The New Man

Rating:
Summary: Interesting frames...
Review: Apart from other theological musings, Merton develops rather profound thought, namely that "Christianity is not the religion of a law but the religion of a person." (page 181 of paperback edition).

The philosophical consequences of such move are profound, since the whole focus shifts from the logic of intellectual pursuit of knowledge to the mystical endeavour towards Truth by love.

Being an atheist, I do not quite understand how presented approach could be in any real sense satisfying to the human mind. However, Merton's analysis renders interesting feedback on assumptions, presuppostions and mechanics of the religius mind. I feel like the outcome of Merton's writing is much more than satisfaction of his artistic ambition. The author seems to be congruent about what has been written, which makes it even more interesting.

Rating:
Summary: A masterpiece of spiritual thought
Review: This book might truly change your view of life because it leads you to examine the deepest parts of your soul. In plain language that's very easy to follow, Merton describes how we can abandon our self-absorbed lives and then discover again our true selves in Jesus Christ. It is a book about the transforming power of God, and although it is deeply spiritual in tone and theme, it is highly logical and straightforward in style and structure. Merton hopes to lead us to transformation and salvation not through fear or blind hope, but by persuasion.

Rating:
Summary: The Image Of God in the New Man
Review: Thomas Merton Writings:
Merton, who had a unique gift of a probing intellect, absorbed various human cultures since his early childhood in Prades. He digested a wide spectrum of knowledge during his study in Cambridge and Columbia and later when he adopted Trappist monastic vocation, delved into a very different environment. He synthesized his global cultural heritage and Cistercian piety into dozens of literary, mystical and inspiring Christian books (ca 50), articles, and lectures written from his cell at Gethsemani abbey, Kentucky.

The New Man:
This is Merton's Patristic theology debut, he approached a theological exposition of the monastic tradition and thought, so fundamentally important although it did not get the attention it deserves. The New Man shows Thomas Merton at the ripe of his spiritual powers and has as its theme the question of spiritual identity. Merton's meditative interpretation of the Bible can be met throughout his essay on the history of fall and theology of redemption. Reading such experience of the mystical transformation in which we will be perfectly conformed to the likeness of Christ, involves the kenosis / theosis way of the desert fathers. We will become 'the New Man' who is the Christ, the new Adam. Salvation, rightly understood and genuinely experienced, is to realize that we are shaped in God's image and created for fellowship with the Living and Loving Creator. This process promises not only self-discovery but also self-realization.
To reach one's 'real self' one must, in fact, be delivered by grace from the illusionary and falsely created self, corrupted by our selfish habits and self deceit.

Life, death, and identity:
What must we do to recover possession of our true selves? Merton discusses how we became strangers to our inner selves by our dependence on outward recognition and material success. Life and death are at war within us. As soon as we are born, we begin at the same time to live and die. Even though we may not be even slightly aware of it, this battle of life and death goes on in us inexorably and without mercy......, instructed by the Spirit Who alone can tell us the secret of our individual destiny, man begins to know God as he knows his own self. The night of faith has brought us into contact with the Object of all faith, not as an object but as a person Who is the center and life of our own being, at once. His own transcendent Self and the immanent source of our own identity and life. ( Opening and closing paragraphs)

Sample Quotations:
Promethean theology: The longing of the restless spirit of man, seeking to transcend itself by its own powers, is symbolized by the need to scale the impossible mountain and find there what is after all our own. ... The great error of Promethean mysticism is that it takes no account of anyone but the self.

Spirit in bondage: The image of God is brought to life in us when it brakes free from the shroud and the tomb in which our self consciousness had kept it prisoner, and loses itself in total consciousness of Him Who is holy. This is one of the main ways in which "he that would save his life will loose it." (Luke 9:24)