The Cuban Missile Crisis brought the United States and the Soviet Union to the brink of nuclear war in October of 1961. On that evening Trappist monk Thomas Merton wrote the first of 111 letters to friends, peace activists, artists, and intellectuals. He was stunned by the casual ways in which people were responding to this supreme crisis of human survival and especially the ways in which some Catholics were prepared to justify mass murder in the name of national security. In one of the letters, Merton writes: "Really we have to pray for a total and profound change in the mentality of the whole world." He believed that to survive the nuclear age, we would need a "complete change of heart" and a "totally new outlook on the world," so that we saw humanity as a whole.

In his foreword, James W. Douglas calls these letters "a form of praying in the darkness, a search for light with the companions he addressed, a night of the spirit when everything seemed lost." He also makes the connection between this crisis and the present-day war on terror, which threatens to cast us into widespread and catastrophic darkness where violence and weapons carry the day over spirit, compassion, and loving one's enemies.

Merton was forbidden by his superiors to publish his thoughts on peace, so these letters are now appearing in book form for the first time. The material covers his views on nuclear war, pacifism, and non-violence. Long-time Merton editors Christine M. Bochen and William H. Shannon weigh in with interpretive essays as well.

Merton makes many cogent points including that the Cold War has deadened the consciences of its supporters and that many Catholics have been infected by worldly values and believe that their power and social status can be protected by military force. He expresses sadness that the Jesus' nonviolent ethic has not been taken seriously by believers. Cold War Letters is relevant to the present moment in more ways than one.