The Thomas Merton Center at Bellarmine University

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Author QuotedJustus George Lawler
Title QuotedCatholic Dimension in Higher Education
Date (Year/Month/Day)1960/01/17
Imprint[S.l.] : [s.n.]. 1959
QuotationVery fine book by J. G. Lawler on The Catholic Dimension in Higher Education with splendid quotations from Newman whom I have too long underestimated. A clear and liberating diagnosis of so many ideas that affect us particularly in the monastery - our anti-naturalism, our distrust and hatred of the intellect, of art - our pious pragmatism, the mechanical thinking by which we avoid intellectual commitment and sterilize real thought"¦ "As to Faber, I never read his books." - Newman. "In small things I went according to my natural inclination-and I still do-instead of considering which was the more perfect cours"-St. Teresa. Compare previous entry Jan 15. Both go together. Teresa [of Avila] would in another context argue with The Fiery Arrow. Not a question of being absolute. Principles applied according to circumstances, surely. What is wrong is a confused flight into secular consolations, without discernment. One must choose what is healthy and right, for this is willed by God. It need not be pious. It must be sane and productive.
Quotation SourceA Search for Solitude: Pursuing the Monk's True Life. The Journals of Thomas Merton, Volume 3, 1952-1960.; Edited by Lawrence S. Cunningham. / San Francisco : Harper Collins. 1996, p. 369-70
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