The work for which Traherne is best known today is the Centuries of Meditations, a collection of short paragraphs in which he reflects on Christian life and ministry, philosophy, happiness, desire and childhood.
22 Facts About Thomas Traherne
2.
Thomas Traherne's writing conveys an ardent, almost childlike love of God, and is compared to similar themes in the works of later poets William Blake, Walt Whitman, and Gerard Manley Hopkins.
3.
Thomas Traherne writes about his childhood, which included a natural wonder at and appreciation of the world around him, in Centuries of Meditations and in his poetry.
4.
In 1667, Thomas Traherne became the private chaplain to Sir Orlando Bridgeman, 1st Baronet, of Great Lever, the Lord Keeper of the Great Seal to King Charles II, at Teddington in Middlesex.
5.
Thomas Traherne was an inconsequential literary figure during his lifetime and his works were not known or appreciated until long after his death.
6.
The Poetical Works of Thomas Traherne was published in 1903 and Centuries of Meditations in 1908.
7.
Thomas Traherne, then, is being presented by propinquity as a representative of the line of 17th-century devotional poets rather than the member of a particular school.
8.
Thomas Traherne describes this as a period of Apostasy and that he later found his way back to faith:.
9.
Thomas Traherne is heavily influenced by the works of Neoplatonist philosophers and several of his contemporaries who were called the Cambridge Platonists.
10.
Thomas Traherne was concerned with the stability of the Christian church in England during the period of the Restoration.
11.
However, Thomas Traherne takes a less polemic tone in the posthumously published Christian Ethicks in which he explores theological implications of Calvinist thought on freedom and necessity.
12.
Thomas Traherne dedicated considerable examination to the subject of sin and its place vis-a-vis the church doctrines.
13.
Thomas Traherne was excluded the Kingdom of Heaven, where nothing can enter that hates God, and whence nothing can be excluded that loves him.
14.
Thomas Traherne's works are inherently mystical in that they seek to understand and embrace the nature of God within his creation and within man's soul.
15.
Thomas Traherne drew deeply on the writings of Aristotle and on the early Church Fathers for his concept of Man and human nature.
16.
Thomas Traherne says that 'understanding set in him' secured his felicity.
17.
Thomas Traherne argues that man can experience this felicity only by understanding the will of God and divine love and he describes the beauty of this in childlike terms.
18.
Thomas Traherne seeks to explain the "Principle of Nature" in which through his inclination to love truth and beauty seek him to identify felicity as its source and a natural experience.
19.
Thomas Traherne was intent that insights gained through philosophy be used in daily life.
20.
Thomas Traherne's works remained largely unpublished until their publication at the start of the 20th century.
21.
Thomas Traherne is remembered in the Church of England with a commemoration.
22.
The Thomas Traherne Association has compiled a check list of some hundred composers who have recognised the lyrical power of his writing and set words by him to music.