Thomas Merton, The School of Charity. Letters on Religious Renewal and Spiritual Direction [O odnowie życia zakonnego i kierownictwie duchowym. Niepublikowane listy], tr. Agata Świerzowska, Wydawnictwo M, Krakow 2009.

This collection of letters, for the first time translated into Polish, contains the correspondence of Thomas Merton with his fellow-Catholics around the world. Merton's radical and sometimes troubling questions on the monastic way of life, grew out of his personal experience, as well as the profound changes that followed the Vatican Council II. The collection also covers a considerable number of letters addressed to such famous figures as father Barnabas M. Ahern, Nora Chadwick, Etienne Gilson, Dom Aelred Graham, father Bruno Scott James, Dom Jean Leclercq, father Basil Pennington, Colman McCarthy, Archbishop Paul Philippe, father Aelred Squire, Sister Mary Luke Tobin, Dom Hubert Van Zeller, Dome Damasus Winzen father (later Cardinal) Hans Urs von Balthasar, and many others. Of course, many letters are addressed to lesser known people - monks and nuns in the United States, who corresponded with Merton raising issues related to religious renewal and spiritual direction. The edition presented here, as the original release, consists of three parts: "The early years monastic years (1941-1959)", "The middle Formative years 1960-1964)", "The later solitary years (1965-1968)".

Key-words: Merton, aggiornamento, Vatican Council, religious direction