R. S. Thomas is recognised globally as one of the major poets of the twentieth century. Such detailed attention as has been paid to the religious dimensions of his work has, however, largely limited itself to such matters as his obsession with the ‘absent God’, his appalled fascination with the mixed cruelty and wonder of a divinely created world, his interest in the world-view of the ‘new physics’, and his increasingly heterodox stance on spiritual matters. What has been largely neglected is his central indebtedness to key features of the ‘classic’ Christian tradition. This book concentrates on one powerful and compelling example of this, reading Thomas’s great body of religious work in the light of the three days that form the centre of the Gospel narrative; the days which tell of the death, entombment and resurrection of Christ.

Pain is unavoidable. It is part of our everyday lives whether we like it or not. Pain is what makes us take our fingers off the hot stove; it is one of God's gifts to us. Emotional pain is also one of God's gifts to us. It also warns us that there is something not quite right in our lives. Unfortunately, some Christians think that they should be spared from that kind of pain, but that is simply not true. Jesus was "a man of suffering and familiar with pain" (Isaiah 53:3). As followers of Christ we should also expect to experience pain. If you put your hand in the fire and it does not burn, then there is something wrong. If you lose your mother to cancer and you do not grieve, then there is something wrong. Life does hurt from time to time. That is what this book is about. The heroes of the faith that we read about in the Bible were human like us. They had their problems. Some of them experienced intense emotional pain. Even though they were God's people, God did not spare them from pain.