Thomas Merton and Karl Barth both died on December 10, 1968. I'm not sure what personal connection this monk and theologian had in life. Merton was obviously very familiar with Barth's work and certainly devotes considerable ink to writing about Barth, the opening chapter of "Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander" is titled "Barth's Dream", but I don't know if he ever wrote to Barth.In any event they share a significant date of passage and are featured together in an article in the December 20, 1968 edition of TIME.
The Death of Two Extraordinary Christians
"One was a Protestant theologian who labored quietly in university towns of Switzerland and Germany for half a century. The other was a Roman Catholic monk who worked hermitlike on his writings in the hills of central Kentucky. But while Karl Barth gave his life to scholarship and Thomas Merton to contemplation, both men were Christian activists who found in the Word a command to do. Barth stood courageously against Nazi totalitarianism. Merton drove himself endlessly in championing the cause of the poor and oppressed. On their journey toward their deaths last week, each brought to his age, and to his fellow man, a message of love that was ardently Christian." TIME read more...
TTFN... Rob
"Fear not, Karl Barth! Trust in the divine mercy. Though you have grown up to become a theologian, Christ remains a child in you. Your books (and mine) matter less than we might think! There is in us a Mozart who will be our salvation." Thomas Merton CGB p.12
No comments:
Post a Comment