Presented by acclaimed biographer Prof. Michael W. Higgins Ph.D. this course explores the life and literary genius of Thomas Merton.<br><br>When Thomas Merton published The Seven Storey Mountain in 1948 no one could have expected it to become an international sensation. An autobiography of his conversion to Catholicism it became a wildly popular bestseller propelling this humble Trappist monk to literary fame. Today it is widely regarded as a spiritual classic.<br><br>While it remains his most famous work The Seven Storey Mountain is only the tip of the iceberg in Merton’s rich multi-layered oeuvre. In Thomas Merton The Seven Storey Mountain and the Rest of the Story you will join award-winning professor and speaker Michael W. Higgins in exploring Merton’s compelling autobiographical literature. As you examine his journals letters novels and poetry you will encounter a brilliant portrait of the premier Catholic spiritual figure of the twentieth century.<br><br>Although The Seven Storey Mountain cemented Thomas Merton as a prominent writer he also felt that it presented a limited portrait of him. Indeed his later autobiographical works such as Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander and The Asian Journal show a more mature and fully realized vision. The Seven Storey Mountain would establish many of Merton’s most powerful themes—his later works brought these themes to their apex.<br><br>In this course you will examine the writings of this modern and post-modern chronicler of the soul’s unfolding. Encounter Thomas Merton—the man monk and mystic—today.