Abstract
This essay begins by acknowledging Marius Buning's major contribution to understandings of Beckett's work in relation to negative theology. After situating the apophatic tradition as Beckett encountered it, the essay focuses on Thomas Merton (poet, writer, and Trappist monk), the fortieth anniversary of whose death was commemorated in 2008. Merton was acutely responsive to Beckett's writing, discerning in parts of it a radical ascesis and apophaticism. In analysing Merton's nuanced attitude to Beckett, the discussion draws in the figure of Jacques Maritain, demonstrating the divergences between Merton and Beckett in relation to this prominent French scholar of Thomas Aquinas.
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