When Prophecy Still Had a Voice: The Letters of Thomas Merton and Robert Lax - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 081312168X ISBN 13: 9780813121680

Publisher: University Press of Kentucky, 2000

Synopsis

When Thomas Merton (1915-1968) was 20 years old, he met Robert Lax (1915-), who was to become his best friend. In 1941 Merton entered into the Abbey of Gethsemani; he and Lax saw each other only four more times. This text collects every letter that exists between the two.

About this title

Review:

"Here, in their garrulous exchange of letters spanning 30 years, we see the childlike part of Merton: the innocent, eccentric, irreverent, prankish Thomas Merton.... Even a reluctant reader will be seduced by the rich brew of humor and wisdom that these letters provide." -- Lexington Herald-Leader

"The letters are reckless, sophomoric, erudite, witty, iconoclastic, frank, serious, youthfully exhuberant, scatological, excessive, wordly, mystical, selfconsciously clever, earthy, subversive, and holy -- but above all, charmingly human." -- Wade Hall

"A book that will fascinate readers, especially those who love Merton, but really anyone with a sense of comic or profane humor, and interest in spiritual motivation and direction, a fascination with how two very separate and solitary individuals can merge their identities to form a whole greater than the two parts." -- Bowling Green Daily News

"A delight.... At the same time, they reveal serious struggles with personal vocation and issues such as peace and the Cold War." -- Library Journal

About this edition

• Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 081312168X
• ISBN 13: 9780813121680
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 496
• Editor: Biddle Arthur W.