MERTON'S CORRESPONDENCE WITH:
Ruether, Rosemary Radford, 1936-2022
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Descriptive Summary
Record Group: Section A - Correspondence
Dates of materials: 1966-1968, 1983
Volume: 45 item(s); 87 pg(s)
Scope and Content
Rosemary Radford Ruether began correspondence in 1966 when Ruether had heard of Merton's interest in her article on Gabriel Vahanian and wrote to him. They dialogue about theology and Ruether challenges Merton on his vocation and his relationship to his abbot.
Biography
Rosemary Radford Ruether was a theologian and feminist writer who was born in Minnesota. She received her doctorate in religion in 1965 at Howard University in Washington, D.C. She remained there on faculty until 1976. Later, she was on faculty of Garrett Evangelical Theological Seminary in Evanston, Illinois. (Source: The Hidden Ground of Love, p. 497-498.)
Usage Guidelines and Restrictions
Related Information and Links
See also published letters from Merton to Ruether in The Hidden Ground of Love, pp. 497-516; and all letters from both correspondents in At Home in the World: The Letters of Thomas Merton and Rosemary Radford Ruether, edited by Mary Tardiff, O.P.
Other Finding Aids
If the person in correspondence with Merton has full text records in the Merton Center Digital Collections, there will be a numeric link to them below.
Series List
This Record Sub-Group is not divided into Series and is arranged chronologically.
Container List
| Series | Date | Type | To/From | First Lines | Pub | Full Text | Notes |
| | 1966/08/12 | HLS | to Merton | Justus Lawler passed on your recent letter to me with your very kind remarks on my article. | Yes |
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| | 1966/08/18 | TL[c] | from Merton | I do very much want to read your book, but there are several reasons why it would probably not be | Yes |
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| | 1966/08/no? | TLS | to Merton | The carbon of my book has currently strayed out of my hands into those of a graduate student at U | Yes |
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| | 1966/09/21 | TL[c] | from Merton | Thanks for your letter and for the essay on the Augustinian theology of sexuality which I liked very | Yes |
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| | 1966/10/10 | TLS | to Merton | Many thanks for your books which arrived today. I was poking through it here and there. | Yes |
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| | 1967/01/29 | TL[c] | from Merton | I have been thinking of this letter for a while, and so I am writing it. The immediate occasion: | Yes |
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| | 1967/02/14 | TL[c] | from Merton | Many thanks for your very good letter. It was what I needed, a sign that someone was there and that | Yes |
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| | 1967/02/17 (#01) | TALS | to Merton | I was relieved to get your sane letter. I tend to write missives without really realizing it, | Yes |
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| | 1967/02/17 (#02) | other | to Merton | I LOVE YOU. [-] Mimi | |
| [note card with note and drawings by Ruether's three-year-old daughter] |
| | 1967/02/no? | TALS | to Merton | I was profoundly moved by your last letter. I have had a feeling in reading your words previously | Yes |
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| | 1967/03/04 (#01) | HLS[x] | from Merton | Your long letter on the monastic renewal piece reached me today. I am just out of the hospital | Yes |
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| | 1967/03/04? (#02) | TLS | to Merton | I couldn't read all of your letter, but a certain state of shock came through to me from it. | Yes |
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| | 1967/03/07 | TLS | to Merton | What can I say about your paper on monastic renewal?? Let us just admit at the outset that I am | Yes |
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| | 1967/03/09 | TAL[c] | from Merton | Thanks for the new letter, received this morning. I can type now, for a while, and will try to get | Yes |
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| | 1967/03/15? | TLS | to Merton | Thank you for your long letter and also for the manuscript so promptly returned. | Yes |
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| | 1967/03/19 | TL[c] | from Merton | Thanks for your letter which came the other day during the visit of an old friend of mine, a tough | Yes |
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| | 1967/03/21? | TLS | to Merton | I am really kind of disappointed in you. Do you realize how defensive you are, how you are forever | Yes |
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| | 1967/03/24 | TL[c] | from Merton | I am really very grateful for your last letter, the one that came in with the litanies today. | Yes |
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| | 1967/03/25 | TL[c] | from Merton | Yes, I realize that you are right about the crisis bit, because I am in one of those situations when | Yes |
