Peace In The Post-christian Era

Rating:
Summary: Anti-War Treatise from 1962 Works Today
Review: This new work on Cold War politics was intended for publication in 1962. The story behind Thomas Merton's struggles with censorship within his Trappist community and the Church is told in 50-some pages of introductory material. That's interesting background, especially for those unfamiliar with Merton's life and work, but more fascinating is the ease with which one can apply his thoughts on peace in the sixties to war in 2004. Addressing nuclear war, Merton points out that the question is not what is going to happen to us but what are we going to do "and more cogently, What are our real intentions?" Of political slogans applied to issues of war, Merton says "poorly understood and emotionally loaded cliches can do enormous harm..."

For Merton, war was "the `rider of the red horse' who is sent to prepare the destruction of the world (Rev 6:4) for `he has received power to take away peace from the earth and to make them all kill one another, and he has received a great sword.'"