| Date | Author | Title | Source | Quotation by Merton |
| 1954/10/02 | Erich Fromm | Psychoanalysis and religion |
Ltrs: HGL p. 308-09
| Some time ago when I was reading your Psychoanalysis and Religion I thought I would write you a letter. Now that I am in the middle of Man for Himself and am hoping to get Escape from Freedom, I think I shall put a few of my thoughts on paper and send them to you. |
| 1961/05/23 | Mary Lelia Makra | Hsiao Ching / transl. (from the Chinese) by Mary Lelia Makra ed. by Paul K. T. Sih |
Ltrs: HGL p. 549
| It has been a little while since I received your kind letter and later on the copy of the Hsiao Ching, for which I am deeply grateful. I have also heard from Jubilee and they are willing to have me review the two books. So I intend in due time to do an article on them. I enjoy the Hsiao Ching very much indeed. In its simplicity it has roots in the highest wisdom and one is surprised at the "modern" sound of some of its basic intuitions. I hope to study these two books carefully and am trying to write of them worthily. I hope I will myself grow in wisdom. |
| 1961/05/29 | Mary Lelia Makra | Hsiao Ching / transl. (from the Chinese) by Mary Lelia Makra ed. by Paul K. T. Sih |
Ltrs: HGL p. 618
| I have carefully gone through your fine translation of the Tao Te Ching, and it is all superb. I really mean to get down to the article. I loved the Hsiao Ching too. It is so completely in tune with reality. The Zen books you speak of interest me, but my German is slow. I shall be eager to see if they appear in English translation. If I once reached Buddhahood and redescended to my present state, all I can say is that I made a really heroic sacrifice. But I don't regret it, as the other Buddhas seem to have done the same. Yourself for instance. Thus we go along gaily with littleness for our Mother and our Nurse, and we return to the root by having no answers to questions. Whatever I may have been in previous lives, I think more than half of them were Chinese and eremitical. |
| 1961/08/16 | Paul K.T. Sih | From Confusius to Christ |
Ltrs: HGL p. 549
| It is already a long time since your letter of July 26th and the arrival of the two books, which I was so happy to receive. I began your autobiography [From Confucius to Christ], and then one of the novices needed a book of this type as a change so I lent it to him (he enjoyed it very much), while I myself proceeded with your Decision for China. The latter is clear and illuminating. I have not yet quite finished it but it is a very meaningful book to me "¦ |
| 1961/08/27 | Mircea Eliade | Mythes, rêves et mystères. English. Myths, dreams, and mysteries : the encounter between contemporary faiths and archaic realities / Mircea Eliade ; transl. by Philip Mairet |
Ltrs: HGL p. 131
| I have been reading a really remarkable book on Eckhart, by Vladimir Lossky, in French. It is very difficult in parts but it is one of the finest studies on the Meister. I highly recommend it. Published by Vrin. It is unfinished, as Lossky died. He was a great man, wrote a very fine book on the mystical theology of the Oriental Church which you should know. Also I just finished Mircea Eliade's Myths, Dreams and Mysteries. This too is very rich. He refers incidentally to Ananda and in the final pages has some very good things on Maya "¦ |
| 1963/09/03 | Robert Charles Zaehner | Matter and Spirit: Their Convergence in Eastern Religions, Marx and Teilhard de Chardin |
Jnl 5 ('63-'65) p. 15
| [Robert Charles] Zaehner's new book, Matter and Spirit, is an attempted synthesis of Marxist Christianity with the help of Teilhard de Chardin. So far I am not sure I am impressed. |
| 1964/01/11 | Rudolf Bultmann | Form Criticism: Two Essays on New Testament Research |
Jnl 5 ('63-'65) p. 59
| Much as I disagree with some of Bultmann's statements on non-Christian religions I cannot help being swayed and moved by his basic argument which is completely convincing-and most salutary. "God's grace is to man grace in such a thoroughgoing sense that it supports the whole of man's existence, and can only be conceived of as grace by those who surrender their whole existence and let themselves fall into the unfathomable, dizzy depths without seeking for something to hold on to" (Essays, p. 136). The great hope of our time is, it seems to me, not that the Church will become once again a world power and a dominant institution, but on the contrary that the power of faith and the Spirit will shake the world when Christians have lost what they held on to and have entered into the eschatological kingdom-where in fact they already are! |
| 1964/08/04 | Edward Deming Andrews | Religion in Wood: A Book of Shaker Furniture |
Ltrs: RtoJ p. 48
| Thanks for the word in the silence. I am sorry only of the occasion for it. I had as a matter of fact heard very indirectly of Ted Andrews' death, from a Benedictine down this way who is interested in Shakers because his monastery is in an old Shaker Village. Also, on the day you wrote the letter I was sending the Preface to Faith [Andrews], so everything is all right. At least I hope it is all right. I enjoyed writing the preface and brought a lot of Blake into it. Let's hope that it serves its purpose. Ted Andrews is a loss: he had such a wonderful sense of all those things. I think his book will be great, though I have not actually seen the pictures, only the text. The list of pictures alone is exciting. |
| 1965/04/24 | Rene Guenon | Crisis of the Modern World |
Ltrs: HGL p. 454
