Man of Dialogue: Thomas Merton’s Catholic Vision is Gregory K. Hillis’s argument that you cannot understand Thomas Merton without taking his Catholicism seriously. Liturgical Press published it in 2021, and it took first place in biography at the 2022 Catholic Media Association awards.
About the author, who has since died
Gregory K. Hillis was professor of theology at Bellarmine University in Louisville, Kentucky, which houses the Thomas Merton Center. He died in 2024, at forty-nine. This book stands as the major statement of his work on Merton, and there will be no sequel or revision.
What Hillis is arguing
Merton is one of the most widely read spiritual writers of the twentieth century, a Trappist monk whose 1948 autobiography sold in enormous numbers. He is also frequently claimed by readers who have little interest in his church, and in his later years he engaged deeply with Buddhism and other traditions, which has led some to treat his Catholicism as incidental scaffolding around a broader spirituality.
Hillis says no. His case is that Merton’s contemplative writing, his social criticism, and his openness to other traditions all grew out of Catholic liturgy, Catholic theology, and the daily discipline of a Catholic priest and monk. Not despite that formation but because of it.
It is a careful piece of scholarship, drawing on Merton’s journals and correspondence, and it is written for readers who want the argument made properly rather than asserted.
A plain note on tradition
This is a thoroughly Catholic book about a Catholic priest, published by a Catholic press, and it assumes a Catholic sacramental theology throughout. The Eucharist, the priesthood, and the monastic life are treated as Merton understood them rather than explained to outsiders.
We are saying that plainly and proportionately, because with this title it is most of what a reader needs to know. A Protestant reader will encounter a good deal he does not hold, particularly around the sacraments and the priesthood, and the book is not trying to persuade him. Nothing in it undermines the gospel, the authority of Scripture, or the person of Christ. It is a serious biography, honestly done, from inside a tradition that is not ours.
The related question of Merton’s interest in Buddhism deserves an honest word too. Hillis addresses it directly, arguing it was an outworking of his Catholic convictions rather than a departure from them. Readers will weigh that differently, and it is a reasonable thing to want to think about before picking the book up.
What we corrected on this page
The old version described the book as a devotional suitable for a men’s group, said it contains study questions and reflections woven throughout, and reported the reactions of men “in our community.” None of that is accurate. This is an academic biography with no study apparatus and no group-discussion design.
A quotation attributed to Hillis about the Eucharist and a quotation from an unnamed reader were both unverifiable and have been removed. The page was also carrying a leftover template heading reading “Final CTA Block,” which was never meant to be visible.
Who should read it
Someone already interested in Merton who wants to understand him properly, or a reader drawn to serious spiritual biography and willing to sit with a tradition other than his own. It rewards attention.
It is the wrong book for a men’s small group, for a daily devotional, or for anyone looking for practical application. Those needs are real and this is not built for them.