Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts
1. Merton spent his infancy with expatriate parents in what country?
2. If you've ever heard a tape of Merton, his Americanese is pretty standard, which is odd considering that during his formative years he was educated where?
3. In spite of an early false start, Merton had a pretty successful academic career at what famous university?
4. In the course of his self-admittedly misspent youth, Merton was involved in a particular scandal that was hushed up for a long time. What was it?
5. In his early twenties Merton converted to Catholicism, and, in spite of an imperfect conversion of manners, aspired at first to join which religious order?
6. Behaving better all the time, Merton took up a teaching position at which Catholic college?
7. Taking a deep breath so to speak, Merton took another stab at the religious life by applying to what monastic order?
8. When he was accepted into the monastery, like all monks he held what status for the first few months?
9. Merton had already submitted a book for publication prior to entering the monastery. What was its title?
10. Which is the best characterization of Merton's early years in the monastery?
11. The abbot who admitted Merton to the monastery died shortly thereafter. Most of Merton's monastic life saw him in a difficult relationship with the next abbot, whose name was ______.
12. Of the classic Trappist monastic vows, Merton had the most difficulty with which?
13. The monastery where Merton lived was located in Kentucky and had the somewhat fitting name of "Our Lady of ________".
14. Merton wrote a very great deal at the monastery. One of his purely religious works, a fine piece of mystical theology, is called Seeds of ___________.
15. In his search for a deeper interior life, Merton was finally able to convince the abbot, against all recent custom in the order, to allow him to live as a(n) _______________.
16. As he matured in the monastic life, Merton became involved in the world around him. Which of the following social or church movements of the sixties did not interest him?
17. The monastery made many changes during Merton's years there. Which of the following was not one of them?
18. Merton was in fact excused from many monastic disciplines. He had what is called a "relief in refectory" (a dispensation from dietary requirements) because he could not digest products made from what?
19. Never one to let the story of his life run dull, Merton in his later years risked another scandal by doing what?
20. Merton did leave the monastery a number of times in later years, a mixed blessing when one considers that he met his death in 1968 while attending a monastic conference in Southeast Asia. Of what did he apparently die?
Source: Author
jbuck919
This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor
Jim_in_Oz before going online.
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