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| | 1967/04/09 (#01) | TL[c] | from Merton | It is a Sunday evening and because the community has its day of recollection I have had the day off | Yes |
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| | 1967/04/09 (#02) | TALS | to Merton | Bill Jerr was with the Lexington group and remembers you very fondly. I told him I didn't know what | Yes |
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| | 1967/04/no? (#01) | TLS | to Merton | Much relieved at your last two letters. We are sort of up another ridge. I am also glad you like | Yes |
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| | 1967/04/no? (#02) | TLS | to Merton | I really appreciate your gesture towards St. Steve's. Did I ever send you our Good Friday, Easter | Yes |
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| | 1967/05/05 (#01) | TL[c] | from Merton | Sorry for the long delay in answering this time. I have had publishers here and lawyers here | Yes |
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| | 1967/05/05? (#02) | TLS | to Merton | Stop protesting! you don't have to justify your life!!! I think that is why I keep needling you, | Yes |
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| | 1967/05/30 | TL[c] | from Merton | I know "Theoria to Theory" would like a dialogue, as they have confirmed this. How to do it, | Yes |
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| | 1967/06/29 (#01) | TALS | to Merton | This is a letter about a family that I have gotten to know this year in Washington. | Yes |
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| | 1967/06/29 (#02) | HNS | from Merton to James Fox | Could we send something? If so please return and let me know check made out to R. Ruether | |
| [verso of envelope sent on 1967/06/29 (postmarked 1967/06/30) by Ruether] |
| | 1967/07/07 | TL[c] | from Merton | Thanks for your letter-- and the more recent mimeographed letter too. I showed this to Fr Abbot | Yes |
| |
| | 1967/07/10 | transcript | from Merton | I just heard today about the exhibit of drawings: two have been sold so far and there is money | Yes |
| [no extant carbon - transcript from published letters] |
| | 1967/07/12? | TLS | to Merton | I am most appreciative of your help with the Parkes. I have gotten enough help to be able to do | Yes |
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| | 1967/07/17 | TL[c] | from Merton | I enjoyed your letter, especially the conversation. Those kids and those conversations! They are | Yes |
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| | 1967/07/20? | TALS | to Merton | I have been in communication with John Pauker and shall go down to see the drawings sometime soon. | Yes |
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| | 1967/08/04 | TL[c] | from Merton | Thanks for your note and the clippings-- and also for your other letter. I was glad to hear about | Yes |
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| | 1967/08/09 | TLS | to Merton | The communion book is done. After fretting over it for some time, all of the sudden it wrote itself | Yes |
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| | 1967/09/11 | TL[c] | from Merton | Long time since your last letter. I am very interested in the new books, especially the Gregory one | Yes |
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| | 1967/09/14 | TLS | to Merton | Many thanks for your article. I must say that I find it very difficult to read those details. | Yes |
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| | 1967/12/31 (#02) | TL[c] | from Merton | Ah, yes, I have become very wicked. This is due in great part to my hanging around with these women | Yes |
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| | 1967/12/31? (#01) | TLS | to Merton | You are really a shocking and dissolute fellow. Didn't anyone ever tell you that the one thing | Yes |
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| | 1968/01/31 | HLS | to Merton | I picked up the drawings the other day from Pauker. I think he sold 5 or 6 - I have 29. | Yes |
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| | 1968/02/18 | TL[c] | from Merton | Thanks for picking up the drawings. As a matter of fact I paid Pauker everything he paid out | Yes |
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| | 1983/11/03 | TLS[x] | from Shannon, William / to Rosemary Ruether | I talked with you last evening on the phone with regard to the letters that Thomas Merton wrote to | |
| seeking additional letters |
| | undated/no/no | other | | Index to Volume LXXXIV [-] <i>March 25, 1966 to September 30, 1966</i> [-] <i>Articles, Poetry</i> | |
| [index to volume 84 of <u>Commonweal</u> - including Merton's essay, "Is the World a Problem?"] |
| | undated/no/no | transcript | | T.Merton - Rosemary Ruether | |
| Shannon's transcription of correspondence |
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