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Mark W. Elliott, The Works of Thomas Traherne. Volume I: Inducements to Retirednes. A Sober View of Dr Twisses his Considerations. Seeds of Eternity or the Nature of the Soul. The Kingdom of God. Volume II: Commentaries of Heaven, Part 1: Abhorrence to Alone. Volume III: Commentaries of Heaven, Part 2: Al-Sufficient to Bastard. Volume IV: Church’s Year Book, Meditations and Devotions from the Resurrection to All Saints’ Day. A Serious and Pathetical Contemplation of the Mercies of God, in Several Most Devout and Sublime Thanksgivings for the same. (Meditations on the Six Days of the Creation). Edited by Jan Ross., The Journal of Theological Studies, Volume 62, Issue 1, April 2011, Pages 399–401, https://doi.org/10.1093/jts/flr036
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Thomas Traherne (1637–74) has not been fashionable, in large part because he has not been known, apart from two works, until quite recently. He is possibly the beneficiary of a half-hearted interest from the guild of English Literature, with historians of Christian spirituality making up the deficit. In this new edition, the first to contain all his extant works, the text of Traherne will run to occupy seven volumes, with an eighth volume given over to a commentary by the editor, Jan Ross. Perhaps for this reason there is often no annotation of sources in the first four volumes, and the treatment of the various topics in the introductions is thin.
The first volume contains four works only to be found in Lambeth Palace Library (MS 1360), as ‘discovered’ by the late Jeremy Maule in 1997. The first, Inducements to Retiredness, sets out how contemplation flows out in wise counsel for life. The main controversial issue for Traherne, an irenicist at the time of the Restoration, was to reconcile Calvinist and Arminian on election. This he attempted with his A Sober View, not without the hard labour of scriptural emendation. The elect are those who make use of God’s all-sufficient grace. ‘It cannot be said Esau have I hated, till it is said Esau have I seen Wicked.’ There would have to be an infinite transgression if there are to be everlasting damnations. There follows the short Seeds of Eternity, a sort of improvement on Aristotle’s De Anima. The main point is that the soul is glorious, and hence human reason is that which looks beyond delight in appearances to their cause, in order to make sure of it. Last comes another long work, The Kingdom of God. The greatest blessedness is only possible through great abasement, involving the senses, which the angels lack. Perhaps rather strangely, the incarnation does not appear to be central to this. To dwell on God’s infinite and eternal love is to be in the Kingdom. Material spirits, sun, moon, and stars also have a part to play. It is in these sections (chs. 18–25) where some commentary would have been most helpful.
