Add to ORKGThomas Merton can be considered a man of contradictions. He was a person with a literary career ahead of him, and yet he chose to join a community of contemplative monks, the Trappists, in the Gethsemani Abbey, Kentucky. Engaged in the contemplative life, his literary work was channelled into the spiritual realm, with great success. His voice as a household name reached even those who were not really into religion, and yet he spoke to their hearts. While living the contemplative life, grounded in the Christian spirituality, he sought to communicate with other religions, most notably the Far-Eastern religions.peer-reviewe