Author(s): Thomas Merton

Philosophy, Politics & Current Affairs

For this paperback, Thomas Merton selected the basic statements of principle and interpretation which make up Ghandi's philosophy of non-violence (Ahimsa) and non-violent action (Satyagraha). For many, throughout the world, Mohandas Ghandi stands as the greatest figure of the 20th Century. In his long introduction to this book - and it is one of his most challenging essays - Father Merton shows how Ghandi linked the thought of East and West in his search for universal truth, and how, for him, non-violence sprang from realization of spiritual unity in the individual. Merton relates Ghandi's "Ahimsa" to traditional Hindu "Dharma," to the Greek and our own concepts of personal freedom, and to the thinking of Thomas Aquinas and later Catholic theologians on conscience, good-and-evil, and peace.