The Solitary Explorer

By Elena Malits

The Solitary Explorer responsibly and critically explores Thomas Merton's lifelong spiritual development as reflected in his religious and secular writings and delineates the meaning of his life and work for contemporary readers. It provides an interpretive chronology of Merton's writings and unravels the intertwining threads of self-realization and widening intellectual interests evidenced in the material he produced between his early autobiography and the controversial work of his later years. Elena Malits shows Merton as writer, as monk, as social critic, as seeker of wisdom in the East, as man of prayer, and as one continually on a journey into the unknown. Merton always held that the quest for God is a continuing one: The Solitary Explorer traces the progress of this quest in Merton's life and literary works to reveal a multifaceted spiritual guide who offers an approach to the divine at once reassuringly traditional and refreshingly contemporary.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1498204643
• ISBN13: 9781498204644
• Release Date: September 2014
• Publisher: Wipf & Stock Publishers
• Length: 190 Pages
• Weight: 0.58 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Engaging

This book is probably the most re-read in my collection - I've probably read it 15 times and have never tired of it. Brian Freemantle wrote this under the pen name of Jack Winchester. I haven't read any of his other novels but certainly this ranks up there with my all time favourites so I have been keeping an eye out for his other work. It's relatively short for a thriller novel, but the physical length of it is deceptive - its depth of character is so engaging that it actually takes longer than you would expect to read it. It's the story of an ageing spy, an ex-concentration camp victim who, later in life, is a double agent for the CIA and KGB. Given the opportunity to return to a more normal life, he forms a plan to escape from the clutches of both agencies. However, it's more about the main character, a very intelligent but simple man, flawed and human. The story itself is also interesting, and overall it is well presented, and easy to read. I've never known anyone to dislike this book and I am frankly very surprised it isn't more widely available. Highly recommended and a very satisfying novel.