Name: Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander
ISBN: 9780385010184

Thomas Merton

In this series of notes, opinions, and reflections kept since 1956, Thomas Merton examines some of the most urgent moral issues of the modern era.

Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander

Dana Kraft

I thought I could read anything from Merton but I guess not. I couldn’t finish this. Not that there aren’t some interesting and thought-provoking passages in the part that I read, they were just surrounded by too much other random stuff. 

I have really liked how Merton (in other books) encourages the reader to find the path that works for him or her, not just follow someone else’s path. In reading this series of conjectures, I felt myself doing the opposite - wondering “what would a Thomas Merton think of...?” That’s not a path I want to go down even though Merton was obviously wise and thoughtful on lots of “current” issues.