Thomas Merton: Monk. Mystic. Existentialist?

This self-questioning can never be without a certain existential “dread”—a sense of insecurity, of “lostness,” of exile, of sin…. These are just a few of the labels we associate with Thomas Merton. Existentialist rootsFor most Merton readers this note of gravitas surrounding the issue of authenticity will be more than familiar and will probably strike many as self-evidently true. Still, many may wonder whether Merton actually embraced the “Existentialist” label outright. Unmediated encounterIf this all amounts to the mature culmination of the existential trajectory in Merton’s work, where does it all begin?