In spite of being a Trappist monk at the Monastery of Our Lady of Gethsemane in Kentucky, Merton was a well-known writer and poet whose works were to give new meaning to the word 'religion'. It was his influential concern for contemporary social issues that were to force his Order and the Catholic Church to take seriously questions of contemporary politics, racial justice, the Vietnam struggle, and nuclear armament.

Merton immersed himself in Oriental religion and Marxist ideology trying, from his own Christian viewpoint, to improve understanding between East and West.
Introduced by Chris Kay.
With Kenneth Nelson as Thomas Merton
BBC Manchester