Deus Absconditus Research Articles

The Death of the Heavens: Crescas and Spinoza on the Uniformity of the World

The paper examines the roles of Crescas and Spinoza in the transition from the medieval to the modern conception of the universe. Crescas is presented as an illustrative example of the tension between Aristotelianism and revealed religion and how the latter brings about the dissolution of the former, thus paving the way for the modern conception of the universe. It is then showed how this modern conception is embodied in Spinoza’s thought, which radicalizes some of its defining traits. This radicalization undermines the traditional conception of the Deus absconditus and leads in Spinoza to the replacement of religion by philosophy as the true divine revelation.

Le clair-obscur pascalien – de la Révélation au nihilisme

This article explores the concept of divine revelation as presented by Blaise Pascal, examining the fundamental dichotomy between the hidden and revealed aspects of God. Beginning with the premise of human existence as inherently obscure and lost in the universe without apparent reason, the study delves into Pascal’s inquiry into the origins of human existence and the role of God as both a part of and apart from this primordial darkness. Pascal’s reflections on the incomprehensibility of man before that of God highlight a foundational obscurity, setting the stage for a deeper investigation into the nature of divine revelation. The article contrasts Pascal’s perspective with traditional theological and philosophical views, particularly in relation to the manifest nature of God as commonly interpreted through natural phenomena. It further delves into Pascal’s interpretation of scriptural passages, notably Isaiah 45:15, emphasizing the notion of Deus Absconditus (Hidden God) and its critical role in understanding the paradoxical nature of divine revelation. The article examines how Pascal perceives God’s manifestation through various historical and mystical dimensions, including nature, the Incarnation, and the Eucharist, each revealing God while simultaneously concealing Him.

STUDI ISLAM MELALUI PENDEKATAN FENOMENOLOGI (TELAAH PEMIKIRAN ANNEMARIE SCHIMMEL)

The approach to studying Islam by Charles J. Adams is divided into two main things, namely the normative or religious approach and the descriptive approach. The normative approach is an approach that is based on religious commitment, and still includes the subjective objectives of the reviewer and of course the results of the study will tend to be more subjective. The phenomenological approach that Schimmel applies in Islamic studies is a phenomenological approach that he knew from Friedrich Heiler. Implementation of this approach through systematic steps (techniques), namely examining first the phenomenon (the world of external manifestations of Islam) and then the deeper and deeper layers of human responses to God (the world of religious imagination and experience), to reach the deepest sacred essence of each religion, the center, the God, the Deus Absconditus (objective world of religion) and Schimmel has implemented it well through the intended steps.

The Hidden God? Karl Barth and Qoheleth on the Deus Absconditus

Abstract Biblical scholars of the Old Testament have long upheld that YHWH is a “hidden God.” In fact, the hiddenness of God finds robust expression in the book of Ecclesiastes, where the concept seems to frame the very idea of God. Yet Karl Barth famously opposed Luther’s Deus absconditus, whose existence suggested a God “behind the back” of Jesus. If Barth is right that YHWH is no Deus absconditus, what then of Qohelet’s claim that divine hiddenness is an essential theological affirmation? The goal of this article is to examine how Barth’s discomfort with the Deus absconditus can be reconciled with the fact that divine hiddenness seems to frame Qoheleth’s theological perspective. On the side of systematics, we must determine what Barth says about hiddenness and the Deus absconditus: why, how, and to what degree he challenges the notion. As I shall argue, Barth’s complex theology of revelation exhibits a tension, both affirming a certain notion of God’s “hiddenness” and denying the Deus absconditus. On the biblical side, we must determine the nature and content of Qohelet’s God-talk. I will argue that many descriptions of the God-talk of Ecclesiastes are exaggerated and insensitive to Qohelet’s larger theological perspective. In the end, a more nuanced reading of both Barth and Qoheleth can bring these giants into conversation with one another and perhaps even clarify what is left ambiguous in Ecclesiastes’s theological assertions.

Idolatry and Mystery

Abstract This article contrasts the accounts of mystery used to combat idolatry found in the theology of Karl Barth and in contemporary apophatic theology. It describes Barth’s account of mystery as distinctly Protestant in its soteriological nature and basis in contrast to recent apophatic accounts of mystery based on the doctrine of creatio ex nihilo. These divergent theologies of mystery—as either light or darkness based on different dogmatic res—ultimately reveal contrasting commitments in the doctrine of God. For both, Jesus Christ is the light of God’s gracious revelation. However, the movement in apophatic theology is from the light of Christ to the mystery of divine darkness, while in Barth’s theology Jesus Christ is the luminous mystery of God that dispels the Deus absconditus. This article argues that idolatry is better counteracted by Barth’s positive concept that mystery is grace and filled with content in Jesus Christ.