| Meanwhile I am very happy to be in contact with you, as I am with Marco Pallis, whose books have also been a great inspiration to me. I am most indebted to him for sending good books my way, and am in the middle of his translation of [Rene] Guenon's Crisis, which is first-rate. Contact with your "school of thought," shall I say, is of great help to me in rectifying my own perspectives in this time when among Catholics one is faced with a choice between an absurdly rigid and baroque conservatism and a rather irresponsible and fantastic progressivism à la Teilhard. The choice is of course not so restricted, and I am glad of influences that help me to cling, as my heart tells me to, to a sane and living traditionalism in full contact with the living contemplative experience of the past"”and with the presence of the Spirit here and now. |
| 1965/05/13 | Herbert Giles | Confucianism and its Rivals |
Ltrs: Hammer p. 217
| I have very much enjoyed the Tao of Painting [note 191: Mai-mai Sze, The Tao of Painting, 2nd ed. (New York: Pantheon, 1963), which Merton borrowed on his June 6 visit.], which I will send back soon. Duveen is priceless. But I am afraid it has almost fallen apart. Could I borrow your copy of Eric Gill on Clothes? [note 192: Erik Gill, Clothes: An Essay upon the Nature and Significance of the Natural and Artificial Integuments Worn by Men and Women (London: J.Cape, 1931). For Merton's negative comments on this work see his journal entry for Oktober 13, 1965.] Carolyn, I have here a copy of Giles "Confucianism and its rivals" which you sent me. I have never been clear if this was a loan or an extra that you wanted to get rid of. Could you please let me know? |
| 1965/06/17 | Frithjof Schuon | Language of the self / Frithjof Schuon ; transl. by Marco Pallis and Macleod Matheson |
Ltrs: HGL p. 470
| I have been wanting to tell you how much I have benefited by your translations of Guenon and Schuon. Not only the material, but also your own translations, which, I think, contribute much clarity to the originals. I meant to write you after Easter when I had finished the Guenon book on Crisis. Now I do so when I am in the middle of Schuon on the Language of the Self. The Guenon book is certainly a classic, and I appreciate Schuon more and more. The essay on Buddhism, for example, is most excellent. I am at one with him in his deep reverence for the spirituality of the North American Indian. Of that, more at some other time. The Indians of this country are a sign of the age, silent and frequently mistreated, at least in their legal rights. One feels that there is still, among some of them, a deep consciousness of their real calling, and a hidden hope. Yet there must also be much real despair among them. I have always had a secret desire to be among them in some way, and of course there is no fulfilling this, and it would tend to be highly ambiguous in any event. |
| 1965/06/17 | Rene Guenon | Crisis of the Modern World |
Ltrs: HGL p. 470
| I have been wanting to tell you how much I have benefited by your translations of Guenon and Schuon. Not only the material, but also your own translations, which, I think, contribute much clarity to the originals. I meant to write you after Easter when I had finished the Guenon book on Crisis. Now I do so when I am in the middle of Schuon on the Language of the Self. The Guenon book is certainly a classic, and I appreciate Schuon more and more. The essay on Buddhism, for example, is most excellent. I am at one with him in his deep reverence for the spirituality of the North American Indian. Of that, more at some other time. The Indians of this country are a sign of the age, silent and frequently mistreated, at least in their legal rights. One feels that there is still, among some of them, a deep consciousness of their real calling, and a hidden hope. Yet there must also be much real despair among them. I have always had a secret desire to be among them in some way, and of course there is no fulfilling this, and it would tend to be highly ambiguous in any event. |
| 1967/07/20 | Janheinz Jahn | Muntu: African Culture and Western World |
Ltrs: CforT p. 282-83
| It is good news to hear you can perhaps use Bantu philosophy in your new book, which sounds like a very good idea by the way. I hope you will keep at it, because that is something I will enjoy reading. The book I referred to is in French (from Dutch) by Pere Placide Tempels, CSSR, La philosophie bantoue, Presence Africaine (publisher). It is a rather old book and you may have to hunt through libraries for it. Also there is another, less good, but more varied (with Voodoo etc.) by Jahainz Jahn, called Muntu. Grove Press did that one, so it is more available. |
| 1967/07/20 | Placide Tempels | philosophie bantou |
Ltrs: CforT p. 282-83
| It is good news to hear you can perhaps use Bantu philosophy in your new book, which sounds like a very good idea by the way. I hope you will keep at it, because that is something I will enjoy reading. The book I referred to is in French (from Dutch) by Pere Placide Tempels, CSSR, La philosophie bantoue, Presence Africaine (publisher). It is a rather old book and you may have to hunt through libraries for it. Also there is another, less good, but more varied (with Voodoo etc.) by Jahainz Jahn, called Muntu. Grove Press did that one, so it is more available. |
| 1967/08/24 | Bengt Sundkler | Bantu Prophets in South Africa |
Ltrs: CforT p. 283
| You are much in my thoughts as I continue my explorations of Bantu ideas. I have on interlibrary loan an essential book: Bantu Prophets in South Africa by Bengt Sundkler, Oxford Press, 1961. The thing is not to distill "Bantu philosophy" out into pure speculative projects as we Westerners like to do. This particular book deals with the syncretism of Zulu religion and a kind of Evangelical Christianity in South Africa: prophetic cults (hundreds of them), nativistic and healing sects. Pursuit of health is a central theme. Joining you in your forecast I would say that in our coming Bantu society (is that accurate though, because our Negroes came from Dahomey, maybe that's a different bunch?) there will be considerable interest in medical diagnosis, psychosomatic illness, questions of potency, interesting treatments, resistance against nefarious influence of dead ancestors ("Uncle Toms" perhaps). |