Imaginative Expression of Faith and Science: The Poetry of R. S. Thomas

Abstract

Religious faith is expressed in many different ways, such as worship, prayer, ethics and study of sacred texts. Furthermore, each of these ways shows a great variety of form and content. However, serious consideration of the relationship between faith and science has taken place almost exclusively in a form of scholarly scientific discourse. Consequently, the faith-science dialogue lacks expressive richness. It may even have become seriously biased, for such discourse is close to the characteristic form of scientific reporting. Poetry can help redress this imbalance as it is the most intense of the literary forms and can express both reason and emotion. This paper considers the work of R. S. Thomas, one of the great modern poets of spiritual quest. Most unusually for such a poet, Thomas also strove to incorporate the insights and language of science, and to address the dilemmas of technology, in his writing. Thomas’s approaches to faith and to science are described as expressed in his poetry, prose and interviews. His original and highly engaging explorations of the relationship of faith and science are presented and evaluated. Reading his work provides a remarkable means of enriching the faith-science dialogue.