Some Aspects of Respect and Dignity of Individual On the Europeanism as Values-system: Moral and Individual

The most philosophical writer of the 20th century, Robert Musil wrote: the individual is nothing else but one’s own primary performance. God has become Deus absconditus—claims Milan Kundera—humans have become all’s stone. In this matter, Europeanism signifies that the individual becomes what one makes oneself become. I think the great challenge of pedagogy (from theoretical and practical aspect aspect): how can the ability and competence of independent thinking be realised during educational work? How does the schooling system facilitate the development of the autonomy of pupils, students and teachers? In my opinion (summary of this study) the respect and dignity are the most beautiful and charming quests of Europeanism and education.

The Synergistic-Generative Knowledge of God in the I-Thou Encounter

This paper applies the transdisciplinary methodology to theological epistemology by introducing the synergistic-generative knowledge, real, reality, perception and hidden third, in the interpersonal dialogue I-Thou. It explores the epistemic approach to Yeshua ha Mashiah as the hidden third who opens the transdisciplinary window to knowing God. The transdisciplinary epistemic window allows for a top-down and bottom-up movments to better understand the epistemic role of Jesus Christ in knowing Deus absconditus. Being simultaneous filius hominis and Filius Dei, Deus and Imago Dei, He plays the role of the hidden third between Deus and Imago Dei in the I-Thou salvific encounter.

La ausencia en Schiller: el deus absconditus y el ejecutor (Wallenstein y Wilhelm Tell)

"The connection between Schiller’s dramas and the reflections developed in his philosophical and historical writings are a highly problematic question. Simplifying, it can be said that the philosophical texts project Schillerian ideals and the historical ones reflect his psychological knowledge of human beings. This tension between the ideal and reality is manifested, among other constellations, in that of absence. In Wallenstein and Wilhelm Tell, the leads are out of action for much of the plot. The character of Wallenstein is absent as a deus absconditus that will be revealed to have failed, whereas the character of Tell as an executor who leaves the collective of his people exempt from with guilt."

Dramaturgia Mitopoetică a Lui Blaga Și Rescrierea Canonului Redempţiunii

Abstract Taking in consideration a broad perspective on Romanian literature and the prevalence of the Byzantine religious model, the orthodox background that provides the dichotomie Good-Bad or Beautiful-Ugly as a statement, the present paper analyses Lucian Blaga’s plays (Tulburarea apelor and Meșterul Manole) as an alternative model. The European cultural influences, the Gnostic, the psychoanalytic and aesthetic visions, the religious syncretism, the mythical and poetic, tragic and expresionst dimensions of his works are the premises of considering Blaga a rewriter of the redemption’s canon for his heroes. Firstly, the present paper proposes reading the plays through Goethe’s grind – the two souls theory (that of the day and that of the night) corresponding to the maternal and the paternal images, in relation with Blaga’s biography. On the other hand, taking in consideration Nietzsche’s theory about ancient tragedy, it analyses the rapport between apollonian and dionysian elements, but also the faustization of the heroes. If masculine characters can be related to different faustic steps, the women have both angelic and mephistophelean features – there are correspondents to the Anima, or to the Shadow, in the Jungian archetypes, to the biblical fallen angel or to the ancient Bacchanta. Nona remains a femnine Mephisto or a Sucubous that reshapes the patter of temptention into the erotic seduction while Mira can be seen as a Margareta or even as a Helena, while the church that Manole built on the foundation of her sacrifice can be read in the same grind as Euphorion – the symbol of Beauty and Perfection or of Manole-Faust’s new soul. The question if Nona and Mira can represent (or not) the Eternal Feminin and the salvation of heroes is sill valid. However, describing the Priest and Manole as dramatic (not as tragic heroes, although we can talk about the resurrection of Hybris, Hamartia, Catastrophe and a possible Nemesis), in relation with a non-Crestian, Gnostic, Bogumilic or Pantheist God (a Deus absconditus or Deus otiosus), their redemption is a non-canonic one. Although the answer that the author provides if we are talking about a damnation or about a path to redemption, from the religious point of view, the priest’s salvation is a Pantheist one, while Manole’s redemption can be seen as an aesthetic one. Both parralel with the classic possibilities of saving heroes, alternative models that rewrite the canon of redemption.

