| Author Quoted | Gustaf Wingren |
| Title Quoted | Man and the Incarnation: A Study in the Biblical Theology of Irenaeus |
| Date (Year/Month/Day) | 1965/08/21 |
| Imprint | Philadelphia : Muhlenberg Press. 1959 |
| Quotation | The Chapter yesterday was not so bad. The day was a joyful one. A lot of gladness in the community, and most people seem pleased that I am going to live in the woods-for the right reason, I think-namely that it shows an opening up to the Spirit, an awareness of new possibilities and not just the evasion that condemned everyone to uniform and rigid adherence to one set of practices for all, meaningful or not.... What is immediately perceptible is the immense relief, the burden of ambiguity is lifted, and I am without care-no anxiety about being pulled between my job and my vocation"¦I feel as if my whole being were an act of thankfulness- even the gut is relaxed and at peace after good meditation and long study of Irenaeus ( Wingren's book!) [G. Wingren, Man and the Incarnation, 1959]. The woods all around crackle with guerrilla warfare-the hunters are out for squirrel season (as if there were a squirrel left!). Even this idiot ritual does not make me impatient. In their mad way they love the woods too: but I wish their way were less destructive and less of a lie. |
| 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. 282-83 |
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| Notes | |
| Link to Merton's Copy |
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