| Author Quoted | Lord Walter Northbourne |
| Title Quoted | Religion in the modern world |
| Date (Year/Month/Day) | 1965/04/16 |
| Imprint | London : Dent. [1963] |
| Quotation | Marco Pallis had Lord [Walter] Northbourne send me his really excellent book Religion in the Modern World. Among many fine things he says this about tradition in art, religion, politics, sport, etc. The traditional constraints impose a vital unity, a hierarchical order of like with unlike, so that there is a final universality and wholeness in society and in the expression of man's spirit. Where this traditional principle is discarded, everything becomes individualized. But there has to be a semblance of unity nevertheless. This is sought by collectivization which, however, is not an order of like and unlike elements, but simply a grouping together of like with like. Or a seduction to superficial sameness, uniformity not unity. Within the superficial uniformity, civilization is segmented into "departments" out of contact with each other, but officially "interconnected." |
| Quotation Source | Dancing in the Water of Life: Seeking Peace in the Hermitage. The Journals of Thomas Merton, Volume 5, 1963-1965.; Edited by Robert E. Daggy. / San Francisco : Harper Collins. 1997, p. 229-30 |
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| Notes | |
| Link to Merton's Copy |
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