Blakean anti-wisdom in Thomas Merton’s proverbs

This paper explores William Blake’s reception in the work of the twentieth-century monastic writer Thomas Merton. The paper explores the way Blakean proverbs function in Merton’s work as a model of social critique. Following Blake, Merton came to see “wisdom” as a kind of subtraction: not an addition of meaning but a corrosive acid that burns away the falsehoods and illusions of social and religious norms, allowing an authentic spiritual vision to emerge.