Turning to Thomas Merton

Turning to the Mystics with James Finley

Center for Action and Contemplation

Spirituality, Religion & Spirituality, Christianity

4.8 • 1.8K Ratings

🗓️ 24 February 2020

⏱️ 53 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this episode, Kirsten Oates and James Finley are in conversation about Jim’s approach to studying the mystics, how one might integrate their teachings into our daily lives, and most notably a background and sense of the mystic who is the focus of this first series, Thomas Merton. By the end of this episode you will have robust understanding of the life and work of Thomas Merton and his impact on James Finley. To learn more, visit jamesfinley.org  Turning to the Mystics is a podcast by the Center for Action and Contemplation. We'd love to hear your thoughts, comments or feedback. To do so, email us at [email protected] For the transcript to this podcast, you can find it here. Have a question you'd like Jim or Kirsten to answer on a future episode? Email us: [email protected] Or, send us a voicemail: cac.org/voicemail This podcast is made possible, thanks to the generosity of our donors. If you would love to support the ongoing work of the Center for Action and Contemplation and the continued work of our podcasts, you can donate at cac.org/podcastsupport Thank you! We'd love to have your thoughts in mind as we think about future seasons, help us out by filling out this survey: turningtothemystics.com

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to a podcast by the Center for Action and Contemplation.
0:04.4	To learn more, visit cacac.org.
0:08.9	Greetings, I'm Jim Finley.
0:11.8	And I'm Kirsten Oates. Welcome to turning to the Mystics.
0:17.0	In season one of turning to the mystics we're going to the Christian mystic
0:28.8	Thomas Merton and in this episode Jim will provide an introduction to Thomas Merton.
0:34.0	But before we turn to our mystic, we thought it would be good to always begin our intros
0:40.0	with a reminder of the basic structure of contemplative or mystical Christianity.
0:45.0	So Jim, can you give us an overview of that basic structure?
0:49.0	Yes.
0:50.0	Let's say we look back over these Christian mystics down through the centuries and
0:57.5	specifically these mystic teachers that is these mystics who offer trustworthy guidance to people feel
1:04.9	interiorly drawn toward this deeper unit of experience of God's presence in
1:11.0	their life. And let's say then we say, well who are these people in the sense of
1:17.7	the same Francis of Assizi was a mystic or Claire was a mystic John the cross was a mystic Eckhart was a mystic, mystic, Eckhart was a mystic,
1:25.0	Merton was a mystic.
1:27.0	How can we understand what it is that makes these mystics, mystics?
1:31.0	That is, what is the nature of the teachings that they're offering us.
1:36.8	And to me what helps me to see it is to say this, that the mystics assume several things, which is very much rooted in a kind of a
1:46.2	classical understanding of the Christian faith.
1:50.0	Also it's in concert with the contemplative mystical traditions of all the world's great
1:54.3	religions. There's a universality to this, but we're looking at it specifically
	...

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