| Date | Author | Title | Source | Quotation by Merton |
| 1950/10/09 | Jean Leclercq o.s.b. | St. Bernard mystique |
Ltrs: SofC p. 23
| Your remarks on St. Bernard's ideas of Scripture are extremely important to me. I have been meditating on your appendix to St. Bernard Mystique, and also I have been talking on this very subject to the students here. I agree with your conclusions about St. Bernard and yet I wonder if it would not be possible to say that he did consider himself in a very definite sense an exegete. My own subjective feeling is that the full seriousness of St. Bernard's attitude to Scripture is not brought out entirely unless we can in some sense treat him as an exegete and as theologian, in his exposition of the Canticle. Naturally he is not either of these things in a purely modern sense. But I think he is acting as a theologian according to the Greek Fathers' conception at least to some extent (see end of Lossky's first chapter: Theol. Myst. de l'Eglise orientale). I think that is essentially what you were saying when you brought out the fact that he was seeking less to nourish his interior life than to exercise it. |
| 1950/10/09 | Vladimir Lossky | Essay de la theologie mystique de l'Eglise d'Orient |
Ltrs: SofC p. 23
| Your remarks on St. Bernard's ideas of Scripture are extremely important to me. I have been meditating on your appendix to St. Bernard Mystique, and also I have been talking on this very subject to the students here. I agree with your conclusions about St. Bernard and yet I wonder if it would not be possible to say that he did consider himself in a very definite sense an exegete. My own subjective feeling is that the full seriousness of St. Bernard's attitude to Scripture is not brought out entirely unless we can in some sense treat him as an exegete and as theologian, in his exposition of the Canticle. Naturally he is not either of these things in a purely modern sense. But I think he is acting as a theologian according to the Greek Fathers' conception at least to some extent (see end of Lossky's first chapter: Theol. Myst. de l'Eglise orientale). I think that is essentially what you were saying when you brought out the fact that he was seeking less to nourish his interior life than to exercise it. |
| 1956/08/03 | Vladimir Sergeyevich Solovyov | Godmanhood as the main idea of the philosophy of Vladimir Solovyev / Vladimir Sergeyevich Solovyov ; ed. by Peter P. Zouboff. Chteniia o Bogocheloviechestvie |
Jnl 3 ('52-'60) p. 62
| FROM [VLADIMIR SERGEYEVICH] SOLOVIEV "The moral limit to the egoism of a given person is not the egoism of others, not their self-meriting will but only that which in itself cannot be exclusive and egotistic. That which in its nature is truth-love and self-sacrifice in their relation to men are possible only when they manifest the unconditional principle which stands above men; the principle in relation to which all equally represent an untruth, and all equally must recant that untruth." Lecture 1 on Godmanhood. |
| 1956/08/07 | Vladimir Sergeyevich Solovyov | Godmanhood as the main idea of the philosophy of Vladimir Solovyev / Vladimir Sergeyevich Solovyov ; ed. by Peter P. Zouboff. Chteniia o Bogocheloviechestvie |
Jnl 3 ('52-'60) p. 63
| Soloviev-The strength of a falsehood insists on the importance of a corresponding truth. "The importance of a truth lies of course not in the truth itself but within us in our inconsistency by not carrying out a truth to the end, we limit it-and any limitation of a truth provides an expanse for falsehood." ...He says, in effect, that consistency in truth means striving with pure and perfect hope to realize our "positive unconditionality" that is that we can possess in God the "whole content, the fulness of being, not as a mere fantasy-but as a real actuality." Also it is on this "inconsistency" that he bases his accusation of inadequacy of Catholicism-"it does not carry its faith to its logical end." He adds that modern materialism, struggling to overcome the Catholic tradition (and in this struggle according to him it will be successful) is a transition period between the inadequate spirituality of the past and the new, more perfect, spirituality of the future-"Godmanhood." |
| 1957/04/28 | Nikolai Alexandrovich Berdyaev | sens de la creation : un essai de justification de l'homme / Nicolas Berdiaev ; trad. du russe par Lucienne Julien Cain ; pref. de Stanislas Fumet |
Jnl 3 ('52-'60) p. 86
| Yet one of Berdyaev's greatest mistakes is to reject the Gospel as incomplete and patristic theology as sterile. In wanting to free himself from limitations he fell into narrower limits. It is not a question of trying to find in the Gospel something that is not there. (Le sens de la creation pp. 127ff.) If he had followed St. Maximus the Confessor he would have found indeed that what he sought was in the Gospel-the "Absolut" Christ in whom all is reintegrated. This is the Christ of St. John-and of St. Paul's Epistles, especially those of the Captivity... If Berdyaev had looked more closely at the N.T. he would have seen that the New Law is precisely such a liberation. Christ having risen, death [is] no more. |
