xt7ghx15qv5n https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt7ghx15qv5n/data/mets.xml  Thomas Merton 1954-10-02 This letter is from collection 75m28 Thomas Merton papers. archival material 75m28 English  Contact the Special Collections Research Center for information regarding rights and use of this collection. Thomas Merton correspondence Letter from Thomas Merton to Dr. Erich Fromm, October 2, 1954 text Letter from Thomas Merton to Dr. Erich Fromm, October 2, 1954 1954 1954-10-02 2023 true xt7ghx15qv5n section xt7ghx15qv5n Oct. 2,1954

Dear Dr Fromm:

Some time ago when I ms reading your Psychoanalysis and Religion
I thought I would write yon a letter. Now that I an in the middle of
Egg £9; Himself and am hoping to get Escang from Freedom, I think I
shall put a few of my thoughts on paper and send them to you.

The chief reason for my writing is that since discovering Karen
Horney I have been revaluating my originally rather premature judgement
of psychoanalysis. Now that I am in contact with what is best in the
field at the moment, I would like to say that I notice a profound
agreement between the psychoanalyst and the Catholic priest on some
very fundamental points. I believe that this agreement ought to be
noticed and emphasized, because I feel that our two vocations in a sense
Co plete and assist one another. I also feel that there is much in
Christian tradition that fits in very well with the general tendency
of writers like Horney and yourself. \

The reason for this is that Christianity is fundamentally humanis-
tic in the sense! that its chief task is to enable man to achieve his
de tiny; to find himself to he himself: to be the person he is made to
become. Man is supposed to be'God's helper in the work of creating
himself. Qei Bfilflifltfifi figmgg.salvation is no passive thing. Nor is it
an absorption of man into a kind of nonentity before the face of God.

It is the elevation and divinization of man's freedom. And the Christian
life demands that man be fully conscious of his freedom and of the res-
ponsibility it imphies. I am in full agreement with your basic thesis

on the humanistic conscience. I also observe with satisfaction that you
emphasize the mystical element in religion. In fact, Christian humanism
and Christian mysticism coincide. "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there
is liberty".

At a time like the present, when over vast areas of the earth
systems of thought and government are tending to the complete debase—
ment of man's fundamental dignity as the image of God, it seems to me
important that all who take to heart the value and the nobility of the
human spirit should realize their solidarity with one another, and should
be able to communicate with one another in every way, in spite of perhaps
grave doctrinal divergences. I know indeed that in France Catholicism
and psychoanalysis are not now considered to be in.any way mutually
exclusive. In fact there are priests who are practicing psyxchoanalysts-
though this should not be regarded as normal. There are congresses in
which the priest and the analyst join in giving papers and conducting
discussions that further the spiritual life of Christians. I believe the
there is an association of priests in this country interested in psy-
chiatry, but I do notnknow any of them.

As spiritual director of some thirty young monks in this Trappist
monastery-- monks in the crucial period of their formation, who have
been in the monastery between two and six years,-- I fully realize the
wisdom of what you have to say about types of conscience and modes of
conscience formation and malformation. You can well realize that I mm
into all kinds of difficulties and problems precisely where an "authori-
tarian" conscience is allowed to have its Way. It is pitiful to see the
‘harm that can be done in potentially fine monks by the pettiness and

 

 formalism they can get into as a resxlt of making their whole life
depend entirely on the approval of another.

If you have read the Rule of St Denedict you can realize that I
seem to be ‘eced with an insoluble problem. But I donot thi 12h the
position is as bad as that. It is true that t}1e Rule of St enedict
presupposes a long period of formation in wh ich the wholeSpiritual
life is sunzmed up in the two words "rhedience" and "humility". I i—znow
that it is also true that men who are in your terninolog y "out oritatiuns'
can wreak havoc on themselves and others by a narrow and absol ute vieW
of What St J’enedict means. Obedience for its own sake, huWility for its
own sake. However, familiar as I am with ancient monastic tradition,

I am canVIInced that it is pos siole to take the true benedicti.ne idea

just as it stands and Wale it the f