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Article: Monastic Liberation as Counter-Cultural Critique in the Life and Thought of Thomas Merton.
- Article from:
- CrossCurrents - The Journal of Addiction and Mental Health
- Article date:
- December 22, 1999
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1999 Association for Religion and Intellectual Life. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Merton's monasticism was a critique of religion as merely another leisure activity.
The fact that an observant Jew like myself could find inspiration and spiritual nourishment from a Trappist monk is simultaneously typical and surprising. Throughout the long trajectory of Jewish history, Jews have figuratively (and sometimes literally) sat at the feet of masters from other faiths. Often such cross fertilization has resulted in Jews "borrowing" intellectual methods of analysis and practical approaches to ritual from these other traditions, returning with them to the religious lives and texts of their own tradition. This round-trip excursion was particularly ...