| 1957/04/28 | Nikolai Alexandrovich Berdyaev | sens de la creation : un essai de justification de l'homme / Nicolas Berdiaev ; trad. du russe par Lucienne Julien Cain ; pref. de Stanislas Fumet |
Jnl 3 ('52-'60) p. 87
| Berdyaev is demanding-as Blake demanded-that man should truly find his liberty in Christ. He is aware that this indeed is the message of Christ. But has Christ some other messages than the gospel? Is it the gospel's fault if those who have preached the gospel have not always understood it? |
| 1957/05/01 | Nikolai Alexandrovich Berdyaev | sens de la creation : un essai de justification de l'homme / Nicolas Berdiaev ; trad. du russe par Lucienne Julien Cain ; pref. de Stanislas Fumet |
Jnl 3 ('52-'60) p. 88
| Berdyaev, who is always so ready to offend pious ears with statements that are, as they stand, even heretical, had nevertheless profound insights into the real meaning of Christianity - insights which we cannot simply ignore. For instance - the view of the cosmos which is incomplete (which he calls the cosmos of the Old Testament) - |
| 1957/05/28 | Nikolai Alexandrovich Berdyaev | sens de la creation : un essai de justification de l'homme / Nicolas Berdiaev ; trad. du russe par Lucienne Julien Cain ; pref. de Stanislas Fumet |
Jnl 3 ('52-'60) p. 92-93
| Long quote from Berdyaev. Le sens de la tradition, 216-17 [W.E.: must probably be Le sens de la creation] |
| 1957/05/28 | Nikolai Alexandrovich Berdyaev | sens de la creation : un essai de justification de l'homme / Nicolas Berdiaev ; trad. du russe par Lucienne Julien Cain ; pref. de Stanislas Fumet |
Jnl 3 ('52-'60) p. 94
| In Theophane Zatvornik, a Russian bishop of the 19th. century, the asceticism of the fathers was revived, says Berdyaev, not to prepare for a new life but to "obey the consequences of sin" and to "fortify and preserve established (social) forms." ...Later-in very important pages on genius and sanctity (in his contrast of Pushkin and Seraphim of Sarov) he points out the elements of sacrifice inherent in the work of genius and how the asceticism of convent life is perfectly well adapted to the positivist world and to the utilitarianism of bourgeois existence. But no more adaptation is possible in the work of genius. |
| 1957/07/29 | Sergei Nikolaevitch Bulgakov | Du Verbe incarne : (Agnus Dei) / par Serge Boulgakof ; trad. du russe par Constantin Andronikof |
Jnl 3 ('52-'60) p. 101
| Bulgakov's explanation of his sophianology (Du verbe incarne, p. 16) seems to me clear and satisfactory. The divine nature is distinct from the 3 Divine Persons, but is not therefore a 4th. principle superadded to make a "quaternity." No one imagines that it does. When the same nature is regarded as "Sophia"-why should that constitute a 4th. person? |
| 1957/07/29 | Sergei Nikolaevitch Bulgakov | Sagesse de Dieu |
Jnl 3 ('52-'60) p. 101
| Very important for the understanding of Bulgakov-the idea that the Divine Nature constitutes for the Divine Person the "world" which they themselves are. Note the starting point of the whole conception-our own relation to our own nature as a world which is only partially in us and which we tend to become. (This would seem to throw light on Ruysbroeck, Tauler, etc. "Grund" [ground], "Geburt" [birth], "Wesen" [essence] names of God.)... La sagesse de dieu, p. 22. Divine Nature-explains the essence of God as Source of his life "Sophia""""" without"" same thing. |
| 1957/07/29 | Sergei Nikolaevitch Bulgakov | Sagesse de Dieu |
Jnl 3 ('52-'60) p. 102
| "La Sophia est le plerôme, le monde de Dieu existant en Dieu et pour Dieu, eternel et incree, où Dieu vit en la Trinite. Et ce monde divin contenant tout ce que le St. Trinite revèle d'Elle-même en Elle-même, il est l'image de Dieu en Dieu-même la propre Icone de la Divinit"¦" ["Wisdom is fulness, the world of God exists in God and through God, eternal and uncreated, where God lives in the Trinity. This divine world, that contains all that the Holy Trinity reveals of itself and in itself is the image of God in God Himself, the icon of divinity."] La sagesse de dieu, p. 23. |
| 1957/08/02 | Sergei Nikolaevitch Bulgakov | Sagesse de Dieu |
Jnl 3 ('52-'60) p. 104-05
| "La Sophie est La Sagesse de Dieu, elle est la gloire de Dieu, est l'humanite en Dieu, elle est la Theanthropie, le corps de Dieu, le Monde Divin, etant en dieu ‘des avant' la creation. C'est là que se trouve ‘le fondement suffisant' de la creation"¦le fondement de sa sophianite." ["Sophia is the Wisdom of God, the glory of God is humanity in God, the ‘theanthropy,' body of God, the divine world which was in God at creation. It is there that one finds the sufficient reason of creation"¦the foundation of Wisdomness."] Bulgakov. p. 38. |
| 1957/08/07 | Sergei Nikolaevitch Bulgakov | Sagesse de Dieu |
Jnl 3 ('52-'60) p. 107
