Merton, Mercuse and Monasticism: Critical Dialogues on Love and Religious Diversity

Despite the fact that Thomas Merton was so active in corresponding and supporting peace activists and those involved in inter-faith dialogue he was a member of the Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance (Trappists) and had lived as a contemplative monk at the Abbey of Gethsemani in Kentucky for twenty seven years. His last lecture delivered in Bangkok was on the contribution of the Marxist thinker Herbert Marcuse and its Marxist contribution to the renewal of monasticism. This intriguing lecture, not fashionable any longer after the end of Marxist regimes in Eastern Europe, was rather important and constitutes the subject of this work.