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Thomas Merton's Vision of the Kingdom

“The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the good news” (Mark 1:15). These first words spoken by Jesus in the Gospel of Mark, the proclamation inaugurating his ministry, situate the Kingdom, or Reign, of God at the very heart of the gospel message. They suggest that in order to accept Jesus’ invitation to follow him, it is essential to appreciate the significance of this revelation of God’s Reign for Jesus’ life and work and for the ongoing witness of the Church.Yet too often in discussions of Christian life this enigmatic image is given little attention, and misleading or incomplete interpretations can sometimes blunt its impact or obscure its importance. For this as for so many other fundamental aspects of Christian faith and practice, the work of Thomas Merton can serve as a particularly valuable resource. While the image of the Kingdom is not mentioned with any frequency or examined in any depth in Merton’s earlier works,1 his writings during the final decade of his life draw repeatedly on the language of the Kingdom to explore what it means to be a faithful disciple of Christ in the second half of the twentieth century. It is particularly noteworthy that