| I think this morning I found the key to Bulgakov's Sophianism. His idea is that the Divine Sophia, play, wisdom, is by no means a fourth person or hypostasis, yet in creation spiritualized by the church, it is, as it were, hypostasized, so that creation itself becomes the "Glory of God." Man has frustrated this to some extent-"created Sophia" is "fallen" with man. Wisdom has been corrupted into magic (i.e. magic hold of the cosmos over man who has subjected himself to it by trying to gain control over it). Yet man remains the one who, in Christ, will raise up and spiritualize creation so that all will be "Sophia" and true glory of God. For this man must be himself perfectly united and subjected to the wisdom of God. |
| 1957/08/10 | Sergei Nikolaevitch Bulgakov | Sagesse de Dieu |
Jnl 3 ('52-'60) p. 109
| Several quotes from Boulgakov's La Sagesse de Dieu, also on the next pages |
| 1958/10/23 | Vladimir Sergeyewich Solovyov | Meaning of Love |
Ltrs: CforT p. 90
| Am I right in surmising that the ideas in this book run closely parallel to those in [Vladimir] Soloviev's Meaning of Love? There is a great similarity. Both works remind us to fight our way out of complacency and realize that all our work remains yet to be done, the work of transformation which is the work of love, and love alone. I need not tell you that I also am one who has tried to learn deeply from Dostoevsky's Grand Inquisitor, and I am passionately convinced that this is the most important of all lessons for our time. It is important here, and there. Equally important everywhere. |
| 1958/10/26 | Sergei Nikolaevitch Bulgakov | Wisdom of God: a Brief Summery of Sophiology |
Jnl 3 ('52-'60) p. 226
| From the Library of Congress I got Bulgakov's Wisdom of God which is tremendous, particularly his last chapter on the Church. I wish it were possible to get more of him. This has to go back too soon for me to think about it but I will get Fr. Bartholomew to copy the best pages and I will have them. It is certain that his teaching that the Church is the Revelation of God's Wisdom has a strong basis in Ephesians III 9-11. |
| 1958/12/11 | Sergei Nikolaevitch Bulgakov | Wisdom of God: a Brief Summery of Sophiology |
Jnl 3 ('52-'60) p. 237
| "Christian humanism, which preserves the development of all the creative capacities of man, may be understood as a new comprehension, a new revelation of Christianity. It is no new Christianity, it is only its new comprehension."Bulgakov. |
| 1959/01/11 | Romano Guardini | Religiöse Gestalten in Dostojewskijs Werk: Studien über den Glauben |
Jnl 3 ('52-'60) p. 246
| I really think that in almost everything I read I find new food for the spiritual life, new thoughts, new discoveries (for instance the deep spiritual content of Jan Van Eyck's portrait of the Arnolfinis)-a whole new light on my concept of the hieratic (in the good sense) in art. Or the Gregg book on non-violence-some LaFontaine "fables" (The Rêve d'un habitant du Mogra struck me deeply the last time I was in Louisville and I saw it in Gide's anthology). Three or four pieces on "religion" (decadent) in Edmund Wilson's collection of articles about the '30s (American Earthquake)-some things on Mayan civilization-Kierkegaard's "Works of Lov"-Guardini on Dostoevsky. etc. etc. |
| 1959/01/17 | Romano Guardini | Religiöse Gestalten in Dostojewskijs Werk: Studien über den Glauben |
Jnl 3 ('52-'60) p. 248
| Moved by Guardini's wonderful book on Dostoevsky. |
| 1959/01/28 | Nikolai Alexandrovich Berdyaev | Solitude and Society |
Jnl 3 ('52-'60) p. 253-54
| From Berdyaev's "Solitude and Society": "Man may feel himself infinitely more alone in the midst of his coreligionists than in the midst of men of totally different beliefs"¦his relation to them may be of a purely objective kind. Such a state of affairs is extremely distancing and tragic"¦An increase of spirituality may only aggravate the sense of solitude for it may be accompanied by a total rupture of man's social relationships"¦But there is no way of avoiding such ruptures once man has embarked on a spiritual plane, only in mystic experience, where all things participate in the Ego and the Ego participates in all things. This path is diametrically opposed to objectification, which effects communication only between extrinsic and abstract things." |
| 1959/02/18 | Sergei Nikolaevitch Bulgakov | Orthodox Church |
Jnl 3 ('52-'60) p. 263
| Tradition. "God has given us a thought of our own and our personal work cannot be done in the past. In other words ecclesiastical tradition does not put the voice of the past in place of the voice of the present, but gives it full force." Bulgakov. |
| 1959/04/04 | Vladimir Sergeyevich Solovyov | Godmanhood as the main idea of the philosophy of Vladimir Solovyev / Vladimir Sergeyevich Solovyov ; ed. by Peter P. Zouboff. Chteniia o Bogocheloviechestvie |
Jnl 3 ('52-'60) p. 271
| Read some Origen on Josue, and Soloviev (Lectures on God Manhood)-some material on Mount Athos-Allport on prejudice. A new book by Jung has come in -The Undiscovered Self - which so far appears to be quite good. |
