Przyczyny cierpienia według Thomasa Mertona (1915-1968)

Abstract

The article analyses Thomas Merton's views on the sources of human suffering. This issue was discussed in the context – stressed by the Trappist himself – of losing the divine order by the first man. His most original thought – comparing a hero of Greek mythology Prometheus with a man who remains far from God because of sin – was presented here. According to Merton the basic source of human suffering is of spiritual nature and is embedded in the breaking of unity with the Creator which leads to man's loss of his own identity and his true „self” created to contemplate. Man, remote from God, becomes a follower of the so called Promethean theology, which is characterised by questioning the goodness and generosity of the Creator and a dramatic and lonely fight for happiness and redemption. The evil experienced by man „changes” God and questions His goodness, and now in man's eyes He resembles jealous gods of Olympus – rivals, with whom one has to fight for one's own happiness. The consequence of assuming such an image of God is submission to senses and ultimately desperation, which, apart from a personal dimension, acquires the shape of activity void of meaning and contents, or, worse still, wars and violence. Suffering, according to Thomas Merton, appears to be the opposite pole of contemplation.