It begins to appear….

Article in Stretton Focus, October 2012

R.S. Thomas has a poem entitled ‘Emerging’, which is a poet’s word for the more scientific concept of ‘evolution’. Whether you’re a poet or a scientist, we all live in this one world where evolution is the basis of everything. Religion itself is part of ‘everything’, and so it too is in the process of evolving. We have only got ‘three-score years and ten’ (give or take a few) in which to do our evolving. We have to emerge from childhood into maturity; and this involves what the Bible calls ‘putting away childish things’.
Enlightenment is another word for this same process. In the light of growing knowledge and experience, ‘it begins to appear’ that what we once thought and believed, is no longer credible. We have to let it go, if we want to hold on to our intellectual integrity.
For R.S.Thomas, it begins to appear that his concept of God and prayer is no longer convincing, and he is looking for a new understanding. God is no longer ‘somebody somewhere’ who is watching us and waiting to answer prayer. Prayer is not pleading with God to get what you want, and so …
“It begins to appear this is not what prayer is about.
It is the annihilation of difference, the consciousness of myself in You, and You in me”.
Poets can be today’s prophets, moving us on in the evolution of our understanding of God, as we gradually emerge from darkness into light.

Donald Horsfield

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