Thomas Merton sheds light on a lost and neglected insight: to know God, we must know our true selves. Although others before him had explored this truth, Merton's life and writings have testified to it in a way that is particularly articulate for us today. In modern evangelical spirituality, we have been told again and again that too much focus on the self is bad. What we need is less of me and more of God. Thoughts about the self are a sign of selfishness, and so we need to stop thinking about our thoughts, feelings, and desires, and instead think about God and other people.
Yet, this is not quite a fair assessment, for there are those who advocate more attention to the self, especially what the self desires. The Biblical Counseling movement has equipped people to identify the idols of their hearts. Likewise the newly reinvigorated influence of the Puritans has come, instructing us to take great care of our souls through a proper form of introspection. There is a place for looking into the self. Knowing and combating one's sins and weaknesses is paramount to spiritual growth. Merton certainly taught something similar to this kind of self-examination.
On the other hand, he goes further by including another necessary part of self-awareness, which he called contemplation. Contemplation does more than look at sinful behaviors and the lusts underlying them. It pursues knowledge of one's true self, that is, the good created self that has been redeemed through Christ. Humans are created by God. Even greater, humans are created in God's image. As Augustine said, man has, as a function of his nature, a proclivity to love what is good, with God being the highest and chief good; man's weight gravitates towards what is lovable. For all these reasons, man is good, and he is meant for good, in fact, the greatest good, which is knowing and loving the Triune God. If, like Merton, we remember this fact about ourselves, we shall be able to more wisely and effectively see what is both good about us and what is bad. As Merton said, it is only by understanding our goodness that we can understand our wickedness. Modern pastoral theology among evangelicals is in danger of neglecting this wisdom. By doing so, we will only end up promoting a false view of reality, falling into pride and vanity.
Merton's antidote is contemplation. Being a monk and one who wrote for monks, he thought the monastic life was the most ideal place for contemplation to happen. He did not limit it to monks, however. Every Christian is called to their own journey in maturity. For, the goal of maturity is a true knowledge of self and of God, so that we will become what we were meant to be and God will be for us what He truly is. This journey requires contemplation because the greatest hindrance to maturity is deceit. The diabolical working of deceit keeps us from truly knowing ourselves, and thus from truly knowing God. Contemplation works against deceit by confronting the mendacity of our false selves and freeing the true self hidden in every one of us.
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