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Events
Jan. 9 | Call for papers: Identities and Technocultures
A 2-day conference about American culture and technologies that examines how new technologies dominate and define Americaness in the US and abroad. Co-sponsored by the University of Iowa Center for Ethnic Studies and the Arts (CESA) and the Mid-America American Studies Association (MAASA).
Resources: Abstracts of American Studies Dissertations
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Koch, William N. "An Unexpected American Apocalypse: Eschatology in the Thought of Thomas Merton and Its Significance for the Myth of America," Saint Louis University, February 1989. Advisor: Belden C. Lane (16, 2, 12)
The published writings of the Trappist monk, Thomas Merton, are examined for their eschatological content and character, and relevance to American Christians who consider the United States to have modern-day religious significance of a global nature. Merton’s mature eschatological outlook provides a needed antidote in a time of unuseful apocalyptic fears due to nuclear weapons and naive millennial optimism based on technological and political promises. Biographically, the ascendence of an eschatological consciousness in Merton’s late years and its influence on his thought is key to understanding the monk’s diverse spiritual and secular interests. On the eve of his death, Merton was becoming a dynamic literary and cultural critic of the American Scene and Western civilization. Merton’s published writings are divided into 3 subject groups—poetry, spiritual life writings and social issue writings—and examined as closely as possible in the order that they were written. They are evaluated along an apocalyptic/millennialism continuum as popularly defined and features unique to Merton are highlighted. Biographical data from primary and secondary sources are included where relevant.
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