The Seven Storey Mountain

Rating:
Summary: A catalyst to my conversion!
Review: If I could have only one spriritual book outside the bible, this is THE one! Merton put spirituality in terms I could not only understand, but could actually relate to. I was captivated by his expression of faith that transformed my understanding of christianity from the abstract to the "metaphysical". This spiritual journey touched my soul in a way that no other book has. The wisdom encountered in this work is timeless, relevant, and more important to modern humanity than at any other time before. My relationship to my God [and indeed my entrance into the Catholic church] is, in part, due to this extraordinary opus. ad mejorem dei gloriam!!

Rating:
Summary: The best introduction to Merton's immense body of work.
Review: This is a warmly personal autobiography written in a relaxed style and liberally sprinkled with Merton's wry humor, directed mostly at himself. It is a superb look at one human soul's odyssey from loneliness and self-absorption to a total surrender to God. If he occasionally goes overboard with his religious musings, he can be forgiven, as the excesses of youthful idealism usually are; anyway, it's worth noting that within just a few years of this book's publication (in 1948) his intellectual and spiritual development had advanced so much that, as far as he was concerned, the Thomas Merton of "The Seven Storey Mountain" was "dead." But the Thomas Merton revealed in these pages is very much alive and the story of his life's journey is compelling and unforgettable.

Rating:
Summary: Best Book I ever read
Review: This book was tremendous. Although I am not involved in any religion (especially the catholic church), I found this book inspiring. I could only wish for the enlightenment and serinity Thomas Merton had after he entered the Trappist Monastery. The one thing that threw me about this book was that there were to many lines in latin. There were many paragraphs that ended in some other language. I am not sure if he was only repeating the line before or if it was some terrific statement that I missed because I only know one language. I'm not quite sure. Besides that this book is excellent for people with different religious backgrounds. It was a wonderful book and I am more enlightened because of it.

Rating:
Summary: A life-changing book
Review: Seekers of spiritual truth won't find a more engrossing book. From self-proclaimed "atheist" to Trappist monk, Merton covered a fascinating time in Europe and America in his autobiography. His erudition and his conversion to Catholicism are unparalleled in journal writing. Worth reading, no matter what your religion is, but especially relevant to Catholics, who will understand the deep mysteries that beckoned to Merton during his storied life. If you're at the right stage in your life as a seeker, this book could change your life.

Rating:
Summary: boring, dead scholasticism ....
Review: This book was a best seller in the fifties-what was all the fuss about? The author comes across as an arrogant, scientifically uneducated mind. Augustine and Blake?! He should have taken the trouble to learn Newton's laws of motion. That was the whole trouble with 'classical education'. It left the resultants incompetent to discuss anything but egocentrism.

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Summary: This Work Is the Gatway to the Literary World of Fr. Merton
Review: Fr. Louis (Thomas Merton) chronicles in unimaginable detail, his (and many of our) life's challenges. Merton's message is an expression of pride for any Catholic living the faith. A man of remarkable literary talent, and the gift to translate his ability into "spriritual text", which will serve as an inspiration to anyone who believes, /or/ wishes to believe in God. This work is singularly the most influential book I have ever read.

Rating:
Summary: You don't need to be a saint to become a monk
Review: This book, which was central in my own conversion to the Roman Catholic Church, is written in the easy-going style of a "regular guy". Merton shows that one need not be a saint to enter religious life in a monastery: one only needs to be open to hearing the voice of the Lord and to following His will. I would strongly recommend this book - especially to individuals interested in entering the Catholic Church or to individuals contemplating religious life.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful reading for anyone on a spiritual journey
Review: In this autobiography, Thomas Merton tells about his spiritual development from early childhood through his first few years in a Trappist monastery. It is easily read and full of spiritual insights which will help anyone along on their own spiritual journey.

Rating:
Summary: A major influence in my life.
Review: 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

Rating:
Summary: The book I would have everyone in the world read
Review: 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.