“God Smiles”: The Rhythm of Revelation in Sorrentino’s “The Young Pope”

The classic problematic of divine absence and presence is a familiar theological trope (deus absconditus). It achieves new life, however, in the work of contemporary Italian filmmaker Paolo Sorrentino (b. 1970), who explores the theme in his recent television miniseries The Young Pope (2016). I “read” Sorrentino as part of a trajectory in contemporary Italian theory (Vattimo, Agamben, etc.) that deconstructs-as-a-way-of-receiving certain traditional (especially Catholic) problematics. However, Sorrentino is to be distinguished from these others by what we might call a postmodern sincerity, whereby he manages to twist without breaking an orthodox understanding of divine invisibility. Importantly, Sorrentino emphasizes the interpersonal and ongoing nature of revelation, and thus situates the absconditus problem in a broader account of dialogical divine love. “Reading” Sorrentino in this way suggests that deus absconditus and deus revelatus are not concepts in tension but rather dynamic parts of an integral, integrating dialectic. It also suggests that visual storytelling remains a powerful medium for raising and indeed enacting fundamental theological questions to do with belief and unbelief.

Hobbes’ God is Hidden and Idle

ABSTRACT This article argues that Hobbes’ contradictory references to God can be resolved if viewed through the lens of two prominent conceptualizations of God – the Reformist hidden God (deus absconditus) and the Epicurean idle God (deus otiosus). Contrary to scholars who argue that Hobbes’ God does not exist by nature and only comes into being through his representees, I argue that in the Leviathan, God may be incomprehensible or idle, but that He exists prior to His representees. With this characterization, Hobbes manages to assert God’s ultimate supremacy and challenge the authority of the Church while simultaneously reinforcing the necessity to submit to the sovereign. Establishing this point, the article places Hobbes’ theological argument in the context of two prevalent conceptions of God’s nature at the time of Hobbes’ writing and explains their political-theological relevance in the Leviathan. The article thus contributes to the continued debate about Hobbes’ view on God’s role in relation to the Commonwealth.

Wo ist Gott in der Pandemie? Theologische Überlegungen aus Praxis und Reflexion kirchenleitenden Handelns

Abstract The pandemic has confronted the churches with various difficult questions both practical and theological. Is there a responsible way of celebrating worship in the churches without risking people’s health? Numerous creative new digital formats were developed in the parishes to offer alternatives. How does God work in the pandemic? Is there any causal connection between God and the virus? The responses to this question are not only of philosophical importance, but have fundamental consequences on how we pray and how we identify God’s presence in our lives. Some responses affirm God’s role in the origin of the virus, e.g. by identifying the work of the deus absconditus in it, others emphasize the mysteriousness of God’s action, others see God’s action in God’s spirit of creative energy to overcome suffering in human and non-human nature. The latter approach is developed by an understanding of God based on God’s revelation in Jesus Christ and an eschatological interpretation of its visibility beyond current experiences of destruction and despair.

São Tomás de Aquino metido num “imbróglio”: A demonstração da existência de Deus

This article attempts to clarify the thesis by St. Thomas Aquinas, according to which it is possible to prove that the existence of God can be demonstrated. On the basis of the analyses in Summa Theologica I, q.2 and Summa contra gentiles I (I-XV), there is an attempt to understand the meaning and relevance of this thesis, its implications and its philosophical and theological significance. Thomas Aquinas’ analyses underline the importance of distinguishing between a knowledge about the existence of God and one regarding his essence, while highlighting in each case a set of difficulties and lack of knowledge factors. In a context where the idea of confusion plays a central role, Thomas Aquinas tries to show that: a) no matter how confused knowledge about God is and no matter how large the disproportion between the human and divine perspectives, there is an ineradicable notitia Dei, and b) this notice is linked at the same time to the inability to know God’s essenceand the ability to demonstrate His existenceby means of certain effects and traces of His. This all leads to the peculiar demonstration of the existence of a Deus absconditus. It is precisely the discovery of this God who manifests himself and at the same time hides himself that makes it possible to document the pos-sibility of demonstrating that God exists and that constitutes the foundations on which every and any demonstration of the existence of God rests.

