Happy Leap Day! (Now here’s a post that has nothing to do with it!)
For a long time, people have been telling me to read The Seven Storey Mountain by Thomas Merton, so I finally listened and read it, thinking it would be the most boring thing I’d ever read in my life.
I was pleasantly surprised because it wasn’t. After reading it, I came away with the notion that to some extent, everyone can relate to the journey of faith that Merton goes through. It’s that same universal need that St. Augustine mentions in his writings: we were all created for God; thus, we remain restless until we find him.
Merton was a highly prolific writer. This man was constantly writing and always in search of the solitude in which to write. He also questioned whether writing was an appropriate way to get closer to God or whether the writing was only feeding his own ego.
Well, he hasn’t become a canonized saint, but I think that was more because of his incorporation of Eastern religions into his own spirituality later in life rather than his attitude around writing. The Seven Storey Mountain did in fact receive the nihil obstat (no doctrinal error) and the imprimatur (let it be printed), so maybe if Merton stopped with just that one book, he could have been canonized.
I’m forgetting that the aim is not to be canonized but to be a saint, and there are plenty of saints that are known only by God. In fact, to be canonized is to be known, and perhaps it is better to not have one’s entire life and works dissected in front of a tribunal, despite one being dead and not being there to witness it.
So in short, I’d recommend The Seven Storey Mountain. The length of the book was intimidating, but it went surprisingly quickly and was relatable, especially if you’re such an introvert that you’ve considered total solitude in order to get away from the world and refresh yourself.
I don’t know that Merton said anything “new” or revelatory about the faith, just that he touched on some of the fundamental aspects of being a Christian that are difficult and necessary, and he distilled them in such a way that was easy for a theological “noob” to comprehend.
Maggie Madly Writing 