Spirituality as a Science of the Heart

Abstract

The presentation examined the role of Thomas Merton, Henri Nouwen and Donald Nicholl as pilgrims of wisdom and peace, their ministry of prayer grounded in contemplation, their commitment as peacemakers, their role as spiritual diarists of compelling relevance, their deep and perduring ecumenical, indeed interfaith, appeal well into our own century and their personal integrity or holiness of life. All three were Roman CatholicsThomas Merton was a Trappist monk, Henri Nouwen a priest of the Archdiocese of Utrecht, and Donald Nicholl, a married layman and father and professor of History and Religious Studiesbut their breadth of vision, their deep understanding of faith as the science of the heart, and their inexhaustible openness to the world all combined to make them genuinely extra-territorial spiritual figures.