| 1959/05/13 | Myrrha Lot-Borodin | Nicolas Cabasilas: un maître de la spiritualite byzantine au XIVe siècle |
Jnl 3 ('52-'60) p. 281
| Yesterday all the red roses in the novitiate garden were blooming. Today the rhododendrons by St. Fiacre's shrine came out. It rained again-rained while I was with the novices weeding strawberries. I am finishing the Loch book on Mount Athos I borrowed from Victor Hammer. And am reading the fine study of Borodine on Nicholas Cabasilas. And of course continuing with Peaks and Lamas which, in many places, deeply moves me. |
| 1959/05/13 | Sydney Loch | Athos, the Holy Mountain |
Jnl 3 ('52-'60) p. 281
| Yesterday all the red roses in the novitiate garden were blooming. Today the rhododendrons by St. Fiacre's shrine came out. It rained again-rained while I was with the novices weeding strawberries. I am finishing the Loch book on Mount Athos I borrowed from Victor Hammer. And am reading the fine study of Borodine on Nicholas Cabasilas. And of course continuing with Peaks and Lamas which, in many places, deeply moves me. |
| 1959/05/14 | Sergei Nikolaevitch Bulgakov | Wisdom of God: a Brief Summery of Sophiology |
Ltrs: WtoF p. 5
| Thank you for the photostats from the [Catholic] Encyclopedia [on Wisdom]. I looked them over, and they just begin to touch on the mysterious doctrine. Carolyn should try to get for the Library a book by Sergius Bolgakov, called The Wisdom of God, published in London in the thirties. It would cover very well the Sophia theme. I have notes on it, but the book is very technical in its way. |
| 1959/05/21 | Nicolai Berdyaev | Meaning of Creation |
Ltrs: CforT p. 61
| Yet I am very taken with Berdyaev. He is certainly too glib. His explanations and intuitions come up with a suspicious readiness, and he is always inexhaustible. But I find much less of the pseudomystic, or rather gnostic, in his later works. As time goes on he seems to me to get more and more solid. The Meaning of Creation, one of his earliest books, is one of the most fruitful, the most dangerous and the least reliable all at the same time. But a late one like Solitude and Society is, I think, almost perfect in its kind. As for Pasternak, of course what you say about Zhivago is true: he floats passively through the backwaters of history. But one does not hold it against him. |
| 1959/05/21 | Nikolai Alexandrovich Berdyaev | Solitude and Society |
Ltrs: CforT p. 61
| Yet I am very taken with Berdyaev. He is certainly too glib. His explanations and intuitions come up with a suspicious readiness, and he is always inexhaustible. But I find much less of the pseudomystic, or rather gnostic, in his later works. As time goes on he seems to me to get more and more solid. The Meaning of Creation, one of his earliest books, is one of the most fruitful, the most dangerous and the least reliable all at the same time. But a late one like Solitude and Society is, I think, almost perfect in its kind. As for Pasternak, of course what you say about Zhivago is true: he floats passively through the backwaters of history. But one does not hold it against him. |
| 1959/05/28 | Nikolai Alexandrovich Berdyaev | Destiny of Man |
Jnl 3 ('52-'60) p. 284
| A quiet morning reading in the woodshed (for the first time in seventeen years had nothing to do with the decorations). A clear, cool morning - got hot later. Reading Berdyaev's Destiny of Man which is, I think, his best book. |
| 1959/09/18 | Paul Evdokimov | femme et le salut du monde : etude d'anthropologie chretienne sur les charismes de la femme / Paul Evdokimov |
Jnl 3 ('52-'60) p. 330
| Have been reading a marvelous book of theology by the Orthodox Father Paul Evdokimov who teaches at Saint Serge in Paris. It is called La femme et le salut du monde [The Feminine and the Salvation of the World] but is in reality a whole survey of Sophianic theology. Marvelous and exciting perspectives. Here is a real theologian-one of the few. But one thing helps and encourages me above all. This line: "Reconnaître le Christ même en ceux qui en apparence luttent contre Lui, mais en realite se revoltent contre des conceptions et des valeurs faussement Chretiennes, n'estce pas là un acte Chretien des plus urgents?" ["To recognize Christ Himself in those who by appearance struggle against Him, when in reality they struggle against ideas and values which are falsely called Christian, is that not an urgent Christian task?" p. 126.] |
| 1959/09/26 | | Philokalia |
Jnl 3 ('52-'60) p. 332
| A copy of two volumes of the Philokalia sent by B. Rambusch from Athens, arrived the other day. Magnificent. I had been told it was unobtainable. A new edition - it was begun in 1957. I read it slowly and sedulously - much dictionary work. |
| 1959/12/08 | Nikolai Alexandrovich Berdyaev | Meaning of History |
Jnl 3 ('52-'60) p. 354
