Love and Living

Rating:
Summary: useless stuff, but earnest
Review: Phew. Judging by this book, Merton was a much better person than he was a writer. Maybe I went into this book expecting too much, but I finished the book utterly unimpressed with what it had to say. It boils down to a series of very discrete strategies for living one's life in a loving and satisfying way. I can't really ``disagree'' with it--yeah sure, ok, love is good, uh-huh--but that doesn't stop me from wishing Merton were a lot more explicit and rigorous in his prescriptions. As it stands, I don't know how anyone could possibly profit from reading this touchy-feely manifesto.

Rating:
Summary: useless stuff, but earnest
Review: Phew. Judging by this book, Merton was a much better person than he was a writer. Maybe I went into this book expecting too much, but I finished the book utterly unimpressed with what it had to say. It boils down to a series of very discrete strategies for living one's life in a loving and satisfying way. I can't really ``disagree'' with it--yeah sure, ok, love is good, uh-huh--but that doesn't stop me from wishing Merton were a lot more explicit and rigorous in his prescriptions. As it stands, I don't know how anyone could possibly profit from reading this touchy-feely manifesto.

Rating:
Summary: A Singing Master for the Soul
Review: This collection of some of Mertons mature work from the 1960's covers, in essay form, meditations on love, life, death, Christian Humanism and more (you want more! ), always given the penetrating and broad social perspective of one very spiritual master, who chose to share with us. Still relevant.