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Merton's Correspondence with:

Rosemary Radford Ruether; Rosemary Ruether

Ruether, Rosemary Radford, 1936-2022  printer

 
 

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

Please click here for general restrictions concerning Merton's correspondence.

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

Click icons for links: ✓="Published | Library Record", ✉="Scanned" | 🗷="Scanned, Viewable Only at Merton Center"

#DateFrom/ToFirst LinesPub ✓Notes
 y/m/dMerton Scan ✉ 
1. 1966/08/12 HLS to Merton Justus Lawler passed on your recent letter to me with your very kind remarks on my article. ✓ «detailed view»
2. 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 ✓ «detailed view»
3. 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 ✓ «detailed view»
4. 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 ✓ «detailed view»
5. 1966/10/10 TLS to Merton Many thanks for your books which arrived today. I was poking through it here and there. ✓ «detailed view»
6. 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: ✓ «detailed view»
7. 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 ✓ «detailed view»
8. 1967/02/17 (#01) TALS to Merton I was relieved to get your sane letter. I tend to write missives without really realizing it, ✓ «detailed view»
9. 1967/02/17 (#02) other to Merton I LOVE YOU. [-] Mimi [note card with note and drawings by Ruether's three-year-old daughter] «detailed view»
10. 1967/02/no? TALS to Merton I was profoundly moved by your last letter. I have had a feeling in reading your words previously ✓ «detailed view»
11. 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 ✓ «detailed view»
12. 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. ✓ «detailed view»
13. 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 ✓ «detailed view»
14. 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 ✓ «detailed view»
15. 1967/03/15? TLS to Merton Thank you for your long letter and also for the manuscript so promptly returned. ✓ «detailed view»
16. 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 ✓ «detailed view»
17. 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 ✓ «detailed view»
18. 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. ✓ «detailed view»
19. 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 ✓ «detailed view»
20. 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 ✓ «detailed view»
21. 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 ✓ «detailed view»
22. 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 ✓ «detailed view»
23. 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 ✓ «detailed view»
24. 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 ✓ «detailed view»
25. 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, ✓ «detailed view»
26. 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, ✓ «detailed view»
27. 1967/06/29 (#01) TALS to Merton This is a letter about a family that I have gotten to know this year in Washington. ✓ «detailed view»
28. 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] «detailed view»
29. 1967/07/07 TL[c] from Merton Thanks for your letter-- and the more recent mimeographed letter too. I showed this to Fr Abbot ✓ «detailed view»
30. 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 ✓ [no extant carbon - transcript from published letters] «detailed view»
31. 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 ✓ «detailed view»
32. 1967/07/17 TL[c] from Merton I enjoyed your letter, especially the conversation. Those kids and those conversations! They are ✓ «detailed view»
33. 1967/07/20? TALS to Merton I have been in communication with John Pauker and shall go down to see the drawings sometime soon. ✓ «detailed view»
34. 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 ✓ «detailed view»
35. 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 ✓ «detailed view»
36. 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 ✓ «detailed view»
37. 1967/09/14 TLS to Merton Many thanks for your article. I must say that I find it very difficult to read those details. ✓ «detailed view»
38. 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 ✓ «detailed view»
39. 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 ✓ «detailed view»
40. 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. ✓ «detailed view»
41. 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 ✓ «detailed view»
42. 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 «detailed view»
43. undated/no/no other   Index to Volume LXXXIV [-] March 25, 1966 to September 30, 1966 [-] Articles, Poetry [index to volume 84 of Commonweal - including Merton's essay, "Is the World a Problem?"] «detailed view»
44. undated/no/no transcript   T.Merton - Rosemary Ruether Shannon's transcription of correspondence «detailed view»
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