaffed against the increasingly public Merton (although the revenue brought into the monastery from his works was certainly helpful). Pilgrims would make their way to the Monastery to imitate Merton, who would, on numerous occasions, shoo them away, stating that the point of his work was that you didn’t need to be a monk to practice the contemplative life of the Christian.

He became more politically active as the Vietnam war escalated and this would make him a tricky figure amongst American Catholics who were being embraced by the mainstream culture- his peace activism was perceived by some as anti-American.

He was permitted to attend a conference in 1968 in Bangkok, Thailand. It is there that while in his hotel room, he is believed to have been electrocuted to death by faulty wiring after getting out of the shower. The admittedly shoddy work done by the investigators and Merton’s being an outspoken critic of the war has led to conspiracy theories about his death being an assassination by the CIA.

I recommend Michael Mott- the Guggenheim scholar and professor who wrote a biography of Merton that was a runner-up for the Pulitzer in 1985. He argues that while the investigation was poor, the evidence points to his death being accidental and by electrocution and subsequent heart attack. Merton, who was born in 1915, was only 53 when he died on this day in 1968. It was also the 27th anniversary of the date he entered the monastery in 1941. His autobiography has sold over 1 million copies, and a center at Bellarmine University holds both the name and archives of the monk and mystic Thomas Merton.

 

The last word for today is from the daily lectionary from Psalm 126- a Psalm of Ascent:

When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion,
    we were like those who dreamed.

Our mouths were filled with laughter,

    our tongues with songs of joy.


Then it was said among the nations,

    “The Lord has done great things for them.”

The Lord has done great things for us,

    and we are filled with joy.

Restore our fortunes, Lord,

    like streams in the Negev.

Those who sow with tears

    will reap with songs of joy.

Those who go out weeping,

    carrying seed to sow,

will return with songs of joy,

    carrying sheaves with them.

 

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 10th of December 2024, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

The show is produced by a man who knows a Psalm of “Ascent” is neither about saying yes nor smelling- he is Christopher Gillespie.

The show is written and read by a man who, I… 44-42! Holy cow… what a game- I’m Dan van Voorhis.

You can catch us here every day- and remember that the rumors of grace, forgiveness, and the redemption of all things are true…. Everything is going to be ok.