American history. Amidst the babblingnof the doomsayers and in the face of anmassive failure of nerve among liberals,nGeorge Gilder has emerged as a boldnvisionary, unafraid of the future andnconvinced that the American experimentnlaunched two hundred years agonhas not yet played itself out. We neednmore George Gilders, men who grapplenThe Melancholy of IdealismnMonica Furlong: Merton: A Biography;nHarper & Row; New York.nby Edward J. WalshnIt was perhaps inevitable that a biographynof Thomas Merton would emergenin 1980, as two profoundly diverse currentsnof Roman Catholic intellectualnlife clashed. The first, enunciated bynPope John Paul II and the Vatican hierarchy,nstands unequivocally for thendefense of Christian spirituality as thenessence of the priestly mission. Againstnthe Vatican, and even against the Pope,nare arrayed priests and women religiousnwho act as political agents, almostnwithout exception for leftist and Marxistnforces.nThomas Merton, the gifted monk ofnthe Cistercians of the Strict Observance,nwas and is viewed as a charismatic,nheroic figure by both traditional and radicalnCatholics. In his autobiography. ThenSeven Storey Mountain, he describednthe near-tangible closeness to the HolynSpirit he felt in his early years in thenmonastery. Later, he was a pioneer of thenpriestly left. Merton’s numerous letters,nmany reprinted in Monica Furlong’snsympathetic book, provide a revealingnglimpse at the evolution of the modernnpastoral rebel with which the Church isncurrently well populated.nThe story of Merton’s life is, ofncourse, much more than the oft-told talenMr. Walsh is a frequent contributor tonthe Chronicles.nwillingly with the intractable problemsnof our age. Conservatives may yet losenthe battle for the mind and heart ofnAmerica, but should this be our fate,nno one will be able to accuse GeorgenGilder of having failed the cause. Truly,nhe possesses in great measure that faithnand courage he so admires in his entrepreneurs.nMay he never falter. Dnof how an obedient priest notices socialninjustice and becomes a protest-marchingnapologist for leftist political notions.nHe was a brilliant man whose sensibilitiesnwere more than a match for the secularnworld, although he partook freely ofnits attractions before converting tonCatholicism in 1938 at the age of 23. Itnis not widely known among admirers ofnMerton’s contemplative writings that henfathered an illegitimate child during hisnuniversity years in England. He wasnsophisticated and cosmopolitan, knowledgeablenof art, literature, good foodnand wine, a skillful writer and satirist.nHe was also an orphan. Furlong speculatesnthat the early deaths of his parentsnhad much to do with Merton’s embracenof the monastic life, with its close-knitnpersonal relations, and, later, with hisnsearch for meaning in meditation andnsocial action.nFurlong’s psychoanalysis of Merton isnless important, and less interesting, thannher scrupulous tracing of the events ofnhis life and her editing of his letters.nThese are the virtues of her book, whichnprovides a full portrait of the man and,nmost important, of the battle for meaningnin his life that led him to Gethsemaninand then away from it. FornThomas Merton is today larger than thensum of his own words and actions. Hisnspiritual writings are studied by contemplativesnthe world over, and his colleaguesnin radical causes are now demigodsnof the international left. He left anlegacy of spiritual conflict that racksnChristianity today; commonly referrednnnto as the debate over the role of religionnin politics, it touches more intimatelynthe eternal questions of how the Christiannresponds to evil in the world. Thatnis the question that shook Merton in hisncontemplative surroundings and drovenhim in agony and confusion toward civilndisobedience and Marxism.nIt is enlightening, therefore, to lookndeeply at Merton’s life, as Furlong’snBiography allows us to do. She effectivelynmasks her view of the vocationnhe selected, at least until later in thenbook. Like many of Merton’s worldlynfriends, she empathized with his totalncommitment to the Catholic faith, althoughnthey wondered, as the yearsnpassed, why such a fine writer wouldnchoose to forsake the world so completelynby entering the strictest religiousnorder he could find. When, later on, henencountered frustration and lonelinessnin the monastery, some of them seemnto have known that it was inevitable.nBut it is a mistake to conclude thatnMerton’s political views later in lifensprang from some deep psychic configuration,nand it would be a mistake, too,nto make too much of them. After all, hennever left the priesthood, or repudiatednthe Pope, as is often the case today.nMerton was always indifferent to thenideological coloring of political events.nHe was upset at the outbreak of WorldnWar II, but afterward thought little ofnit. He was preoccupied at the momentnwith his crystallizing vocation, andnthroughout his life he remained concernednchiefly with his own spiritualndevelopment. And this is why he so easilynsympathized with the Christian pacifists,nthe social activists and, eventually,nthe Marxist revolutionaries.nIn terms of understanding the politicalnnature of events, Merton was, like hisnclose friends, the Berrigans, a rank amateur.nHe saw nuclear war and pronouncednit immoral; he noticed, no earliernthan anyone else, that blacks werendiscriminated against and called discriminationnunjust. He heard that Marxistsnwere calling for an end to poverty andnv^nJttly/Attgttst 1981n