Thomas Merton on Christian Nonviolence: Toward a Social Embodiment of Compassion

Abstract

This study has examined Thomas Merton’s nonviolence in the context of the acceleration of military actions around Korean peninsula aroused by the nuclear weapons threat from North Korea and the THAAD settlement within South Korea. This survey made an endeavor to present Christian nonviolence as a compassion–oriented spirituality that could reshape or renew Korean Christian spiritual formation. The specific guidelines for the Christian vocation of nonviolence were also explored, and lastly, the theological and practical strategies of Korean Christian nonviolence were constructively outlined as the social embodiment of compassion–oriented spirituality. This study has endeavored to demonstrate that Merton’s idea of nonviolence is the mature, integrated form of his compassion–oriented spirituality, and quite applicable to cultivate the social spiritual formation in Korean Christian church as well as to initiate social integration and international peace–making movement in Korean peninsula.