Towards The Depth Of Self-Understanding

A sincere interreligious dialogue must go with a deepening of the participant’s comprehension of his/her own tradition by understanding the truth of other religion traditions. Thomas Merton, an American Trappist monk, who was in the plight of Christian spirituality, turned to engage in dialogue with other religion traditions. Merton started from criticizing himself, then learned from others, and at last touched the core of his own tradition in the course of the dialogue with Buddhism. This way he showed a new height of engaging in the interreligious dialogue, which one can commit to his own tradition while learn from other tradition, and in turn find the infinite potential of his own tradition. This thesis tries to explore how Merton, as a Catholic monk, criticized his own tradition and returned, touched the inner life of his own tradition, reached the depth of self-understanding, and makes Merton a case of interreligious dialogue, to find the effective way engaging in interreligious dialogue.