Publication Date:October 4, 1999 Shipping:Eligible for Super Saver Shipping Promotion:Save $10.00 when you spend $50.00 or more on Qualifying Items offered by Amazon.com. Enter code BMLSAVES at checkout.Terms and Conditions Availability:Usually ships in 24 hours
A major influence in my life.May 14, 1998 7 out of 9 found this review helpful
The Seven Storey Mountain by Thomas Merton has had a profound influence in my life. I read this book in 1985 and has been one of the best books I have read, not for its literary quality, but for the impact it has had in my life. This book is an autobiographical account of Merton, and his life upon entering a Trappist monestary in Kentucy. The author's account of his life and conversion moved me enough to persue a life in ordained ministry in the Catholic Church. I continue to recomend this book to anyone seeking his or her vocation in life. Fr. Daniel Kelley Diocese of Fort Worth
The book I would have everyone in the world readJanuary 11, 1998 5 out of 6 found this review helpful
This book has changed the way I think. The insights I gained from it (e.g., selfishness is the root of all sin and the only thing that separates a person from God) have clarified so much of my religion and what it means to find God. What strikes me in this and in his other writings is that he is one of those all too rare writers who clearly knows what it means to be a Catholic in the twentieth century: how to apply this 2000-year old world-view to an era in which it is taken for granted that such a view does not apply (see his later essays on race relations and nuclear war for further striking proof of this). His disdain for affected piety, the gloomy, medieval phrasing of the transliterated French in penny catechisms with which most adult Catholics are very familiar, is all the more refreshing because he does not react to it by abandoning or smoothing over any Catholic doctrines (though his later concern for ecumenism has yet to develop). While few converts since Newman have been so eloquent, his view of the Church is typical of a convert, one who has accepted it of his own accord, having grown to see its beauty from a distance. But most of all, having lived in 20th century America to the full (ahem), he combines this appreciation of the Church with a deep understanding of the way the average North American thinks today. His humour, which liberally seasons the book, has such an ironic and often biting tone that you are surprised to be reading a Trappist monk and not a syndicated columnist. His writing style alone could be studied in depth, as the descriptive passages of his youth are among the most beautiful you may ever read. And yet it is the substance of the book that makes it the greatest spiritual autobiography of this century: what it means to discard the unbelievable materialism of our times, to treat his religion as a matter of great moment and urgency rather than as a mere intellectual exercise, source of endless polemical debate or self-esteem builder. All the terms that easily become cliched by overuse and provoke fear, ridicule or despondent skepticism ("grace", "contemplation", "penance", etc.) are injected with heartfelt, vibrant meaning in this book; meaning that has been experienced in the confusion and banality of our culture, and not coldly described in the abstract. Anyone who does not understand Catholicism (or thinks that they do), how it can be vigorously applied to twentieth century life, or knows no one who can demonstrate the full meaningfulness of it to them, should read this book and his later (1960s) essays.
A deeply absorbing book in parts,less than superb in others.February 16, 1997 4 out of 4 found this review helpful
This is a great book for the first time Merton reader. The complete context of a life fought out on the spiritual plane, replete with stunning lapses into the secular world, permeate this book. We learn of Merton's early life, his father the painter, his mother the reticent matron who is not overly convinced of the devoutness of his devotion, who at times fears and does not understand him. Their idyllic existence in France, spotted by the failed relationship of his grandparents, who suffer each other like a crown of thorns, serves to move him away from family into the arms of intellectual pursuits at Eastern universities, where he does and does not fit in, depending upon his spiritual mood. He flails about the rectory of faith like a large mouth bass on a ten pound test line. Straining mightily torward the trappings of intellectual success, only to find it vague and empty. Fullness for Merton hinges on the rightness of faith within the mighty structure (and constricture) of the Catholic Church. Protestantism leaves him weak and he feels no righteousness in it. Only when conversing with the hierarchy of saints or humming tunes to the Divine Mother does he find the certainty he so desperately seeks. It is a courageous attempt of one man to lay bare the struggle of his spiritual life. A struggle he chooses to resolve in cloister, surrounded by what passes for religious structure. His brother's unexpected conversion to Catholicism and resultant death in a war Merton seeks to avoid serves to deepen his faith and devotion to the Catholic system. Merton's honesty in his writing is refreshing and smacks of truth. If one looks past his obvious prejudice that salvation in its purest form only lies within the Catholic framework, the book becomes a fascinating document of one man's difficult journey navigating through life's mysteries to arrive at conclusions he believes pleasing to God and himself: life as a Trappist monk. Merton has done his job well and this writing deserves a discerning look for the most part. A good autobiographical read, deeply reflective and sincere. Worth the effort, even if it falls a little short in some lengthy sections devoted to secular, biographical observations which do not really add to the depth of understanding Merton's battles within himself.
