"The Quest for Certainty"
The Seven Storey Mountain
By Thomas Merton
Kristina Swartz
History 324
Summer 2000
In the autobiography, The Seven Storey Mountain, Thomas Merton explains how he sought to find certainty in his life through religion. Merton began the book by giving an overview of his early childhood. His father was from New Zealand and his mother was an American who lived in France. Both his father and mother were artists and did not earn much money. When his parents needed extra money, Merton's father would do various jobs in order for the family to survive. For example, he would garden occasionally and he even played the organ at the local Episcopalian church for a short period of time. This church was the first that Merton would attend. He did not understand the rituals or the concept of prayer. This lack of understanding about churches or religion, for that matter, was contributed to the fact that he never received any formal religious training from his parents. It is evident that Merton's mother was a Quaker, but she did not choose to involve her family in the faith. Early in Thomas's life, his mother died from stomach cancer. From this point on, Thomas would spend some of his time living with his grandparents in New York and he would travel part-time with his father to France. Merton had a fascination with the numerous cathedrals in France. Although he knew nothing about the monastic vocations or religious rules connected to the pictures in the cathedrals, his heart was filled with curiosity. Merton's early life did not include religion. I believe that he was deeply confused by this fact and he wanted to learn more about what religion was and how it affected people.
One of the ...