R. S. Thomas

“You have given us the ability

to ask the unanswerable question.”

Rowan Williams on R. S. Thomas

R.S. Thomas was a priest who struggled with the Church and a poet who struggled with communication. Out of these conflicts emerged a poetry that is always challenging, often haunting, profoundly contemporary. We shall be looking at his development from work that is often focused on the local and natural world towards writing that is more politically engaged and philosophically complex - and also at how he deals with prayer, art and love. He is widely acknowledged as perhaps the most significant Christian poet of his generation, yet his expression of faith can be tantalizing and often near-agnostic.  His style is spare and laconic, but his metaphors are often astonishingly dramatic. His vision - both his religious and poetic vision - is undoubtedly difficult, but his phraseology has captivated countless other writers and thinkers, and he has the distinction of having shaped an entire imaginative landscape, especially but not exclusively for readers in his native Wales. He continues to attract critical attention and a diverse global readership.

Rowan Williams was born and brought up in Wales, where he now lives. He was Archbishop of Canterbury from 2002 to 2012, and has published widely in theology and other fields.  His 'Collected Poems' appeared in 2021, and his anthology, 'A Century of Poetry', in 2022.