| Berdyaev's Meaning of History made up of lectures given in Russia right after the Revolution, before he was kicked out, is one of his most important books. The power of his prophetic insight is especially evident here. He really has the best (spiritual) understanding of the mystery of our time. At the same time sees the futility of expecting a real fulfillment in time, and yet affirms most strongly man's creative duty to respond to God in time, even though his response will in the long run be doomed to temporal failure and extinction. But it is not lost-it is recovered in eternity. He demands of man a "fervent will to miracle and (to) the organic spiritual transfiguration of life." |
| 1960/03/21 | Nadejda Gorodetzky | Humiliated Christ in Russian Thought |
Jnl 3 ('52-'60) p. 380
| Very important book-The Humiliated Christ in Russian Thought-from the Library of Congress. More and more impressed by the seminal and prophetic stuff of Russian nineteenth century. If there were something I intended to study I think it would be that. The whole 19th. century grows like a mountain behind us as we move away from it, taking on its true proportions, great, ominous, and pathetic. |
| 1960/08/17 | Fyodor Dostoyevsky | Brothers Karamazov |
Ltrs: HGL p. 138
| Yes, I too love Dostoevsky, very much. Staretz Zosima can always make me weep and a lot of the beat people in the books also. I love the little Jew in The House of the Dead (the one with the prayers, the weeping, the joy) "¦ |
| 1960/09/02 | Olivier Clement | Transfigurer le temps: notes sur le temps à la lumière de la tradition orthodoxe |
Jnl 4 ('60-'63) p. 39
| "Le Temps de l'Eglise culmine donc à la prise de conscience par chaque personne humaine que la Fin est dejà presente, que l'histoire, en Christ, est dès maintenant consommee. Car Parousie signifie non seulement avènement mais attente, non seulement attente mais presence. Le Temps de l'Eglise pour reprendre l'expression de Saint Seraphim, est celui de ‘l'acquisition du Saint Esprit.'" ["The Time of the Church therefore culminates in an awareness for each human person that the End is already present, that history, in Christ, is, from that time on, fulfilled. For Parousia means not only coming but waiting, not only waiting but presence. The Time of the Church, to use the expression of St. Seraphim, is ‘the reception of the Holy Spirit.'"] O Clement, Transfigurer les temps [Neuchâtel, 1959], p 136 This book of O. Clement is really excellent. Only now that I am in the middle do I realize that I have missed much by not reading with very close attention. A book to read twice. Few books deserve two readings! |
| 1960/09/04 | Olivier Clement | Transfigurer le temps: notes sur le temps à la lumière de la tradition orthodoxe |
Jnl 4 ('60-'63) p. 42
| The heart of Clement's book-that "fallen Tim" (le temps dechu) has no present. It is only the expression of an absence-the absence of God. Redeemed Time (le temps sauve) is concentrated in a "present moment" and born of the presence of God even in our own misery, in so far as our misery does not despair but falls into the abyss of Time, the Divine love, "une ouverture de l'humilite à la vie ressuscitee du Seigneur" ["an opening of humility to the risen life of the Lord"]. Tremendous content of this. Interesting content with French-somewhat existentialist. Very deep and true of Max Picard's Flight from God [Washington, D.C., 1951] (which is far less deep). Basis-this doctrine founded on remarkable spirituality of Sylvanus of Athos, d. 1938, who was told by Christ, "Hold thy spirit in hell and do not despair, for in condemning himself to hell and in thus destroying all passion, man liberates his heart to receive the divine love." |
| 1960/09/11 | Sophrony | Undistorted Image: Startz Silouan 1866-1938 |
Jnl 4 ('60-'63) p. 45
| The book on Staretz Sylvan by Archimandrite Sophrony [The Undistorted Image, London, 1958]-monk of Athos now in England, has a small community at Maldon in Essex. I wrote to him about his book and then Friday I found we already had it in the library. This is remarkable. We really have good librarians now!! (Esp. Fr. Sylvanus. No doubt this explains it.) |
| 1960/09/19 | Sophrony | Undistorted Image: Startz Silouan 1866-1938 |
Ltrs: SofC p. 135
| About being a monk: have you run across the splendid biography of Staretz Silouan who died on Mt. Athos in 1938? Called The Undistorted Image, by Archimandrite Sophrony, Faith Press, London. I have written to Arch. Sophrony, also an Athonite. Silouan is tremendous. Who is editing Sponsa Regis? I might do something on Silouan for them, or perhaps again not, as it might turn the nuns' heads and I would get into a hassle with everybody. Which would not be the first time. I really had to sweat blood over the essay on solitude in my new book which, if you have not seen it, I will try to get to you "¦ |
| 1961/01/22 | Paul Evdokimov | Orthodoxie |
Jnl 4 ('60-'63) p. 90
