Books by Roger Lipsey
Angelic Mistakes: The Art of Thomas Merton
by Roger Lipsey, Paul M. Pearson
In the last decade of his life, while living as a hermit-monk in dialogue with the world, Thomas Merton created a body of visual art that has remained largely unknown and little studied in the nearly forty years since his death. With this book, Merton's art at last moves out of the shadows to be appreciated for what it is: a revealing expression of his state of mind and heart in the 1960s, and a visual correlative to his mature works of spiritual writing such as New Seeds of Contemplation and Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander. Roger Lipsey provides a fascinating analysis of the simple and striking images and their significance in Merton's journey. He find in them resonances with Asian calligraphy and American abstract expressionism, and relates them to the influence of Merton's wide circle of friends, which included such diverse figures as the Catholic philosopher Jacques Maritain, the poet Czeslaw Milosz, the Zen scholar D. T. Suzuki, and the artist Ad Reinhardt—among many others.
But the centerpiece of the book is the art itself, presented in a portfolio of thirty-four representative pieces that reflect the changing themes and methods of Merton's work. Each is accompanied by selections from his writings from the 1960s that reflect the inward and outward territories Merton was exploring in the period when these remarkable images were created.
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Angelic Mistakes: The Art of Thomas Merton
by Roger Lipsey, Paul M. Pearson
Hermit-monk, spiritual seeker, social activist, mystic, writer, and artist - Thomas Merton was all of these during his life. As the author of numerous mature works of spiritual writing, such as The Seven Storey Mountain and New Seeds of Contemplation, Merton became best known for his intellectual writings and constant quest to understand his relationship to the divine.
During the 1960s, the last decade of his life, Merton created a body of visual art that served as a correlative to his writings. The intimate pieces reflected his personal path, revealing the inner workings of his heart and mind as he continued his search for meaning. For nearly forty years after his death, his artowrk remained largely unknown and little studied. With this book, Merton's art moves out of the shadows to be appreciated for what it is.
Noted author and art historian Dr. Roger Lipsey offers an insightful examination of the varied influences on Merton's artistic work. Asian calligraphy and American abstract expressionism both played key roles, as did Merton's wide circle of friends, including such diverse figures as the Catholic philosopher Jacques Maritain, the poet Czeslaw Milosz, the Zen scholar D. T. Suzuki, and the artist Ad Reinhardt - among many others.
The centerpiece of the book is, of course, the art itself, presented in an attractive portfolio of thirty-four representative pieces, each accompanied by selections from Merton's own writings. Lipsey provides an insightful analysis of the simple yet striking images and their significance on Merton's lifelong spiritual journey.
Roger Lipsey earned a Ph.D. in the history of art at the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University. A direction of the parent company that publishes the journal Parabola, he has written on art and spirituality for many years. He is the author of The Spiritual in Twentieth-Century Art, now in its second edition. He livesi n Garrison, New York.
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Gurdjieff Reconsidered: The Life, the Teachings, the Legacy
by Roger Lipsey
From a master biographer and longtime Gurdjieff practitioner, a brilliant new exploration of the quintessential Western esoteric teacher of the twentieth-century.
The Greek-Armenian teacher G.I. Gurdjieff was one of the most original and provocative spiritual teachers in the twentieth-century West. Whereas much work on Gurdjieff has been either fawning or blindly critical, acclaimed scholar and writer Roger Lipsey balances sympathic interest in Gurdjieff and his "Fourth Way" teachings with a historian's sense of context and a biographer's feel for personality and relationships. Using a wide-range of published and unpublished sources, Lipsey explores Gurdjieff's formative travels in Central Asia, his famed teaching institution in France, the development of the Gurdjieff Movements and music, and, above all, Gurdjieff's fascinating continuous evolution as a teacher.
Published on the 70th anniversary of Gurdjieff's death, Gurdjieff Reconsidered delves deeply into Gurdjieff's writings and those of his most important students, including P. D. Ouspensky and Jeanne de Salzmann. Lipsey's comprehensive approach and unerring sense of the subject make this a must-read for anyone with a serious intention to explore Gurdjieff's life, teachings, and reputation.
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Make Peace before the Sun Goes Down: The Long Encounter of Thomas Merton and His Abbot, James Fox
by Roger Lipsey
A fascinating account of Thomas Merton's conflicted relationship with his abbot, Dom James Fox—by an esteemed modern Merton scholar.
In the 1950s and '60s, Thomas Merton, a monk of the Trappist monastery of Gethsemani in Kentucky, published a string of books that are among the most influential spiritual books of the twentieth century--including the mega-best seller The Seven-Storey Mountain. He was something of a rock star for a cloistered monk, and from his monastic cell he enjoyed a wide and lively correspondence with people from the worlds of religion, literature, and politics. During that period he also explored and wrote extensively on Buddhism, Sufism, art, and social action. The man to whom he owed obedience in the cloistered life was a much more traditional Catholic, his abbot, Dom James Fox. To say that these two men had a conflicted relationship would be an understatement, but the tension their differences in orientation brought actually led to creative results on both sides and to a kind of hard-won respect and love. Roger Lipsey's portrait of this unusual relationship is compelling and moving; it shows Merton in the years his imagination was taking him far beyond the walls of the monastery, and eventually, literally to Asia.
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Politics and Conscience: Dag Hammarskjöld on the Art of Ethical Leadership
by Roger Lipsey
An accessible guide to the principles and vision of Dag Hammarskjöld, a man John F. Kennedy called "the greatest statesman of our century."
Dag Hammarskjöld served as Secretary-General of the United Nations from 1953 until his tragic Dag Hammarskjöld served as secretary-general of the United Nations from 1953 until his tragic death in a suspicious plane crash in 1961. During those years he saw the fledgling international organization through numerous crises with skill that made him a star on the international stage. As readers of his now-classic diary, Markings, are aware, Hammarskjöld understood political leadership as an honor calling for resourcefulness, humility, moral clarity, and spiritual reflection.
In this accessible handbook, acclaimed biographer Roger Lipsey details the political and personal code by which Hammarskjöld lived and made critical decisions. What emerges is the portrait of a man who struck a remarkable balance between patience and action, empathy and reserve, policy and people. Structured through short sections on themes such as courage, facing facts, and negotiation, Politics and Conscience offers a vision of ethical leadership as relevant today as it was in Hammarskjöld’s time.
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Hammarskjöld: A Life
by Roger Lipsey
After his mysterious death, Dag Hammarskjöld was described by John F. Kennedy as the "greatest statesman of our century." Second secretary-general of the United Nations (1953 - 61), he is the only person to have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize posthumously. Through extensive research in little explored archives and personal correspondence, Roger Lipsey has produced the definitive biography of Dag Hammarskjöld. Hammarskjöld: A Life provides vivid new insights into the life and mind of a truly great individual. Hammarskjöld the statesman and Hammarskjöld the author of the classic spiritual journal Markings meet in this new biography - and the reader will meet them both in these pages. A towering mid-twentieth-century figure, Hammarskjöld speaks directly to our time.
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