Thomas Merton: Opening the Bible
Written on the original Movable Type site and recovered from the Internet Archive.
Caution, if even the thought of any sort of religion or faith gives you the creeps, stop reading now.
I am not now, nor have I ever been a right wing religious ideologue. Haven’t ever read the bible from cover to cover. I do hear verses most sundays in Catholic church, but much of it passes over me. My brother gave me Thomas Merton, Opening the Bible
Why bother to read the bible? Why is it still the best selling book every year around the world? How should one read it? Like a work of fiction? What are the main challenges with reading it? What are it’s questions? Why is it so hard to read? All this and more in this very thoughtful slim volume from Thomas Merton. Thomas Merton is one of the greatest thinkers of all time. Even if you have never bothered to read the bible or even slightly despised anyone who would bother, you should read Merton’s little book of thoughts. At least after reading it you can go back to TV, movies and your video games with the comfort that you actually made an active decision to NOT face any of the issues that the bible deals with (basically who are you and why are you here). You can go back to all the comfortable distractions that never put any stress on your brain or soul. Me? I like hard problems to solve. I like thinking about things that I don’t have the answers for. Even some things for which there may not be answers. It gets me out of bed in the morning.