Creation Corner Column, April 2018
Book Overview: The Environmental Vision of Thomas Merton. Monica Weis, SSJ. University. Press of Kentucky, 2011.
Monica Weis here traces the evolving environmental consciousness and committed conscience of Cistercian monk Thomas Merton, just one aspect of his legacy, especially during his 27 years at the Abbey of Gethsemani in Trappist, Kentucky.
From his birth in France (1915) to his accidental death in Bangkok, Thailand (1968), she records his various "kairos" or "epiphonic" experiences that transformed his attitude and behavior, as well as his spiritual development, vis-a-vis God's gift of creation.
These "touchstone" moments, or "spots in time", found expression in his prose, poetry, photography, journaling, prayer life and his love and friendship with others.
He, as with us, began life with seeing and appreciating nature, but gradually began to "see with a new eye", with a "waking up" to the interdependence of all creation (air, land, water, animals, humans, etc.). With contemplation of the "outer landscape" (DDT, nuclear weapons, etc.) his "inner landscape" became aware of how we are destroying ourselves spiritually, morally, and in many other ways.
One might say he sought to enlarge our environmental vision, to go beyond our hubris, anthropocentrism, speciesism, and racism to eco-justice and an "ecology of humility" wherein we have a "reverential awe and desire to preserve nature's beauty in the face of mystery that is larger than humankind".
Merton urges us to move away from what we often think of as our "mastery" of, or "wise use" of nature, and instead seek to have "responsibility for" creation. Thus: defending, preserving, conserving, and restoring.
He further urges us to have an ecological consciousness because it is required if we are to be non-violent to the earth.
Merton's work addresses us today, those of us with a superficial view of the world, especially in view of our exterminating capability. So many of us speak of "adapting" to climate change; he would find such talk of blind optimism as absurd. And for the church to bless some futuristic technological paradise? Blasphemy!
Of course one reads this life course of Merton with one's own life trajectory in mind. What events have we experienced that had a "renovating virtue" whereby we were "nourished and invisibly repaired"? As each day dawns (our own re-creation and genesis), might we see beyond the "shadows and disguise" and find the presence of God within us, and encounter the holy in the day-to-day ordinariness?
What does an Incarnational Theology mean for us? What is our response as we "recognize the holiness of all creatures and the spark of divinity in all matter"?
We too can experience turning points in our lives that lead us to have a peace-making ecological conscience with compassion. We strive to discern God's will for His creation, and be obedient to it. Merton urged that.
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Thomas Merton (b. 1/31/1915, d. 12/30/1968). International Thomas Merton Society.
The Environmental Vision of Thomas Merton, by Monica Weis, SSJ, 2011, is a well-documented 197 page book, with 40 Thomas Merton primary sources cited, 9 pages of footnotes, an 8 page bibliography, and an 11 page index. It is one book in the "Culture of the Land: A Series in the New Agrarianism", University Press of Kentucky. Series Editor is Norman Wirzba.
Weis previously published Thomas Merton's Gethsemani: Landscapes of Paradise (2005) . She draws on that, and nine other articles by her on the Merton legacy, in the 2011 book.
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