Thomas Merton was one of the great Catholic writers of the twentieth century. He’s remembered for his reflections and poetry but one of his most impactful works is his 1948 autobiography The Seven Storey Mountain.
Named after the Italian Poet Dante’s description of Purgatory in “The Divine Comedy,” the book follows Merton on his search for spirituality and peace that led him to a Trappist Monastery.
Google Books calls The Seven Storey Mountain, “a modern-day Confessions of Saint Augustine.” A glance at the book and some of the famous and not-so-famous Thomas Merton quotes that it contains helps us understand that the book is a wonder in its own right as well as a guide to Merton’s other works.
Understanding Merton
“Free by nature, in the image of God, I was nevertheless the prisoner of my own violence and my own selfishness, in the image of the world into which I was born. That world was the picture of Hell, full of men like myself, loving God and yet hating Him; born to love Him, living instead in fear and hopeless self-contradictory hungers.”
Thomas Merton, The Seven Storey Mountain
While Merton is remembered for his books written in America in the 1940s, ‘50s, and ‘60s, he was born in France in 1915. His parents were both artists, one American and one from New Zealand, though he had also lived in the United Kingdom for a time.
Merton attributes his early life in France during the final years of World War One as among his formative experiences. Less informative but still memorable were his attending services with his Quaker mother while his father worked at an Episcopalian church.
The reader of the author’s other, perhaps more theological works, will find a greater meaning in their favorite Thomas Merton quotes after reading this in-depth look into his life.
What You Can Learn From The Seven Storey Mountain
“If this book does not prove anything else, it will certainly show that I was nobody’s dream-child.”
Thomas Merton, The Seven Storey Mountain
Of course, one need not be passionately interested in the works of this monk or any monk to be enlightened by the work. As all autobiographies, it is the life story of a person.
Written when Merton was only in his thirties, the work is a fantastic coming-of-age story, more colorful than one might expect from a holy man.
To this historian, too, the book has value as Merton describes life, first in Europe and then in America during the years of the Great War, the inter-war period, and World War Two.
Other Reviews
“It is a law of man’s nature, written into his very essence, and just as much a part of him as the desire to build houses and cultivate the land and marry and have children and read books and sing songs, that he should want to stand together with other men in order to acknowledge their common dependence on God, their Father and Creator.”
Thomas Merton, The Seven Storey Mountain
The book is available as an audiobook and as an ebook online where readers have left many of their own reviews.
The book is available as an audiobook and as an ebook online where readers have left many of their own reviews.
“His description of and longing for communion with God brought me closer to the same. His words transported and inspired me,” wrote Amazon Reviewer Herta Feely. “Definitely recommend it, both for those who enjoy a good autobiography and those interested in the spiritual life.”
Don’t just rely on reader reviews. Get your own copy of Thomas Merton’s The Seven Storey Mountain, and read for yourself.
