The Thomas Merton Center at Bellarmine University

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Author QuotedMarco Pallis
Title QuotedPeaks and Lamas
Date (Year/Month/Day)1959/05/14
Imprint[S.l.] : [s.n.]. 1939I
QuotationThe first thing to be said, of course, is that Hagia Sophia is God Himself. God is not only a Father but a Mother. He is both at the same time, and it is the "feminine aspect" or "feminine principl" in the divinity that is the Hagia Sophia. But of course as soon as you say this the whole thing becomes misleading: a division of an "abstract" divinity into two abstract principles. Nevertheless, to ignore this distinction is to lose touch with the fullness of God. This is a very ancient intuition of reality which goes back to the oldest Oriental thought. (There is something about it in Carolyn's wonderful book Peaks and Lamas [written by Marco Pallis], incidentally.) For the "masculine-feminin" relationship is basic in all reality"”simply because all reality mirrors the reality of God.
Quotation SourceWitness to Freedom: The Letters of Thomas Merton in Times of Crisis.; Selected and edited by William H. Shannon. / New York : Farrar Straus Giroux. 1994, p. 4
Letter toVictor Hammer
Notessee also: The Letters of Thomas Merton and Victor and Carolyn Hammer. Farrar Straus Giroux. New York 1994
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