Part 1: Chapter 4, The Children in the Market Place Summary and Analysis

His education incomplete, Merton entered Columbia University in New York and there met a professor who would become one of his most trusted friends, Mark Van Doren. Merton admired Van Doren's teaching, and for an intellectual and contemplative like Merton, that seems to be a key to fast friendship.

While at Columbia, whatever religious sentiment he had was drowned or converted by communism, which seemed an increasingly popular philosophy. During this time, Merton's reading turned to Freud and Jung. He attended communist student group meetings and even joined demonstrations, but the conversion to communism never took deep root and he eventually lost faith in the promise of a new, perfect, communist society.

Merton started devoting much of his time and energy to Columbia student publications—the...