Living Wittily: Thomas Merton on the humility of the theologian who dares to write about God

« Denominational amnesia and loss of convictional integrity | Main | Walter Brueggemann - Bible teacher, man of prayer, spiritual upstart. »

November 20, 2009

Thomas Merton on the humility of the theologian who dares to write about God

I wish I could write better out of respect for God, who gave me these small and very usual and familiar and unstartling and generous graces...

But if I am humble I will write better just by being humble. By being humble, I will write what is true, simply - and the simple truth is never rubbish and never scandalous - except to people in peculiar perplexities of pride themselves...

May I write simply and straight anything I ever have to write, that no dishonour come to God through my writing about Him.

Thomas Merton, quoted in Michael Mott, The Seven Mountains of Thomas Merton (London: Sheldon, 1986), 191

Posted at 06:21 AM in Christian Spirituality, Theology, Words worth sharing | Permalink

Comments

Verify your Comment

Previewing your Comment

Posted by: |

This is only a preview. Your comment has not yet been posted.

Your comment could not be posted. Error type:

Your comment has been saved. Comments are moderated and will not appear until approved by the author. Post another comment

The letters and numbers you entered did not match the image. Please try again.

As a final step before posting your comment, enter the letters and numbers you see in the image below. This prevents automated programs from posting comments.

Having trouble reading this image? View an alternate.