| An overwhelming statement of P[aul] Evdokimov. "Pour l'orthodoxie il ne s'agit jamais d'une soumission à une institution historique, encore moins à un pouvoir, sauf celui de l'amour. Il s'agit-et c'est ici que l'orthodoxie est absolument originale et fidèle à la Tradition apostolique-pour toute aspiration sincère à la Verite de l'embrasser et c'est cette participation à la Verite apostolique dans sa plenitude qui introduit ipso facto à la communion de l'Eglise orthodoxe." ["With regard to Orthodoxy, it is never a question of mere submission to an historical institution, much the less to any power, except that of love. It is rather a question of-and it is here that Orthodoxy is absolutely original and faithful to the Apostolic Tradition-embracing every sincere aspiration to the truth, and it is this participation in the Apostolic Truth in its fullness that inserts by that very fact someone into the communion of the Orthodox Church."] [L'Orthodoxie (Paris, 1957), p. 74] |
| 1961/01/26 | Paul Evdokimov | Orthodoxie |
Jnl 4 ('60-'63) p. 91
| Evdokimov on orthodoxy - once again, as I have so many times recently, I meet the concept of natura naturans [nature acting according to its nature] - the divine wisdom in ideal nature, the ikon of wisdom, the dancing ikon - the summit reached by so many non-Christian contemplatives (would that it were reached by a few Christians!) Summit of Vedanta? - Faith in Sophia, natura naturans, the great stabilizer today - for peace. The basic hope that people have that man will somehow not be completely destroyed is hope in natura naturans. - The dark face, the "night fac" of Sophia - pain, trouble, pestilence. |
| 1961/01/26 | Sophrony | Undistorted Image: Startz Silouan 1866-1938 |
Ltrs: HGL p. 559-60
| First of all, your book about the Staretz Silouane offers a striking example of a sanctity that is monastic, authentic and traditional, and also belongs to our time. I find there the mark of a contemporary holiness: this vision of the "dark sid" of wisdom, this hope that struggles with despair, this feeling of being in hell. This is the "dark sid" of the truth, the beauty of a wisdom which seems to be hidden in the chaotic disorder of sin. Oh, how discouraging it sometimes is to see what little good, true good, one is capable of. How false and disgusting so much conventional piety appears to be. Though the omnipresence of lies and of the Devil may frighten us, we must not surrender to tragedy. With the simplicity of the Staretz Silouane we must "keep our hearts in hell and not despair." It is not the lies we should see, but the truth with its darkened face, so like the Servant of the Lord who has no beauty, who is neither noble nor great, yet who comes forth like a shoot from the parched earth. And at the same time it is the Beauty of God who is always playing in the world before the Face of the Father. |
| 1961/07/25 | Vladimir Lossky | Theologie negative et connaissance de Dieu chez Maître Eckhart |
Ltrs: HGL p. 344
| Now, above all. Today came the Lossky book on Eckhart. It is fabulously good, and not only that but it is for me personally a book of enormous and providential importance, because I can see right away in the first chapter that I am right in the middle of the most fundamental intuition of unknowing which was the first source of my faith and has ever since been my whole life "¦ I cannot thank you enough. |
| 1961/08/27 | Vladimir Lossky | Theologie negative et connaissance de Dieu chez Maître Eckhart |
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 "¦ |
| 1962/06/00 | Nikolai Alexandrovich Berdyaev | sens de la creation : un essai de justification de l'homme / Nicolas Berdiaev ; trad. du russe par Lucienne Julien Cain ; pref. de Stanislas Fumet |
Ltrs: WtoF p. 245
| You might find interesting leads in Bouyer's new book Seat of Wisdom. And of course there is always Berdyaev "¦ His "Sense of Creation" (if that is the English title, I read it in French) is full of wild ideas, but a few good ones also. Have you by the way read Traherne's Centuries of Meditations, published recently by Harper's? He has delightful insights on this subject. As to the Scholastics, I would say try St. Bonaventure's Collationes in Haexemeron. (In general all the Patristic treatises on the work of the six days would offer interesting material.) I am on and off reading Clement of Alexandria and will try to keep you in mind if I run across more material. Then there is Gregory of Nyssa. A new collection of texts by Danielou and Musurillo should offer a few possibilities. |
| 1962/11/12 | Sergius Bolshakoff | Russian Mystics |
Ltrs: HGL p. 20-21
| I am editing and correcting a manuscript of a Russian Orthodox scholar called Bolshakoff, who is at Oxford but doesn't write very good English. It is about the Russian mystics and full of very interesting material "¦ |
| 1962/11/13 | Sergius Bolshakoff | Russian Mystics |
Ltrs: SofC p. 153
