One of the most famous books ever written about a man's search for faith and peace. The Seven Storey Mountain tells of the growing restlessness of a brilliant and passionate young man, who at the age of twenty-six, takes vows in one of the most demanding Catholic orders-the Trappist monks. At the Abbey of Gethsemani, "the four walls of my new freedom," Thomas Merton struggles to withdraw from the world, but only after he has fully immersed himself...

"Begun five years after he entered the Abbey of Our Lady of Gethsemani, The Sign of Jonas offers an extraordinary view of Merton's day-to-day life in a Trappist monastery, and serves as well as a spiritual log recording the deep meaning and increasing sureness he felt in his vocation. Spanning the years 1946 to 1952, the book takes the sign of Jonas the prophet both as a symbol of resurrection and a reflection of Merton's feeling that he was traveling...

From the author of The Seven Storey Mountain, this book looks at an order of Catholic monks dating back to eleventh-century France. An examination of the roots of the Cistercian Order, founded in 1098, its development and waning, and the seventeenth-century reforms by the Abbé de Rancé which began the second flowering that continues today. Throughout, Merton illuminates the purposes of monasticism. Index; photographs.

Having embraced a life of solitude in his own hermitage, Thomas Merton finds his faith tested beyond his imagination when a visit to the hospital leads to a clandestine affair of the heart. Jolted out of his comfortable routine, Merton is forced to reassess his need for love and his commitment to celibacy and the monastic vocation. This astonishing volume traces Merton's struggle to reconcile his unexpected love with his sacred vows while continuing...

Collects significant letters from the Trappist monk, civil rights activist, and writer, offering insight into his spirituality and his quest combine to Eastern philosophy with Western spirituality.

Merton's pilgrimage to Asia, reaching out in ecumenism to Islam, Zen, Sufism, and Buddhism, but not breaking from his Christian roots.