Survival or Prophecy?: The Correspondence of Jean Leclercq & Thomas Merton (Monastic Wisdom) by THOMAS MERTON, JEAN LECLERQ, PATRICK HART (ED.) - October 2008

Cistercian Publications, October 2008. Paper Back Paper Back. New. Correspondence is that wonderful literary space where the particularity of a cherished audience often brings about our best and fullest thinking. It is also where we are able to let many of our public roles slip off and compose with humor, vulnerability, experimentation and fierce honesty. In this collection of letters, two of twentieth-century Catholicism's premier defenders and proponents of monastic calling engage the topics they so fervently shared and uniquely embodied. American Trappist, man of letters, and seeker of solitude, Thomas Merton and French Benedictine scholar, translator and world-traveler Jean Leclercq discuss the importance and struggles of translating essential historical monastic writings, the tensions of community life, the need for authentic solitude and prayer, and the continual challenge of monasticism's relationship with culture and the world. Historically significant, spiritually exercising, intellectually expansive and culturally incisive, these letters provide rich fodder to all struggling to maintain Christian authenticity and prophetic integrity in their lives.