Charles Ringma has written an interesting book called Seek the Silences with Thomas Merton: Reflections on Identity, Community and Transformative Action (SPCK, 2003). In this book, he uses Thomas Merton as a conversational partner as he explores the themes of being and doing, spirituality and service.

After a short introduction to Thomas Merton, the book has six sections: 1. Being: the Search for Identity; 2. Being and Transcendence: the Search for Ultimate Meaning; 3. Being With: The Search for Friendship and Community; 4. Being Against: The Search for a Prophetic Voice; 5. Being For: The Search for Transformative Action; 6. Being and Hope: The Search for Eschatological Vision. Each section consists of 25 or so 1 to 2 page reflective pieces that connect with the theme of the section and with one of Thomas Merton’s writings.

In the Being section one piece is entitled Falling into Conversation: The Rivulets of Enlightenment. Ringma’s interest is in those conversations that move beyond the exchange of ideas to a level of engagement that reveals aspects of heart, mind and spirit that are revelatory. In these conversations, people express ideas and sentiments that they have not previously considered, they find themselves exploring issues beyond their earlier limits.

Merton’s contribution to the conversation is from Disputed Questions where he says that we can say more than we know and more than we mean.

Ringma says, “In conversations we fall into language. But not into monologue. True conversation is dialogical. It is the magic of partnership and participation. And, therefore, conversation has the possibility of pulling us beyond ourselves. Away from the familiar into the unknown. Away from the prosaic into the mysterious. We move from the known to the revelatory.”

Ringma concludes by reflecting on the Emmaus road conversation where ordinary talk became revelatory and transformative. He wonders about the role of the Spirit of God in these luminous (perhaps numinous) times.

In Chapter 45 of A Ray of Darkness, Rowan Williams looks at spirituality and he points us to Romans 8. In Romans 8 Paul tells us that we walk according to the Spirit (v.1), we are in the Spirit, the Spirit dwells in us (v.9), the Spirit is life (v.10), we are led by the Spirit (v.14), we have the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out Abba, Father (v.15), and that Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God (v.16). The Spirit is in conversation with our spirit about what it means to be the children of God. Williams comments that our spirit is “whatever in us [that] apprehends the truth of the new world brought about by Jesus” (p.233). This suggests that, in these special conversations, the Spirit of God engages our spirit and bears witness to a new truth about this new world of Jesus. But why does this happen in the presence of others in a conversation? Why does the Spirit choose these moments of conversation to create the moments of revelation?

In Galatians 5:13-23 the Spirit is contrasted with the flesh. This passage contrasts community (relationships) with selfish individualism. The life of the flesh (selfish individualism) includes competing with and consuming one another, rivalry and rapacity. The life of the Spirit gives us liberty to build community, to love one another, “have affection for others, exuberance about life, serenity. We develop a willingness to stick with things, a sense of compassion in the heart, and a conviction that a basic holiness permeates things and people. We find ourselves involved in loyal commitments” (The Message). The Spirit wants communion, wants community, so it is no surprise that revelation so often comes through conversation. Williams defines spirit as “that which is oriented to the new humanity, to unrestricted communion that is divine life communicated to mortal bodies” (p.233).

It seems to me that William’s exploration of the nature of Christian spirituality helps us to understand the truth of Merton’s statement that we say more than we know and more than we mean and it adds depths to Ringma’s observation that “the Spirit of God has much to do with this underserved magic” that characterises the best of conversations.