In the fall of 1964, Trappist monk Thomas Merton prepared to host
an unprecedented gathering of peace activists. "About all we have
is a great need for roots," he observed, "but to know this is
already something." His remark anticipated their agenda--a search
for spiritual roots to nurture sound motives for "protest." This
event's originality lay in the varied religious commitments
present. Convened in an era of well-kept faith boundaries, members
of Catholic (lay and clergy), mainline Protestant, historic peace
church, and Unitarian traditions participated. Ages also varied,
ranging from twenty-three to seventy-nine. Several among the
fourteen who gathered are well known today among faith-based peace
advocates: the Berrigan brothers, Jim Forest, Tom Cornell, John
Howard Yoder, A. J. Muste, and Merton himself. During their three
days together, insights and wisdom from these traditions would
intersect and nourish each other. By the time they parted, their
effort had set down solid roots and modeled interreligious
collaboration for peace work that would blossom in coming decades.
Here for the first time, the details of those vital discussions
have been reconstructed and made accessible to again inspire and
challenge followers of Christ to confront the powers and injustices
of today. "If Thomas Merton held a retreat in the '60s on the
spiritual roots of protest--attended by Daniel Berrigan, John
Howard Yoder, A. J. Muste, and ten more great Christian
peacemakers--would you want to be there? Gordon Oyer's exhaustively
researched, inspiring story of just such a legendary retreat at the
Abbey of Gethsemani feels like faith on trial at the edge of the
end of the world. Read it and see." --Jim Douglass, author, JFK and
the Unspeakable "A meticulously researched account of a historical
event whose ramifications are as apposite today as when they were
first discussed, perhaps more so. The prophetic voices and the
witness of the retreat participants are brought to life in Oyer's
engaging narrative, echoing from the Gethsemani woods down through
the ages, still struggling to be heard against the techno-babble,
the inertia felt by so many, and the ever more sophisticated war
machine of our world today." --Paul M. Pearson, Director, Thomas
Merton Center "Three powerful faith traditions . . . converged for
the first time at that legendary1964 retreat hosted by Merton. . .
. Any of us who seek today to bear public witness to the gospel,
justice, and political imagination are truly 'children' of that
conversation a half century ago. . . . We are walking in their
footsteps. Oyer has gifted us with a magnificent chronicle of the
contemporary spiritual roots of protest." --Ched Myers, Bartimaeus
Cooperative Ministries Gordon Oyer is an administrator with the
University of Illinois system and has an MA in history from the
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is the past editor
of Illinois Mennonite Heritage Quarterly, has served on different
regional Mennonite historical committees, and is the author of
various articles on Mennonite history.
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