| About the Bolshakoff ms. [The Russian Mystics, later published by Cistercian Publications], only a few weeks ago I looked at it closely and saw I would have to revise it as the English is halting in places. This is quite a big job, and it took time for his letter to come back giving me permission, so I have only just begun. Consequently it will be a while before I forward the book to you. The material is really interesting and thorough; I think it will make an excellent book, if I can manage to make it more readable. I have not read the Italian version, but it seems quite good. |
| 1962/12/28 | Sergius Bolshakoff | Russian Mystics |
Ltrs: HGL p. 102
| My work with your Russian Mystics proceeds slowly as there are many other duties to be performed. I am now in the last part, where the pages are smaller and the writing is more concentrated: hence it is harder to make corrections. I am happy that the whole typescript will be gone over carefully. I am afraid that in many cases where I was trying to make the text more easily readable, I may have altered the sense. This will have to be carefully checked. Then of course someone well versed in Oriental theology will also have to correct more carefully the passages which I have left to a great extent untouched, on prayer, etc. The first half of the ms. is already in the hands of the Benedictine monks at Collegeville, who are typing it. I will send the rest along in a few weeks. Meanwhile I am giving my novices a few classes on Russian mysticism, using notes drawn from your ms. as well as from Fedotov and other sources. I think St. Seraphim is still my greatest favorite, but now I am glad to make the acquaintance of the great Startzi of Optina. I am much impressed with them, as of course I expected to be after reading The Brothers Karamazov. You should do an anthology of the writings of Optina. |
| 1963/01/29 | Sergius Bolshakoff | Russian Mystics |
Ltrs: HGL p. 103
| You will be glad to hear that I have finished all the work on the revision of your manuscript and it is now being typed. The Benedictines at Collegeville expect it to be finished within a month. They ask me where to send it, for further reading and correction? You will want to have the copy sent to you, no doubt, and then you will pass it on to someone, perhaps at Chevetogne, who can bring everything to perfection in what regards Oriental theology. Will you write to them at Collegeville and inform them of your wishes? "¦ I will write the preface and perhaps an article based on the book, when I have the typescript in my hands. I have got a very good picture of Russian mysticism from your fine work. I am especially glad to learn about Theophane the Recluse, a magnificent figure, and his spirituality appeals to me very much indeed "¦ These nineteenth-century mystics appeal to me greatly and I am indebted to you for bringing me close to them. I have spoken to my novices about them on many occasions "¦ |
| 1963/06/02 | | Way of the Pilgrim |
Ltrs: HGL p. 54
| Yes, I know the Way of the Pilgrim very well. It is a fine book. The Russian mystics are too little known. I believe that the "Jesus Prayer" has parallels with certain Sufist methods of prayer: I have read about this somewhere. I would be grateful for any information that occurs to you about Sufist ways of prayer and contemplation. |
| 1964/01/12 | Irenee Hausherr | Solitude et vie contemplative d'après l'Hesychasme |
Ltrs: SofC p. 195
| First I want to thank you for your kindness in sending me the mimeograph of P. Hausherr's study on Hesychasm. It is really excellent and I profited much by reading it. I was able to use some of the material with the novices and now I have one of the young professed translating it. We will mimeograph the English translation and I think it will do a great deal of good in our American houses. |
| 1964/04/17 | Vasilii Rozanov | Face sombre du Christ |
Jnl 5 ('63-'65) p. 97
| Reading [Vasilii] Rozanov-a new selection has come out in French. He is an important and dire voice, shocking and deeply convincing, completely opposed to the current optimisms and "humanisms," and one cannot help listening seriously to his warnings about structures which are without reservation. True, when he condemns the cosmic Joy of Dostoievsky's Zossima one need not entirely agree-and yet there is [a] point in what he says. Curious how convincing he is, how he compels assent-at least my assent-even though what he says is outrageous and exactly contrary to all the plans of Christians who have decided to convince the world that we are "nice people." |
| 1964/04/20 | Vasilii Rozanov | Face sombre du Christ |
Jnl 5 ('63-'65) p. 97-98
| Deeply impressed by Rozanov in the heat behind the woodshed. A magnificent piece of writing about [Mariano Cardinal] Rampola [del Tindaro] celebrating the offices of Good Friday in St. Peter's. But above all this: "With the birth of Christ and the spread of the Gospel, all the fruits of the earth have become bitter"¦. It is impossible not to notice that one can become enthusiastic for art, for family, for politics or science only on condition that one does not look at Christ with full attention. Gogol looked attentively at Christ and threw away his pen and died." How true and how heart-rending: yet with what art it is said. And it depends what you mean by politics. Tsarist careerism-perhaps, or any kind of Byzantine - or Washingtonian - officialism. |