Luther, Heidegger, and the Hiddenness of God

This paper seeks to trace how certain Lutheran themes, particularly the tendency towards fideism evidenced in the Lutheran ‘Deus absconditus’ (‘hidden God’), were later adopted by Heidegger, and then misappropriated by certain ‘post-theological’ thinkers of the continental tradition in the late twentieth century. In what follows, the early Luther and his theology of the Cross will be firstly placed into its late medieval nominalist context, after which Heidegger’s employment of the Lutheran ‘hidden God’ in his formulation of the question of ‘being’ will be discussed. Finally, I will propose that the appreciation of Luther’s legacy and his relevance for philosophy lies not in popular ‘Heideggerian’ revisionist readings of the reformer but, alternatively, through integrating the Deus absconditus theme into the rest of his theological thought, including his historical context.

The State as God: On Bourdieu's Political Theology

Bourdieu’s anthropology of the state can be interpreted as a form of political theology, premised on a panentheistic conception of the state, which is transcendental to social reality while simultaneously being lodged in all social matter. The state is a Leviathan that imposes a horizon of meaning beyond which social agents rarely, if ever, move. The anthropologist must transcend the doxic structures of the state by engaging in a labor of anamnesis, enacting a bringing-to-consciousness of the invisible and occluded operations of the state in its deployment of symbolic power, which serves to naturalize a series of dominant (yet arbitrary) categories, concepts, and representations. Bourdieu’s ontological vision can be summarized in the concise formula, ‘state = society = God.’ A guiding methodical imperative for sociologists of the state-as-divinity is extracted from Bourdieu’s lectures on the state: the Deus Absconditus Principle, which mandates detecting and uncovering the veiled divinity of the state in all aspects of social reality. It is the task of the anthropologist to channel, interpret, and challenge the panentheistic state.

La disparition du dieu dans la Bible et les mythologie hittites: Essai anthropologique by Hélène Nutkowicz and Michel Mazoyer

Reviewed by: La disparition du dieu dans la Bible et les mythologie hittites: Essai anthropologique by Hélène Nutkowicz and Michel Mazoyer Michael S. Moore hélène nutkowicz and michel mazoyer, La disparition du dieu dans la Bible et les mythologie hittites: Essai anthropologique (Collection Kubaba, Série Antiquité; Paris: L'Harmattan, 2014). Pp. 211. €20.90. The Kubaba Association is an affiliation of Parisian scholars committed to publishing "populist surveys for public universities interested in investigating the connections between ancient and modern civilizations." The association takes its name from an ancient Near Eastern goddess of magic and fertility; its mission is to publish educational material focused on interdisciplinary rapprochements between "separate cultures, languages and beliefs" (cited from the vision statement at http://kubaba.univ-paris1.fr/). Overall, this is a good, serviceable introduction to a very important notion in ancient Near Eastern religious thought. These are separate survey articles nominally juxtaposed. The first is an introduction to and translation of the Hittite Telipinu myth by Mazoyer (the [End Page 122] president of Kubaba and author of "Le mythe de Telipinu et les rituels du Kizzuwatna," in La Cilicie: Espaces et pouvoirs locaux [ed. É. Jean et al.; Varia Anatolica 13; Paris: De Boccard, 2001] 115-22—an essay enthusiastically received by Jared L. Miller in his Studies in the Origins, Development, and Interpretation of the Kizzuwatna Rituals [Studien zu den Boğazköy-Texten 46; Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2004] 456). The second is an essay on the "disappearing deity" motif by Nutkowicz, to which she appends a substantive note on the deus absconditus notion in ancient Egypt, focusing on the "absence-renewal" hieroglyph of the kpr scarab ("dung-beetle"). Working from an amalgated text, M.'s essay on the "Disappearance of Telipinu" (CTH 324 [Catalogue des textes hittites] [Paris: Klincksieck, 1971]; Gary Beckman prefers to call it the "Wrath of Telipinu" in The Context of Scripture [ed. William W. Hallo; 3 vols.; Leiden: Brill, 1997–2002] 1:151-55) shows how this myth helped Anatolians address some rather difficult socioeconomic questions. For example: What causes famine, pestilence, and death if not the disappearance of the deity responsible for keeping them away? What triggers the god's decision to leave his/her post? Is it anger, and if so, can this anger be measured (i.e., where "minor irritation" < "full-blown wrath")? Where does the deity go when he/she disappears? What ritual(s) help facilitate his/her return? Walking the reader through these questions, M. shows how "the theme of the disappearing god is a key element of Hittite religion. It furnishes an explanation for the organization of the pantheon and a 'philosophical' explanation for the order of the world. . . . An agrarian deity at the beginning, Telipinu returns" from his sabbatical "endowed with a new function: creator god," thereby ushering in the "dawn" of a new era "founded on fecundity, prosperity, and peace" (p. 40). Nutkowicz's essay, on the other hand, lists the primary verbs in Tanak signifying various degrees and types of divine absentia: ("to hide," Gen 3:10), ("to conceal," Exod 2:2), ("to conceal," Job 6:10), ("to hide," Isa 2:10), ("to shut," 1 Sam 12:3), ("to hide," Ps 10:11), the last of which sometimes occurs with , ("face[s]") to describe the deus absconditus. In addition, she lists other verbs referencing what writers imagine to be divine "sleep" (, Ps 44:24; 1 Kgs 18:27), "forgetfulness" (, Ps 10:11), "abandonment" (, Lam 5:20; Isa 54:7; , Ps 27:9), "rejection" (, Isa 41:9), "silence" (, Isa 1:15; N.B. , "to be deaf," does not appear in this verse, contra the reference on p. 94), even "detestation" (, Ps 89:39). After this she rather conservatively concludes that the Hebrew deity "is never truly absent, but can hide his face from humanity, taking as long as he wants to decide whether to turn away or return. His covenant is never called into question" because it is "the consequence of divine choice and the revealed word. God does not abandon men, but returns them to himself in freedom. Thus he appears to the individual, haunted by the divine absence, to start his/her search, but...

