Mysticism, Inter-Spirituality, and Multiple Religious Belonging

Thomas Merton was a pioneer in interreligious dialogue and interspirituality, engaging in years of correspondence with practitioners from Buddhist, Muslim, Hindu, Jewish, Indigenous and other religious traditions. His extended dialogue with Zen writer D.T. Suzuki was published in Merton's Zen and the Birds of Appetite, and many of Merton's final days in Asia were spent with Tibetan monks and other Buddhist practitioners. Yet, Richard King and others have argued that despite Suzuki's warm reception in the West, he occupied a minority viewpoint within Zen which was tailor-made for such export. But this paper argues that Merton is no Orientalist appropriator. He was uniquely qualified to engage in interreligious dialogue, not because he was a scholarly expert, but because he was a mystic. Merton cultivated dialogue for the purposes of deepening his own monastic practice and fostering justice in the world. His pathbreaking interreligious exploration shows how interreligious dialogue can move in decolonizing directions.

“However strange it may appear, I was led to Yoga by William of Saint-Thierry.” This sentence began the preface of Jean-Marie Déchanet’s English translation of his mid-twentieth century book titled La Voie Du Silence later translated as Christian Yoga. In the text, Déchanet argues the aim of both William of Saint-Thierry, a French Benedictine mystic,  and Christian Yoga is the union and balance of anima, animus, and spiritus. For him, Yoga creates an “openness [toward the] mystical life,” “quickens the life of faith, the love of God and our neighbor,” and “sharpens our sense of duty and responsibility as men and, above all, as Christians.” While he argues yoga supports the Christian spiritual life, Déchanet enforces parameters on what type of yoga a Christian should practice. This paper examines Déchanet’s argument for a Christian Yoga through his historical context and scholarship of William of Saint-Thierry. 

By primarily incubating his imagination and that of his audience, both as a writer and preacher, Howard Thurman draws from various resources: spiritual traditions, nature, poetry, and friendships, and invites himself and others to transcend the boundaries of a life contained by a dominant, totalizing narrative. This essay dives into a common theme that unites Thurman’s writings: the stretching of one’s vision and desire for interconnectedness amidst the vicissitudes of life, collective trauma, racial and class discrimination, and other forms of systemic oppression. Multiple religious belonging adds more taste buds to Thurman’s religious sense, metaphorically speaking. Thurman drank from several spiritual wells. Following my examination of Thurman’s spirituality, which finds roots in inter-spiritual experiences, I will reflect on Thurman’s spiritual fluidity and his philosophy of interdependence.

In 1960, the Catholic monk, Thomas Merton (1915-1968), received a copy of the Talks on the Gita. This commentary on the Bhagavad Gita was written by Vinoba Bhave, disciple, confidant, and spiritual successor to Mahatma Gandhi. The book has a marked impact on Merton, providing him with a framework and language to process his vocational crisis in 1960, to bear non-violent witness in 1962, and to critique contemporary spirituality in 1965. In this paper, we explore a transition in Merton’s understanding of the Gita. We argue that, with the Talks on the Gita, Merton comes to understand the Gita as a text of both personal and universal application, and to see Vinoba as an inter-religious sage. Merton envisions Vinoba and his teachings as universally applicable: transcending ideological boundaries and broadening his more global worldview. Merton’s efforts proffer relevant questions about the identification, meaning, and lived experience of “multiple religious belonging.”