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The distinctive prophetic quality of Thomas Merton’s spirituality, shaped by figures ranging from the Hebrew prophets to Thich Nhat Hanh, emerges from this fresh examination of the works Merton read, responded to, and celebrated in his own writing.
In the School of Prophets examines the final decade of Merton’s life, mainly through the lens of his journals and letters, and helps to fill a gap in contemporary Merton studies. William Blake and various Latin American poets; novelists Boris Pasternak, Albert Camus, and William Faulkner; existentialists Søren Kierkegaard and Gabriel Marcel; monks of the Egyptian desert; and Bernard of Clairvaux number among those who helped shape Merton’s prophetic consciousness, leading him to reexamine what it means to be both a human being and a contemplative monk of the twentieth century.
Ephrem Arcement, OSB, is a monk of St. Joseph Abbey in Louisiana. He earned his PhD in spirituality from The Catholic University of America, Washington, DC, and currently teaches courses in Scripture and spirituality at St. Joseph Seminary College. His first book, Intimacy in Prayer: Wisdom from Bernard of Clairvaux, appeared in 2013.