| 1964/05/22 | Sergius Bolshakoff | Russian Mystics |
Ltrs: HGL p. 366
| I have been, I repeat, foolishly and perhaps scandalously busy with a lot of absurd things, not the least of which is a preface to Bolshakoff's book on the Russian mystics. The real job of that was that I had to go through his whole ms. written in longhand and in impossible English, trying to make it readable. The material is good, or at least quite interesting, but otherwise I am now I suppose an honorary Cowley Father by reason of my support of Bolshakoff. |
| 1964/12/22 | Vladimir Lossky | Vision de Dieu |
Jnl 5 ('63-'65) p. 181
| Am finally reading Vladimir Lossky's fine book La Vision de Dieu which reminds me that the best thing that has come out of the Council is the Declaration on Ecumenism, particularly the part on oriental theology. If it were a matter of choosing between "contemplation" and "eschatology" there is no question that I am, and would always be, committed entirely to the latter. Here in the hermitage, returning necessarily to beginnings, I know where my beginning was, having the Name and Godhead of Christ preached in Corpus Christi Church. I heard and believed. |
| 1965/12/01 | Paul Evdokimov | femme et le salut du monde : etude d'anthropologie chretienne sur les charismes de la femme / Paul Evdokimov |
Jnl 5 ('63-'65) p. 319-20
| When I got up it was about thirty on the porch and now at dawn it is down to twenty-one. These are the coldest hours-meditation, lectio, and hot tea with lemon and a good fire. I am reading [Paul] Evdokimov [La Femme et le salut du monde, 1958]-after tea-and then the Duino Elegies. The Elegies I am just reading, without comment, especially the German, aloud, to try to get the magnificent substance of sound and to think in the German (it is a language I can't think in, as I can French and Spanish). I will go over it again for notes later. The Leishman-Spender [James Blair Leishman and Stephen Spender] translation is the best piece of translating done for Rilke. Rilke's long wait for the Elegies sobers me not a little. |
| 1967/02/03 | John Julius Norwich | Mount Athos |
Jnl 6 ('66-'67) p. 191
| Yesterday it got cold in the afternoon. Rain, sleet, snow. I walked in the woods, came home, built a fire, made tea, read a good urbane book of Viscount [John Julius] Norwich on Athos [Mount Athos (New York, 1966)]. He thinks Athos is in hopeless shape and doomed to end completely. I suppose he is right. |
| 1967/02/06 | Irenee Hausherr | Penthos: The Doctrine of Compunction in the Christian East |
Jnl 6 ('66-'67) p. 193
| Yesterday (Sunday) was out in the woods - reading [Irenee] Hausherr's Penthos [Rome, 1944]. A nice sunny, quiet afternoon. I find I can at last relax my desperate grip on the image of M. and of her love. Obviously I still love her, but there is no point in insisting that we are still "in love," though maybe we still are, up to a point. |
| 1967/04/07 | Irenee Hausherr | Solitude et vie contemplative d'après l'Hesychasme |
Jnl 6 ('66-'67) p. 213
| Hausherr brings out the fact that Athonite Hesychasm precisely bears on solitude and anachoresis as essential for inner quiet: that the belief that one can preserve hesychia in crowds and action is reproved. |
| 1968/05/14 | priest Sylvester | Domostroy |
Jnl 7 ('67-'68) p. 100
| Lecture edifiante [edifying reading]. The Russian priest Sylvester wrote a famous book called the Domostroy. This Sylvester was the advisor of Ivan the Terrible but before he became terrible, so says the author I am reading. Domostroy seems to be the Russian equivalent of Good Housekeeping. Good Housekeeping for a Tzar whose housekeeping is not yet terrible. |
| 1968/09/21 | Vladimir Lossky | À l'Image et à la Ressemblance de Dieu |
Jnl 7 ('67-'68) p. 187-88
| "One will understand the extent to which the anthropological realities of our everyday experiences are deformed by sin and correspond little to the pure norms of the new creation which is being realized in the Church. Actually, the individual who possesses a part of nature and reserves it for himself, the subject who defines himself by opposition to all that which is not ‘I,' is not the person or hypostasis who shares nature in common with others and who exists as person in a positive relationship to other persons. Selfwill"¦ is not identical to the will of the new creation"”to the will which one finds in renouncing oneself, in the unity of the Body of Christ, wherein the canons of the Church make us recognize a common and individual will. Not the properties of an individual nature, but the unique relationship of each being with God"”a relationship by the Holy Spirit and realized in grac"”is what constitutes the uniqueness of a human person." [Note 8: Merton was reading and quoting from Vladimir Lossky (1903-1958), À I'lmage et à la Ressemblance de Dieu (Paris: Aubion-Montaigne, 1967). Cf. p.83.] |