Sophia
Subtitle: the hidden Christ of Thomas Merton
By: Christopher Pramuk.
Publisher: Liturgical Press
Published: 2009
Place of publication: Collegeville, Minn
Language: eng
Number of pages: 322
ISBN-13: 9780814653906
Subjects: Merton, Thomas, -- 1915-1968; Jesus Christ -- Person and offices; God (Christianity) -- Wisdom
Description: While numerous studies have celebrated Thomas Merton's witness as an interfaith pioneer, poet, and peacemaker, there have been few systematic treatments of his Christology as such, and no sustained exploration to date of his relationship to the Russian Sophia" tradition. This book looks to Thomas Merton as a "classic" theologian of the Christian tradition from East to West, and offers an interpretation of his mature Christology, with special attention to his remarkable prose poem of 1962, Hagia Sophia. Bringing Merton's mystical-prophetic Vision fully into dialogue with contemporary Christology, Russian sophiology, and Zen, as well as figures such as John Henry Newman and Abraham Joshua Heschel, the author carefully but boldly builds the case that Sophia, the same theological eros that animated Merton's religious imagination in a period of tremendous fragmentation and violence, might infuse new vitality into our own.
Notes: "A Michael Glazier book."

Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Preface; title: Introduction; title: Turning toward the world : the birth of a mystical-prophetic theology. Christ the center ; Historical Jesus/mystical Christ ; Merton and Sophia : a narrative overview ; Wisdom : the theological nexus ; Merton as mystical (or sapiential) theologian : reclaiming the whole person ; Sophia and the search for theological form; title: Making old things new : imagination and poetics in theological method. Revelation : toward a sapiential framework ; Theology and the sacramental imagination : lessons from Newman ; Holiness in words : lessons from Heschel ; Theology and mysticism : reclaiming a divine perspective; title: In the belly of a paradox : the archaeology of Merton's sacramental imagination. Poetics and prophecy in Merton's last decade ; The archaeology of Catholicity ; Modern consciousness vs. wisdom awareness ; Sacramentum scripturarum : words as sacraments ; Theology as memoria, presence, and hope ; The memoria of others : against revelation as a closed system ; Love and the naming of God : Sophia; title: The dawn of wisdom : awakening to the world and self in Christ. Mentors in wisdom ; The irruption of Sophia (1957-61) ; Communion in wisdom/growth in love ; Discerning the heart of reality : God/creation/kenosis ; Dharmakaya-Sophia; title: Hagia Sophia : the marriage of East and West. Christ the divine image and human prototype : the new man (1961)/New seeds of contemplation (1962) ; The marriage of East and West : Hagia Sophia (1962) ; Theological significance of Hagia Sophia; title: Wisdom, our sister : human beings in the life story of God. The eschatological climate of the Gospels ; Wisdom and the Russians : foundations ; Sophiology : major contributions to positive theology ; Christology in the key of presence ; Presence in an apocalyptic key : "the time of the end" ; Mercy : the cross as Axis Mundi; title: Conclusion: Theology and the general dance.