The Economist (US), July 20th, 1996
IN FEBRUARY 1965 a refrigerator was delivered to Thomas Merton's hermitage. It bothered him: after all, he had spent many years hoping that his monastic superiors would allow him to live alone, and it did not seem right that a hermit should use a fridge. The apparently frivolous issue of how many domestic appliances a hermit needs prompted, says Peter France, one of Merton's most important insights into the solitary life, namely that it can be judged only by the inner experience, not by the external surroundings. Trappings have little to do with Trappists. In his elegant, witty and instructiv...
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