The publication of Robert Bolt’s play, A Man for all Seasons (1960), did much to further an interest in
the admirable life of Thomas More. The movie, A Man for all Seasons, won the Best Picture as an Academy Award
Winner in 1966. Thomas More, in the play and movie, is portrayed as a man with
a demanding conscience who does not flinch from living from such a deep and
soul-searching place.
Those who stand within the Reformation ethos and genetic
code tend to see Hus, Wycliff, Lollards and Tyndale as morning stars of the
Reformation. Luther, Calvin and the Anabaptists merely fleshed out, in a more
formal and organizational way, the varied Reformation ideas. But, it was the
Oxford Reformers (Colet, More, Erasmus) who were the real reformers. They were
the morning stars of the Reformation. They were just as critical of the
aberrations of the Late Medieval Roman Catholic Church as Wycliff, Tyndale,
Luther, Calvin and the Anabaptists , but they refused to fragment the one,
holy. catholic and apostolic church.
The main difference between Thomas More and Martin Luther
(and those who followed in his schismatic path and trail) was not about whether
the church should be reformed; all agreed on this. The point was whether, in
good conscience, Christ’s body should be cut and diced up, fragmented and
divided. Luther and the Reformers said Yes, and Protestantism furthers their
genetic code. The Classical Christian tradition said No, and More stood within
such a line and lineage; he could do no other. He knew what the stakes were,
and history has proven him right. More stood for the Conservative way. Luther
birthed liberalism.
Thomas More (1478-1535) is a man for all seasons for five
reasons. First, his notion of conscience was rooted and grounded in the
accumulated insights of history and the communion of the saints. Second, he had
a contemplative depth to him that offered much insight; his was not a frantic
being. Third, he was critical yet loyal to the church. Fourth, he had a passion
for justice and peace, and he lived out such a passion at the highest levels of
political life. Fifth, his high view of the role of the state as an agent of
justice was matched by his higher view of the role of the church. If and when
the two collided, the church was where he called home. This was why he and
Henry clashed, and why More lost his head. “The King’s good servant, but God’s
first”, is one of More’s razor sharp aphorisms. More was a contemplative,
churchman and prophet; such an integrated thinker is rare in our day.
Thomas Merton (1915-1968), like Thomas More, was in the
thick of the fray. Both men did not shy away from the large and demanding
culture wars of their time. Thomas Merton is, probably, one of the best known
Roman Catholics of the 20th century.
He, like Thomas More, was a man with a searching conscience
and committed to the contemplative and mystical vision of the church. Both men
knew what wells to take their buckets to if their deeper spiritual thirst was
to be slacked. Merton wrote some of the finest works on the contemplative life
in the 20th century, and New
Seeds of Contemplation (1961) is a classic. Merton’s roots went deep and
thick into the soil of the Roman Catholic church, but he was also critical of
its many aberrations and limitations. Merton, like More, had a passion for
justice and peacemaking, and his many writings on the topic speak with a
prophetic depth, vigor and power.
We live in an age when spirituality and religion are often
opposed (the former idealized and romanticized, the latter denigrated and often
demonized). More and Merton, like a stately Mt. Baker, would look down on such
a way of thinking as being reactionary and short sighted. More and Merton were
committed to a contemplative way of doing theology and living the faith
journey. Both were committed yet critical of the church.
Both were passionate advocates of justice and peace
and suffered much for being so. They are men for all seasons, and we are in
desperate need of people of this stature and quality yet once again.
rsd