REIMAGINING MARIST FORMATION FOR DEEPER INTERIORITY: A CONVERSATION BETWEEN TRADITIONAL SOURCES AND THOMAS MERTON’S CONCEPTION OF INNER EXPERIENCE by Kevin Patrick Dobbyn fms TTC (NZ), B.Theol, M.Couns (Massey), M.Theol (MCD) A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Divinity 2020 Declaration of originality I hereby certify that this thesis is original material. Neither does it include material presented for the award of any other degree or diploma in any university or other institution. To the best of my knowledge the thesis contains no other material previously published by another person apart from previously published material duly acknowledged and referenced in the text. Signed: ________________________________________ Date: 6 October 2020 Word Count: 99,908 ~ ii ~ Abstract This thesis is premised on the observation that formation for Marist brotherhood and ministry has been marked by ample attention to behavioural expectations and preparation for active ministry but with insufficient attention to the formation of authentic inner experience flowing from the Christian mystical tradition. The thesis critiques the formation process for a deeper interior life in the vocation for Marist Brothers whose primary goal is ‘to follow Christ as Mary did’ in the ‘special call to live the brotherhood of Christ with everyone particularly with young people, loving them with a self-less love’.1 Addressing this issue requires processes that give greater emphasis to an ‘applied mystical theology’2 in the vocation of a Brother of Mary. To this end, Thomas Merton’s integrity in the search to become truly himself in following Christ, his appropriation of the Christian spiritual tradition, and his work as formator within the Trappist community, led him to discover the tools which can be used to discern authentic ‘inner’ experience. As an educator and formator of young people (student monks) he serves as an exemplar for Marist Brothers to live with greater interiority the transcendence of the self in its unique expression in consecrated life. In conversation between the sources of the inspirational founding period of the Little Brothers of Mary and Merton’s insights, Marist formation for a deeper interiority can enable today’s Brothers to live afresh and more fully the spirit of the charism as Marcellin Champagnat and the first Superior General, Br François Rivat intended. 1 Marist Brothers of the Schools or Little Brothers of Mary, “Constitutions and Statutes” (Marist Brothers’ General House, ed. 2010), §3, http://www.champagnat.org/e_maristas/Documentos/constitutions2011_en.pdf, accessed April 7, 2019. 2 Len Kofler, “Formation Today,” The Furrow 62, no. 5 (May 2011): 295. ~ iii ~ Contents Declaration of originality .......................................................................................................... ii Abstract .................................................................................................................................... iii Contents .................................................................................................................................... iv Acknowledgements .................................................................................................................... ix Dedication ................................................................................................................................. xi Abbreviations ........................................................................................................................... xii Works by Merton ................................................................................................................. xii Marist Documents .............................................................................................................. xiii Monograph page numbering .......................................................................................... xiii Glossary .................................................................................................................................. xiv Introduction................................................................................................................................ 1 Chapter 1 ................................................................................................................................... 6 Experience in the Formation of Christian spirituality Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 6 Formation from a cosmic perspective .................................................................................... 7 Experience as the building block of consciousness ............................................................... 8 Relationship as the teacher of consciousness..................................................................... 9 Formation towards inner experience ................................................................................... 10 Experience as the birthplace of meaning ......................................................................... 11 Accessing ‘inner experience’ ........................................................................................... 15 The emergence of the spiritual in experience .................................................................. 16 Experience within the Christian context of faith ................................................................. 17 The temporal aspect of experience .................................................................................. 19 From personal experience to spirituality.......................................................................... 21 The roots of spirituality ........................................................................................................ 22 The necessity of authenticating inner experience-in-faith ............................................... 27 Experience or encounter? ................................................................................................. 29 From religious tradition to inner experience to spirituality ................................................. 29 An aggiornamento of Christian spirituality ......................................................................... 31 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 34 Chapter 2 ................................................................................................................................. 36 Inner Experience in Faith Tested by Tradition Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 36 ~ iv ~ The Christian Wisdom Tradition ......................................................................................... 37 The New Testament sources of inner experience ................................................................ 38 Divinization as the transformation of inner experience ....................................................... 42 Irenaeus and Clement ....................................................................................................... 42 Origen: ‘kissed by God’ ................................................................................................... 44 Augustine: divine indwelling through the Spirit .............................................................. 46 Bernard of Clairvaux – divinizing love: loving as God loves ......................................... 48 Early Modern Catholic awakenings to interiority ................................................................ 52 The Spanish stream .......................................................................................................... 52 The French revival ........................................................................................................... 63 Vatican II: all are called to the one holiness ........................................................................ 74 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 77 Chapter 3 ................................................................................................................................. 80 Thomas Merton: Formator of Incarnational Inner Experience Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 80 Merton as one for whom ‘only experience counts’ ............................................................. 81 The inner world is the entire source of life and love ........................................................... 82 Merton: Master of attention to the world of ‘inner experience’ .......................................... 84 Questioning experience: Merton’s approach to forming interiority ................................ 85 Different types of inner experience.................................................................................. 88 Journaling the question .................................................................................................... 96 Merton’s unifying goal: freeing the inmost self-in-God ...................................................... 96 Merton as one who dives beneath the surface of experience ..............................................