托马斯·默顿

托马斯·默顿（英语：Thomas Merton；1915年1月31日—1968年12月10日），是美国的天主教作家和神秘主义者。他是肯塔基州的盖斯塞曼尼修道院的苦修士，他也是一个诗人，社会活动家和比较宗教学的学习者。1949年，他被任命为神父，并给予了名字神父路易斯。

默顿著有超过70本书，主要是关于精神，社会正义及和平主义，以及一些散文和评论。默顿的最著名的作品是他的畅销自传的《七重山》（1948）， 此书还被《国民评论》评为本世纪100本最佳非小说类书籍之列。默顿是宗教之间相互理解的的积极支持者。他开创了和杰出的亚洲精神人物的对话，包括达赖喇嘛，日本作家铃木大拙，泰国僧人佛使比丘，和越南僧人一行禅师，并撰写了关于禅宗佛教，道教书籍。

Thomas Merton (January 31, 1915 – December 10, 1968), religious name M. Louis, was an American Trappist monk, Catholic priest, theologian, mystic, poet, and writer. He was a professed member of the Abbey of Our Lady of Gethsemani, near Bardstown, Kentucky, living there from 1941 to his death.

Merton wrote more than 50 books in a period of 27 years, on subjects including spirituality, Christian contemplation, prayer, monastic life, social justice, and pacifism, as well as scores of essays and reviews. Among Merton's most widely-read works is his bestselling autobiography The Seven Storey Mountain (1948).

Merton was a keen proponent of interfaith understanding, exploring Eastern religions through study and engagement. He pioneered dialogue with prominent Asian spiritual figures.

Early life

Thomas Merton was born in Prades, Pyrénées-Orientales, France, on January 31, 1915, to parents of Welsh origin: Owen Merton, a New Zealand painter active in Europe and the United States, and Ruth Jenkins Merton, an American Quaker and artist. They had met at a painting school in Paris. He was baptized in the Church of England, in accordance with his father's wishes. Merton's father was often absent during his son's childhood.

During World War I, in August 1915, the Merton family left France for the United States. They lived first with Ruth's parents in Queens, New York, and then settled near them in Douglaston. In 1917, the family moved into an old house in Flushing, Queens, where Merton's brother, John Paul, was born on November 2, 1918. The family was considering returning to France when Ruth was diagnosed with stomach cancer. She died from it on October 21, 1921, in Bellevue Hospital. Merton was six years old and his brother not yet three.

In 1926, when Merton was eleven, his father enrolled him in a boys' boarding school in Montauban, the Lycée Ingres. In the summer of 1928, he withdrew Merton from Lycée Ingres, saying the family was moving to England.

College

In October 1933, Merton, age 18, entered Clare College, Cambridge, as an undergraduate to study French and Italian. He was unhappy at Clare College, preferring loafing over studying, and fathered a child whom he never met, although he later signed at least two official court documents stating that he had "no children".

In January 1935, Merton enrolled as a sophomore at Columbia University in New York City. There he established close and long-lasting friendships with the painter Ad Reinhardt, poet Robert Lax, commentator Ralph de Toledano, and the law student John Slate. He also befriended the publisher Robert Giroux. Merton attended an 18th-century English literature course during the spring semester taught by Mark Van Doren, a professor with whom he maintained a lifetime friendship. At Columbia, he joined the Alpha Delta Phi fraternity and the Philolexian Society.

In January 1938, Merton graduated from Columbia with a B.A. in English. In June, his friend Seymour Freedgood arranged a meeting with Mahanambrata Brahmachari, a Hindu monk visiting New York from the University of Chicago. Merton was impressed by him. While Merton expected Brahmachari to recommend Hinduism, instead he advised Merton to reconnect with Christianity. He suggested Merton read the Confessions of Augustine and The Imitation of Christ. Merton read them both. In August 1938, he attended Mass at Corpus Christi Church, located near the Columbia campus. He began to read more extensively in Catholicism.

On November 16, 1938, Thomas Merton underwent the rite of confirmation at Corpus Christi Church and received Holy Communion. On February 22, 1939, Merton received his M.A. in English from Columbia University. Merton decided he would pursue his PhD at Columbia and moved from Douglaston to Greenwich Village. He then discerned a call to religious life.