Thomas Merton

While humor may seem an unlikely ingredient for prayer, it can provide a way out of well-worn dichotomies and into encounters with the living God.

This essay explores the relationships between poetry, contemplation, and love in Thomas Merton’s writing and proposes potential applications of this theopoetic style of contemplation to our daily lives and methods of pastoral care.

Robert Inchausti is a Professor of English at California State Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo. He is the author of Subversive Orthodoxy, The Ignorant Perfection of Ordinary People, Spitwad Sutras, and Thomas Merton’s American Prophecy.