HISTORY/RLST
560
On
February 26, we will be discussing THE SEVEN STOREY MOUNTAIN, and the career of
Thomas Merton. I want to use this example as a basis to discuss several themes
within modern Catholic history, and will be sending round some materials
relating to these. They include:
1.CONVERSION.
A
remarkable number of Americans and Europeans converted to Catholicism during
the early and mid-twentieth century, including some celebrities. They often had
an enormous impact on the Catholic Church, and they include some of the most
celebrated of all modern Catholics. In the US, great converts of the past 150
years include Orestes Brownson, Isaac Hecker (LOOK THEM UP IN MORRISÕS AMERICAN
CATHOLIC!) Dorothy Day,
Thomas Merton, Allen Tate, and Avery Dulles. British examples include Cardinal
Newman, G. K. Chesterton and Graham Greene. Why were they so important? What
did they bring into the church? What were their sources of conflict with it? Most
important for our purposes, WHY DID THEY CONVERT? What does this tell us about
the society of the time and its discontents?
2.MYSTICISM
and MONASTICISM
Why
did Merton claim that Gethsemani Abbey was the capital of America? What do we
learn from this book about mysticism and monasticism? Is it possible to write
convincingly about these themes, or are they beyond words? Why do they matter
in studying religious (or non-religious) history? How far is it possible to
confine the mystical impulse within a particular denominational tradition Ð try
and follow up on MertonÕs later encounters with Buddhism. A couple of
interesting websites you might like to check out on this theme include:
http://www.christdesert.org/
3.CATHOLIC
HISTORY
For
a historian reading Merton, there are countless incidental pieces of
information about American Catholic life. Find some of them. What do we learn
about for instance other peopleÕs attitudes to Catholicism; about pacifism;
about urban Catholicism, about the history of practices like confession, about
celibacy; about gender issues; about recruitment to the priesthood; about
devotional stylesÉ. In other words, this is potentially a huge historical
resource. What can we get out of it?