Thomas MERTON. Cistercian Fathers and Forefathers: Essays and Conferences. Edited by Patrick F. O’Connell. Hyde Park, New York: New City Press, 2018. Pp. 470. $34.95 pb. ISBN 978-1-56548-671-3. Reviewed by Bernadette MCNARY-ZAK, Rhodes College, Memphis, TN 38112.

Thomas Merton served as Novice Master at the Abbey of Gethsemani from 1955-1965. In this role, Merton was responsible for the formal monastic education of the newest members of the community. Typically, Merton’s instruction occurred in the form of a monastic conference. Merton prepared his conferences in advance and delivered them in a dialogic style. Merton’s corpus of conferences reflects his pedagogical aims and ideas about monastic formation. Furthermore, the corpus covers a range of topics including the monastic vows, monastic spirituality, and contemporary issues related to monastic life and practice. Since Merton’s death, many of the conferences have been transcribed, organized, and published around a central theme.Cistercian Fathers and Forefathers makes a welcome and substantialaddition to this body of scholarship. Featuring a selection of those conferences and essays focused directly on a group of monastic thinkers from the 11C-13C, this book reflects Merton’s intellectual engagement with these predecessors and their works.

The book has a clear structure. Following a brief foreword by Michael Casagram, OCSO, the Prior of the Abbey of Gethsemani, O’Connell introduces readers to the monastic thinkers included: three monastic figures whose lives preceded the founding of the Cistercian Order (Peter Damian, Anselm of Canterbury, and Guigo the Carthusian) and four early Cistercian figures whose efforts shaped the origin and growth of the Order (Guerric of Igny, Aelred of Rievaulx, Isaac of Stella, and Adam of Perseigne). O’Connell’s introduction functions as a useful guide for reading because it attends well to the changing contours of social and historical contexts of these thinkers.Since O’Connell also situates each thinker in the explicit context of Merton’s evolving ideas about monasticism, the reader is given a treasured opportunity to consider how Merton approached and evaluated their teachings.

Merton’s own concerns about monastic identity and monastic community resonate across the conferences and essays as he meets and presents these thinkers first as fellow monks and then as monastic reformers; he emphasizes that their leadership emerges from their spiritual practice. This is evident, for example, in Merton’s prioritizing of Peter Damian as an ascetic (29), of Anselm of Canterbury as a person (54), and of the monks at Rievaulx as biblical exegetes (286). It also appears when Merton offers a contextualized interpretation of a medieval analogy or symbol in a thinker’s work by referring to details about daily life and local custom (60-61, 424) or scientific knowledge and advancement (406-407). Merton’s instruction consistently draws connections between the past and the present, at times for the purpose of clarification (372-373), critique (38), example (425), or ecumenical orientation (120-121, 385).

Merton’s conferences and essays remain a rich resource for scholars and interested readers. These works, like those of the thinkers Merton addresses in Cistercian Fathers and Forefathers, are notable for the depth and caliber of their theological reflection and practical insight. Given its accessible style, particular focus, and strong content,Cistercian Fathers and Forefathers promises to broaden our current understanding of how monastic history is told, written, and remembered.