Gabriel Vahanian mentions seeing a poem by Merton in Le Monde. He thanks Merton for his influence on his work and for a brief meeting he had with Merton. Merton does not seem to note this meeting in his journals, nor is there an extant response to this letter. It is possible that they met in March of 1967 when Vahanian was speaking elsewhere in Kentucky. Merton most often mentions Vahanian in reference to an article written by Rosemary Radford Ruether concerning Vahanian and the Death of God Movement in theology.
Gabriel Vahanian was one of the foremost theologians of the Death of God Movement that flourished in the 1960's. Later, he would write about technology and its effects on society and theology, including reflections on the thoughts of Jacques Ellul. Gabriel Vahanian writes to Merton while at his summer residence in Allauch, France. At that time, he was a professor at Syracuse University in New York.
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See also the "Ruether, Rosemary Radford" and the "Kunz, Benedict" files.
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# | Date | From/To | First Lines | Pub ✓ | Notes |
| y/m/d | Merton | | Scan ✉ | |
1. |
1967/07/09 |
HLS to Merton |
I was not surprised when I saw the enclosed poem of yours in a two page selection from American |
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