{"id":66,"date":"2008-12-10T09:33:06","date_gmt":"2008-12-10T09:33:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/tonyjones\/2008\/12\/merton-on-pbs.html"},"modified":"2008-12-10T09:33:06","modified_gmt":"2008-12-10T09:33:06","slug":"merton-on-pbs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/tonyjones\/2008\/12\/merton-on-pbs.html","title":{"rendered":"Merton on PBS"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thanks to David Crumm<\/a> for the heads-up that most PBS stations will this weekend show Soul Searching: The Journey of Thomas Merton<\/a>.  Today, Crumm interviews the filmmaker, Morgan Atkinson<\/a> at Read the Spirit.  Money Q&A:<\/p>\n

DAVID: People talk about The Seven Storey Mountain<\/i><\/a> as a runaway
\nbestseller, but I don’t think people will get a good impression of its
\nimportance if they think about it as just a huge media success story.\"merton.jpg\"<\/span>
\nMerton’s success wasn’t like an actor becoming a movie star or a singer
\nbecoming a huge hit. Merton was important because of the way he touched
\nspiritual nerves in millions of people.
   
I think a better comparison is with someone like Jack Kerouac<\/a>,
\nwho also became a guru to a whole generation. After Kerouac’s books
\nlike On the Road<\/i><\/a> in the 1950s, countless people wanted to head out on
\nthe road, as well. That’s the kind of impact Merton had, I think. Is
\nthat a fair way to put it?
  
MORGAN: That’s dead on. I would agree
\nwith that. Suddenly there were people making these pilgrimages to
\nGethsemani<\/a> and suddenly there were all these young men who wanted to
\nbecome Trappists and there was this explosion of the population at
\nGethsemani. Merton’s book had a significant part to play in all of
\nthis. Merton became like a Jack Kerouac prototype. Suddenly, people
\nwere showing up at the monastery saying: I want to be like Thomas
\nMerton.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thanks to David Crumm for the heads-up that most PBS stations will this weekend show Soul Searching: The Journey of Thomas Merton.  Today, Crumm interviews the filmmaker, Morgan Atkinson at Read the Spirit.  Money Q&A: DAVID: People talk about The Seven Storey Mountain as a runaway bestseller, but I don’t think people will get a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":134,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-66","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-random"],"yoast_head":"\nMerton on PBS - The New Christians<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/tonyjones\/2008\/12\/merton-on-pbs.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta 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