Living With Wisdom - A Life of Thomas Merton

Overview

"If you have to read one book about Thomas Merton, this is the one to read. it is concise, insightful, complete " --Paul Wilkes

This absorbing pictorial biography of Thomas Merton--revised on the fortieth anniversary of his death--tells the story of the extraordinary Trappist monk whose writings, including his classic autobiography, The Seven Storey Mountain, have exerted a profound influence on millions. Beginning with Merton's early life in England, his studies in New York City and conversion to Catholicism, his entry into the Abbey of Gethsemani, and his fame as an author, Forest explores Merton's increasing search for solitude, his emergence as a prophetic voice of peace and social justice, and the fascinating dialogue with other religions that continued until his sudden death in 1968.

Enhanced by the most extensive collection of Merton photographs ever published, Living with Wisdom captures the life, writings, and vision of one of the great spiritual figures of our time.

Jim Forest (1941-2022), a co-founder of the Catholic Peace Fellowship, was author of many Orbis books, including All Is Grace, Living with Wisdom, At Play in the Lions' Den and Eyes of Compassion (his biographies of peacemakers Dorothy Day, Thomas Merton, Daniel Berrigan, and Thich Naht Hanh). His other bestselling titles include Praying with Icons, The Ladder of the Beatitudes, and Writing Straight with Crooked Lines: A Memoir.