Believer or Atheist? – The Priest/Poet R. S. Thomas

The title of this lecture, ‘Believer or Atheist? – The Priest/Poet R. S. Thomas’, sounds a shocking one for an Archbishop, in whose church R. S. Thomas served as a priest for his whole ministry. I have chosen it because R. S. Thomas has been accused by many of not believing in God because of some of the things he said and some of the poetry he wrote. John Barnie, the editor of Planet, calls him an atheist manqué.¹