In the Belly of a Paradox; A Celebration of Contradictions in the Thought of Thomas Merton

by Parker J. Palmer, Henri J. M. Nouwen (Introduction)

Overview

Parker Palmer, whose own life is so full of creative contradictions, has found in Merton a brother whose inconsistencies and irregularities invite us to enter them deeply and to discover there, beyond all contradictions, the One who cannot be caught, grasped, or understood but only intuited and recognized with a smile. Parker Palmer knows Merton well because he has an affinity with him. Parker has done many things people do who want to “make it” in the world. But somewhere and somehow he became as crazy as Merton.

Parker must have loved Merton as much as he studied him, and must have understood Merton long before he had worked his way through Merton’s bibliography. This essay is short, fresh, and obviously written with a twinkle in the eye. And the greatest surprise of all is that it not only leads us closer to the spirit of Merton, but closer to Him in whose service Merton juggled contradiction and paradox.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940148270782
Publisher:	Pendle Hill Publications
Publication date:	02/19/2014
Series:	Pendle Hill Pamphlets , #224
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	30
Sales rank:	997,807
File size:	124 KB

About the Author

Parker J. Palmer (1939- ) was born in Chicago, Illinois. He studied at Carleton College, spent a year at Union Theological Seminary. He received his Ph.D. in sociology from the University of California at Berkeley in the late sixties, and then spent five years in Washington, D.C., working in community organization. During that time he began to read Thomas Merton. Raised a Protestant, Parker found in the writings of this Trappist monk something his own tradition had not stressed: the centrality of contemplation in a life of action. A desire to learn more about contemplative action is part of what led the Palmers to Pendle Hill and to an exploration of Quaker faith and practice.
While at Pendle Hill (1974-1985) in various capacities – student, dean, teacher and writer in residence – he explored both Quakerism and community life. He learned to teach in new ways, described in a small pamphlet: Meeting for Learning, which emphasizes taking others seriously and relating to each other in a community setting.

He has since served as senior fellow for the American Association of Higher Education, and is founder and senior partner of the Center for Courage and Renewal. His many books include Let Your Life Speak (1999), Courage to Teach (2007), and A Hidden Wholeness (2009), a guide for professionals who seek to rejoin soul and role in their private and public lives.