Thomas Merton (1915-1968), Catholic convert, Cistercian monk and hermit, poet, contemplative, social critic, and pioneer of interreligious dialogue, was a seminal figure of twentieth-century American Christianity.Patrick F. O’Connell is professor of English and theology at Gannon University in Erie, Pennsylvania. A founding member and former president of the International Thomas Merton Society, he edits The Merton Seasonal and is coauthor of The Thomas Merton Encyclopedia. He has edited eight previous volumes of Thomas Merton’s monastic conferences for the Monastic Wisdom Series, most recently The Cistercian Fathers and Their Monastic Theology (2016), and he is also editor of Merton’s Selected Essays (2013) and Early Essays: 1947–1952 (2015).

“Patrick O’Connell’s meticulous editing of these conferences is a great gift. They reveal to us Cistercian origins and developments but even more, we hear them in Merton’s voice.”The Merton Journal

• CONTENTSPreface   viiIntroduction   xi1. Cistercian History   12. The Cistercian Order from the Death of Saint Bernard to the Reform of Benedict XII (1153–1335)   139Appendix A: Textual Notes   253Appendix B: Table of Correspondences   259Appendix C: For Further Reading   261Index   263Corrigenda for Volume 8   309

Thomas Merton (1915-1968), Catholic convert, Cistercian monk and hermit, poet, contemplative, social critic, and pioneer of interreligious dialogue, was a seminal figure of twentieth-century American Christianity.Patrick F. O’Connell is professor of English and theology at Gannon University in Erie, Pennsylvania. A founding member and former president of the International Thomas Merton Society, he edits The Merton Seasonal and is coauthor of The Thomas Merton Encyclopedia. He has edited eight previous volumes of Thomas Merton’s monastic conferences for the Monastic Wisdom Series, most recently The Cistercian Fathers and Their Monastic Theology (2016), and he is also editor of Merton’s Selected Essays (2013) and Early Essays: 1947–1952 (2015).

“Patrick O’Connell’s meticulous editing of these conferences is a great gift. They reveal to us Cistercian origins and developments but even more, we hear them in Merton’s voice.”The Merton Journal

• CONTENTSPreface   viiIntroduction   xi1. Cistercian History   12. The Cistercian Order from the Death of Saint Bernard to the Reform of Benedict XII (1153–1335)   139Appendix A: Textual Notes   253Appendix B: Table of Correspondences   259Appendix C: For Further Reading   261Index   263Corrigenda for Volume 8   309