A Life That Is Good: The Message of Proverbs in a World Wanting Wisdom by Glenn Pemberton

Reviewed by: A Life That Is Good: The Message of Proverbs in a World Wanting Wisdom by Glenn Pemberton Michael S. Moore glenn pemberton, A Life That Is Good: The Message of Proverbs in a World Wanting Wisdom (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans 2018). Pp. xviii + 236. $18. The purpose of this book is twofold: (a) to provide a usable resource for "faith-based discussion groups and Bible classes, with secondary consideration for undergraduate university courses on Israel's wisdom literature" (p. xv); and (b) to help such readers learn how to tell the difference between "the good life" championed in Proverbs and the one relentlessly advertised on their television, phone, and computer screens. This intended audience is quite specific, and in many ways this volume is quite different from the books and monographs regularly reviewed in this journal. Even a cursory reading, however, makes clear that this is one of the best new books on Proverbs available to this (or any other) readership. Not only is it eminently readable, but it is carefully structured, an irony given the fact that the structure of Proverbs is so famously difficult to pin down. For this reason Pemberton thinks it appropriate, in view of the amorphous structure of the biblical book, to expose contemporary students to this ancient Hebrew text by cutting it up into digestible fragments or, to use one of his own metaphors, to help them identify which types of "railroad cars" (flatbed, boxcar, refrigeration, livestock, passenger, tankcar) seem best suited to transport which types of "freight" (p. 23). After a pithy introduction explaining what it is that Hebrew sages habitually do (comparing and contrasting their work with that of prophets and priests), P. plunges into that area of interest with which most instructors today are most acutely aware—gender. Avoiding the guild tendency to bog students down in "Goddess Sophia" speculation, P. instead challenges them to appreciate the character and contours of the roles enacted in Proverbs 1–9 by the five women who serve as the primary educators of the book's original audience—young men. These include (a) the young man's mother, (b) the young man's wife, (c) the other woman, (d) the wisdom woman, and (e) the foolish woman (Proverbs 1–9). Attention then turns to Proverbs 10–31 as an assemblage of sapiential responses to five distinct "challenges": (a) absolute vs. conditional meaning; (b) translation and culture; (c) enigma; (d) description vs. prescription; and (e) "the Bible factor" (i.e., the "inspiration" and "authoritativeness" of Proverbs as a religious text). Prolegomena out of the way, P. turns in the next few chapters to questions and concerns [End Page 320] deemed central to Hebrew wisdom generally and Proverbs particularly. The first, cleverly conceived and written, is entitled "Deforming Character: How to Become a Fool." Much like C. S. Lewis's Screwtape Letters, this chapter is an entertaining, tongue-in-cheek exposé on how foolmongering develops in individuals over time: (a) stage 1: foolish actions; (b) stage 2: stepping onto the path of folly; (c) stage 3: the hardening; (d) stage 4: collapse and rage. Imaginatively illustrated and skillfully articulated, this chapter might easily stand alone as a separate volume, as might several others in this slim paperback. The next chapter, "What's God Got to Do With It? Searching for God in Proverbs," attempts to explain the Deus absconditus climate of Proverbs by laying out the argument of Klaus Koch that God has no need to be directly involved ("Is There A Doctrine of Retribution in the Old Testament?," in Theodicy in the Old Testament [ed. James L. Crenshaw; Issues in Religion and Theology 4; Philadelphia: Fortress, 1983] 60-61) alongside that of William McKane that the book's oldest layer is fundamentally secular, not religious (Proverbs: A New Approach [OTL; London: SPCK, 1970] 10-22). P.'s response to this debate is to insist that, whatever position one takes, the "key phrase distinguishing the book of Proverbs from collections of advice for 'the good life' at local bookstores is 'the fear of the Lord'"—a phrase he wants to see as the "golden thread holding Proverbs together" (p. 86). The next chapter ("Justice and Mercy...

