{"product_id":"9781466802933","title":"Survival or Prophecy?: The Letters of Thomas Merton and Jean LeClercq","description":"\u003cp\u003eIntroduction by Archbishop Rembert G. Weakland.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eTwo monks in conversation about the meaning of life and the nature of solitude.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThomas Merton, the American Trappist monk who wrote \u003ci\u003eThe Seven Storey Mountain\u003c\/i\u003e, spent his entire literary career (1948- 68) in a cloistered monastery in Kentucky. His great counterpart, the French Benedictine monk Jean Leclercq, spent those years traveling relentlessly to and from monasteries worldwide, trying to bring about a long-needed reform and renewal of Catholic religious life. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTheir correspondence over twenty years is a fascinating record of the common yearnings of two ambitious, holy men. \"What is a monk?\" is the question at the center of their correspondence, and in these 120 letters they answer it with great aplomb, touching on the role of ancient texts and modern conveniences; the advantages of hermit life and community life; the fierce Catholicism of the monastic past and the new openness to the approaches of other traditions; the monastery's impulse toward survival and the monk's calling to prophecy. Full of learning, human insight, and self-deprecating wit, these letters capture the excitement of the Catholic Church during the run-up to the Second Vatican Council, full of wisdom, full of promise.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Farrar, Straus and Giroux","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47129433538800,"sku":"9781466802933","price":7.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781466802933_p0.jpg?v=1769890808","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781466802933","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}