Contemplative Prayer | 
|  | | | Title: | Contemplative Prayer | | Author: | Thomas Merton | | Publisher: | Image | | Type: | Book / Paperback | | Publication Date: | 05 February, 1971 | | ISBN / ISBN-13: | 0385092199 / 9780385092197 | | List Price: | $10.95 | | You Save: | $2.19 | | Amazon Price: | $8.76 | |
 This book is also available, brand-new, from 3rd-party marketplace sellers at Amazon.com, from $5.75. |
The HTML code below can be pasted onto your web-site, your MySpace page, or blog - or any number of similar places - to create a link to this page: If, instead of a text link, you'd like to create a link to this page which will display the book cover, if it's available, then the code below will do exactly that:
Check for the same book at these other US book sites:
• [ Abebooks ] • [ Alibris ] • [ Barnes & Noble ] • [ Half.com ] • [ Powells ] … or check UK bookstores
| Editorial Review / Publisher's Information:
Product Description
A guide to modern prayer draws on such influences as John of the Cross and Eastern desert monasticism and serves as an argument against drug-induced inner peace. Reissue. NYT.
Amazon.com Review
This little gem of a book, newly issued with a foreword from the great Vietnamese Zen teacher Thich Nhat Hanh (who knew Merton in the 1960s) beautifully distills Merton's own reading and long experience with contemplation. Written close to the end of Merton's life, this book is not so much a "how to" guide as it is a kind of contemplation of contemplation. Immersed in the "negative theology" of St. John of the Cross and others--and influenced by his deep reading in Zen--Merton here stresses that in meditation "we should not look for a 'method' or 'system,' but cultivate an 'attitude,' an 'outlook': faith, openness, attention, reverence, expectation, supplication, trust, joy." God is found in the desert of surrender: this means giving up any expectation for a particular message and "waiting on the Word of God in silence," knowing that any answer will be "his silence itself suddenly, inexplicably revealing itself to him as a word of great power, full of the voice of God." --Doug Thorpe
| Other Items You May Enjoy:
Browse Books From These Related Subjects:
Customer Reviews:
• Contemplative Prayer: Not A Gimmick But A Grace 03 January, 2008
Thomas Merton's thoughtful work on Contemplative Prayer is worthy of careful contemplation by Christians of all traditions. The chapters are brief as is the book but it contains many powerful ideas. Merton is careful to not separate contemplation from either corporate worship or service. He will have none of the false dichotomy of "spiritual" life and "earthly" life. He also avoids pointing to contemplation as a gimmick or a method for true spirituality. The highlight of the book for me came on page 112. There Merton writes, "Prayer does not blind us to the world, but it transforms our vision of the world, and makes us see it, all men and all the history of mankind, in the light of God."
I come from a different Christian tradition than Thomas Merton, but I value his insights as I seek to walk the sometimes fearful, sometimes exhilirating, sometimes inscrutable path of prayer.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A327BWDKAU99MM
• An Excellent Guide To Contemplative Prayer 15 January, 2006
Thomas Merton was a monk, and in this book he explains ways that the non-monastic can live a life of prayer. In doing so he provides exercises for the contemplative novice (like me) and warns against bad habits of prayer that are easy to fall into. Here is his explanation of the purpose of monastic prayer: "To prepare the way so that God's action may develop this 'faculty for the supernatural,' this capacity for inner illumination gy faith and by the light of wisdom, in the loving contemplation of God" (p. 45). He writes well and clearly; one need not be a monk or an academic to understand what he is teaching.
This was the first book of Merton's I ever read. I read it during a grief-filled time in my life when I felt the need of something to anchor me, to help me to pray more meaningfully, to concentrate on listening to God more than on my own verbalizing. At one point he says that he is easily distracted by many things; I realized that I had just heard my true name--Easily Distracted By Many Things--for the first time. He promised to teach "a way of keeping oneself in the presence of God and of reality, rooted in one's own inner truth" (p. 23), and he did.
The book's introduction is by Thich Nhat Hanh, a Zen Buddhist; it includes a helpful series of prayers as well.
