Face to Face: the Growth of the Self in Thomas Merton
Susanne Caroline Rose Jennings
University of Cambridge , United Kingdomhttps://orcid.org/0000-0001-5179-681X
Abstract
The late Trappist monk and prolific author, Thomas Merton was intensely concerned with the self – or to be more precise, with a desire to break free from the tyranny of the self he took to be his identity. His early years in France and England were marked by a sense of loss and dislocation. After leaving Cambridge for Columbia, his subsequent life in America and decision to be baptised a Catholic at the age of 23 eventually led to his taking vows as a Cistercian monk. Given the name Frater Louis, the ‘world’ with all its temptations and unresolved issues had been left safely behind along with his old identity. Or so he thought. In fact, Merton’s years as a Trappist would lead to a best-selling autobiography written under obedience to his abbot with many more books to follow. Compared at the time of its publication to St Augustine’s Confessions, it would lead to his international renown as Thomas Merton. He voiced his disquiet over what he called ‘this shadow, this double, this writer who […] followed me into the cloister … I cannot lose him.’
In time, Merton came to the realisation through lived experience and his voracious reading of the Bible, St Augustine, the mystics, the individuation process propounded by Jung, Zen Buddhism and others that the ‘self’ he was trying to escape was, in fact, largely a ‘false’ self driven by the ego. This paper traces Merton’s journey from the that self to the authentic self which is found in God, in transcendence. Obsession with ‘the self’ as understood in the 21st century makes a study of Merton’s path to selfhood that much more vital. The advent of the ‘Selfie’, the self-promotion that social media affords and the examples of narcissistic individuals in positions of power gives the lie to lives where self-consciousness is confused with self-realisation. Nothing, as Merton discovered, could be further from the truth.
Keywords:
Self Identity, Reality, Illusion, Monasticism, Christianity, Zen, Buddihism, Jungian PsychologyReferences
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University of Cambridge
Susanne Jennings read Theology at the University of Cambridge. Having undertaken research degrees at two theological institutes in Cambridge - i.e., the Roman Catholic Margaret Beaufort Institute of Theology and the Woolf Institute which is focused on the Abrahamic faiths – Susanne has written extensively on aspects of interfaith dialogue and on the late Trappist monk and author, Thomas Merton. Current and past work has included teaching introductory day courses in London on Judaism and the Abrahamic faiths and acting as a tutor in Religious Studies and English Literature. Previously, Susanne acted as an academic tutor, mentor and examiner for the Maryvale Ponitifical Institute. She has also worked for the Roman Catholic Diocese of East Anglia with special responsibility for adult religious education, liturgy and interfaith work. The latter included the design, teaching and delivery of courses based on the Books of Job, Ruth and Genesis and special responsibility for services for Holocaust Memorial Day which drew academic speakers from Cambridge, as well as hosting forums for the furtherance of Christian & Islamic dialogue. More recently, Susanne has written in an interfaith context on Abraham Joshua Heschel and Thomas Merton and given conference papers. In 2015, she gave a paper at the International Thomas Merton Society’s 100th Anniversary Conference in Louisville, Kentucky at which Rowan Williams was the key speaker. Her paper focused on Thomas Merton’s engagement with Jewish and Islamic religious figures and was published as an article in the Dominican journal, ‘Doctrine & Life’. She currently works at St Edmund’s College, University of Cambridge and is also collaborating on a Jewish-Christian course book.
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