R.S. Thomas: Poet of the Hidden God : Meaning and Mediation in the Poetry of R.S. ThomasThis book is one philosopher's response to the poetry of R. S. Thomas. It examines the poet's struggle with the possibilities of sense in religion: R. S. Thomas has described his poetry as an obsession with the possibility of having 'conversations or linguistic confrontations with ultimate reality'. Some attempts at giving meaning to religious belief cannot withstand the assaults of criticism. In R. S. Thomas's verse, however, there emerges a hard-won celebration of the worship of a hidden God; a rare achievement in contemporary poetry. In plotting the course of the development of the poetry, the book brings out its many similarities with the thrusts and counter-thrusts of argument in the philosophy of religion in the second half of the twentieth century. The book should be of interest not only to admirers of R. S. Thomas, but to philosophers, theologians, students of literature, and to anyone concerned with questions concerning the sense or senselessness of religious belief. |
Contents
Earth to Earth | 11 |
Testing the Spirits | 24 |
An Inadequate Language? | 35 |
Copyright | |
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Abercuawg acceptance answer beauty celebration Church comes confronted context D. Z. Phillips dark Deus absconditus difficulties earth echoes emerge endurance eternity evil expression eyes face fact faith flowers G. E. M. Anscombe God's grace hand harshness heart hidden human Iago Prytherch Ibid involved Kierkegaard kind language London look Ludwig Wittgenstein machine Manafon meaning mediation of religious mind mind's minister Moelwyn Merchant nature notion pain peasant Peter Winch philosophers Pietà poet poet-priest poet's Poetry for Supper Poetry of R. S. Poetry Wales possibility praise prayers priest problem question R. S. Thomas says R. S. Thomas's poetry reactions realises reflection religion religious sense right place Roland Mathias Rupert Hart-Davis seems seen Selected Poems silence Simone Simone Weil Song speak spirit stone struggle suffering T. S. Eliot talk tension theodicies things thought tion tree verse Via Negativa volume waiting Wittgenstein word Year's Turning