Obscure and Ironic - another take on spirituality

One of Thomas Merton's most powerful and idiosyncratic books, Raids on the Unspeakable, offers an approach to 'spirituality' that challenges some of its complacent modern manifestations. It is a collection of reflections in different genres and the original edition separates each reflection by one of Merton's brush and ink 'calligraphies'. For some reason, the UK version from Burns and Oates left these remarkable marks out... In the prologue, addressed to the book itself, Merton advocates an awareness, a set of insights that are 'obscure and ironic' rather than a set of answers. He is suspicious of offering a programme to solve everything (or anything!) and offers instead a possibility of 'wakefulness'.

Among the reflections is a piece called Atlas and the Fatman which juxtaposes the illusory and controlling persona of modernity's destructiveness with the silent, creative goodness of Atlas, who brings forth life with his gently sounding bell and oceanic light. It is an emotionally charged piece of writing in a mythological mode that exposes the calculating Fatman with his systems and calls for a life-giving awareness of Atlas whose justice and freedom is seen in nameless nature: 'Every plant that stands in the light of the sun is a saint and an outlaw.' One particularly demanding passage describes the 'logical' outworking of Fatman's hubris in the gas chambers.

This writing offers an approach to spirituality that pungent, troubling, prophetic and poetic. It is by no means devoid of hope, but that hope is not easily won or cheaply bought. I might dare to contrast this with some contemporary approaches to spirituality that seem perilously close to Marx's warnings about opiates - a quick chill-out on a soft mat that patches us up for long enough to resume our place in consumption's mechanism. In a nice little twist, we can even package the spirituality as a 'lifestyle product' thus freeing us from the inconvenience of having to set aside our consumption even for a moment.

Atlas and the Fatman is a cautionary tale that reminds us that spirituality without justice is a dangerous thing. Awakened spirituality with justice has a power that resonates with the very power of creation itself. Atlas, come to our aid!

Comments

[robert]

I would like to read some of Thomas Merton's thoughts, which of his published works would you suggest reading first?

[John McLuckie]

A tough call! There is an excellent selection of his work edited by a notable Merton scholar, Christine Bochen. It's in the Modern Spiritual Masters Series published by Orbis (Thomas Merton Essential Writings). For his own stand-alone works, I'd probably go for New Seeds of Contemplation, Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander or one of the compilations of his journals (The Intimate Merton) or letters (Thomas Merton, A Life in Letters).

[robert]

Thanks for that! I think it's time for a quick visit to AMAZON....