Merton helped me to heal, and to grow from the healing, and to re-engage an often hurting world. He opened up what was to me a new practice in Christian spirituality. I recommend you read him.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A2T1FWKUP9OTSC
• Contemplative Prayer Is Spiritual Deception 28 April, 2008
If you want to learn about the spiritual deception of Contemplative Prayer, this book is good. Thomas Merton mentions his associations with Zen Buddhists and has written other books about Zen. Because I see this form of prayer creeping into the Christian church, I wanted to learn more about it, to warn others who may be deceived by Rick Warren and the Emerging Church movement that is changing the simplicity of the Gospel of Christ and recommending New Age techniques. Thomas Merton tells you how to empty your mind (meditate), but he also warns of the dangers of this and that some have had mental breakdowns while meditating. This is the last days apostasy that is mentioned in 2 Thessalonians 2:3.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A1KLG69DY7IJER
• Calling Unto Deep 26 July, 2006
Contemplative Prayer, the last book by the renowned Trappist monk Thomas Merton, is a treatise on the practice, benefits and dangers of contemplative prayer for modern day monks. Although it seems to have been written primarily for others that have devoted their lives to monastic living, the casual reader and spiritual seeker can still glean much from Merton's book. In its 19 chapters, Merton takes the reader from the desert, through the dark nights of contemplation, to the effects that such contemplation should have on the contemplative and, therefore, on the world.
Merton combines both personal insight and traditional Christian teachings on the practice of contemplative prayer; his sources include Scripture, the Desert Fathers, Patristic texts, as well as mystical writings from the Christian tradition, most notably those of St. John of the Cross. Perhaps reflecting the ecumenical spirit of the middle to late 60s that was present in the Roman Catholic Church - due in large part to Vatican II - Merton also uses various ascetic writings from the Eastern Orthodox Church, most notably excerpts from the Philokalia, which is sometimes referred to as "the Bible of Eastern Orthodox spirituality." Merton's use of sources and personal insight serve to convey a deep understanding of the practice of contemplative prayer; the reader is left feeling that (s)he is in the presence of a spiritual guide, a wise fellow seeker, and a friend.
There are two other sources that are worth pointing out although they are less obvious than the sources cited above. First, the existentialist theme that runs through the book is worth noting; Merton seems to desire to engage some of the intellectual trends of his time with his book. Albert Camus, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Gabriel Marcel are both alluded to and cited throughout the pages of this book; the idea of an "existentialist dread" of death and the darkness within the human self serve, at different times, as points of departure for Merton's teachings. Given the teachings of the urgency of the moment that both Existentialism and Christianity espouse and the unrest that was a part of life in both the United States and in the international community, such a coupling of Existentialism and Christian spirituality makes a lot of sense.
Secondly, Merton mentions at points the ground that the soul meets God on. Such an idea seems to recall the teaching of Meister Eckhart, the controversial Dominican monk and mystic of the 13th century . Merton never cites Eckhart and given the controversy surrounding the condemnation of Eckhart's, if Eckhart is a source for Merton's thought, Merton's apprehension of citing Eckhart makes sense. The parallels are worth noting, though. Yet, unlike Eckhart, Merton does not view union with God as an experience of the self dissolving into the Godhead. In fact, Merton does not at any point actually mention "union with God", but describes instead "the creative and healing work of the monk [by God]" as being "a participation in the saving death and resurrection of Christ" (26). Such language about "participation" certainly recalls the language used by the Greek Fathers when discussing union with God, a union where the Creator and the creature remain distinct but in a full, intimate communion.
Contemplative Prayer, although short, is not a light read. It calls one to look within before looking without; it is a call for self-confrontation. Each chapter - and even parts of chapters - could be read and meditated upon for days on end. This is a good thing, though, as it makes this book helpful guide for the spiritual journey.
- Reviewed by customer ID: AAKIMS08BPBLZ
• Spiritual Filth 04 January, 2009
My mother ordered this book for me in hopes that I could use it in my study on prayer. I was very thankful! After all, I'd heard the author's name many times, and I expected great things. After only a paragraph or so through the introduction I started to get a handle on the book.
For starters, anyone who is interested in prayer but also a firm believer in "sola scriptura" (only scripture)must consider this book carefully. The author gives a lot of quasi-spiritual mumbo jumbo and very little scripture on the subject. He's also very inclusive of the Eastern religions, so one can see a blending of this inner-light/meditation-consciousness business. It can be very confusing, and it's very VERY far from biblical.
Secondly, the author approaches seemingly every subject from the standpoint of "experience" and not truth (scripture). When trying to understand Christian prayer with the only Christian God, one must support his teaching with the Christian Bible.
I'm tired of reviewing, but let's just say I'll be using this book as an example of heresy existing in the church. I'm terribly sad to see it represented so highly by supposed Christians. Don't disappoint yourself with this purchase, unless you don't believe in the Bible. Stick with George Mueller or Hudson Taylor.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A2F7KRE3CVP8VB
|