“Seeking Refuge in God against God”: The Hidden God in Lutheran Theology and the Postmodern Weakening of God

Abstract Martin Luther emphasizes the affective experience of the living God rather than God as an abstract, metaphysical idea. Luther explains this experience of God by distinguishing between God as Deus absconditus in his hidden majesty and God as Deus revelatus suffering on the cross. According to Luther, sinners experience the hidden God as a terrifying presence causing them to suffer. Through faith, however, sinners are able to recognize that this wrathful God is one with the God of love and mercy revealed in Christ. Based on this paradoxical understanding of God, Luther admonishes Christians to seek refuge in God against God. In recent decades, Luther’s accentuation of the revealed God has inspired postmodern philosophers and theologians in their efforts to recast the notion of God in light of the Nietzschean outcry on the death of God and Heidegger’s critique of ontotheology. Hence, John D. Caputo and Gianni Vattimo have weakened the notion of an omnipotent God in favour of an anti-metaphysical understanding of “god” kenotically denouncing his power and occurring as an ethically obliging event. Conversely, postmodern thinking have inspired contemporary Lutheran theologians to reinterpret the notion of God. In this article, Luther’s theology serves as a resource for critiquing these postmodern attempts at post-metaphysically rethinking God the central claim being that they are unable to proclaim the saving promise of a reconciliatory union between God hidden and revealed and between sinful human beings and Christ. As a result, theology is reduced to an ethical manifesto or to compassionate anthropology leaving despairing humans without a language with which to express their sufferings.

Wykładnia kategorii Boga ukrytego na podstawie dialogu Mikołaja z Kuzy De deo abscondito

The paper presents the theological and philosophical category of Deus absconditus (‘hidden God’) and shows it in the perspective of Nicholas of Cusa’s ideas contained in his dialogue De Deo Abscondito. The hidden God is the totally transcendent God that is beyond creation both ontologically and logically. Deus absconditus is God that cannot be the object of rational cognition and positive knowledge, hence the only way to acquire any knowledge of him is the method of negative (apophatic) theology. Therefore, the hidden God is the subject of mystical epistemology. Cusanus’s Deus absconditus is also called Truth (Veritas) and as such he is not only incomprehensible, but also incommunicable. God’s transcendence (I), rational unintelligibility (II) and inexpressibility (apophasis) (III) are the aspects which the considerations presented in this paper build on.

‘Ann heard Him speak, and Pantycelyn’: The Unexpected Relationship between R. S. Thomas and the Calvinistic Methodists

This article explores the relationship between R. S. Thomas (1913–2000) and the Calvinistic Methodists, especially William Williams Pantycelyn (1717–91). It suggests that Thomas was drawing on Pantycelyn’s oeuvre and imitating some of his famous images, especially the pilgrim who seeks after an experiential knowledge of God – a God who can be known and felt. Both writers use pilgrim personas to distance and ventriloquise themselves in their work, and yet the poems, in both oeuvres, are written directly out of their own spiritual quests. Their pilgrims travel through literal topographies before turning within: while Pantycelyn’s speaker addresses his sin, Thomas’s speakers’ search for self slowly evolves into a quest for the deus absconditus.