“The tragedy is, if we fight Hitler, we will become like him, too, we will turn into something just as dirty as he is. If we are going to beat him, we will have to.” The perceptive words of Thomas Merton have an authenticity and freshness which recommend them as food for thought and inspiration years after they were written. This enduring value can be seen especially in his Secular Journal, a private record he kept between October, 1939 and November, 1941, concluding just one month before he entered the Trappist monastery. In the Journal (copyright 1959 by Madonna House; Image Books edition published 1969), Merton comments on all the things which affected him while he lived in Greenwich Village, traveled to Cuba, taught at St. Bonaventure’s, and developed a deep interest in the work of Friendship House in Harlem.
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