From the book
Centuries of Meditations
Thomas Traherne · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordAn affliction is a suffering or adversity borne by someone: illness, loss, persecution, or another distress.
- In TraherneAfflictions test whether happiness rests only on agreeable circumstances.
- In this editionThe rhetoric of delight in affliction describes a spiritual transformation of adversity.
- A place to beginThe Comforter makes afflictions bearable within the enjoyment of divine love.
Meaning
An affliction is a suffering or adversity borne by someone: illness, loss, persecution, or another distress. It need not imply that the sufferer is being punished for a particular fault.
Use in the book
Afflictions test whether happiness rests only on agreeable circumstances. The Holy Spirit enables the speaker to turn them into pleasures, while the Fourth Century compares trials to polishing and winter to a season in which the Christian oak flourishes. This is an account of how suffering may be borne within divine love, not a denial that it hurts. Traherne's language of transformation depends on prior gifts and assurance: because all things have been given, adversity can become another occasion for faithful action. The scriptural afflicted person is heard rather than despised. That emphasis prevents the vocabulary of trial from becoming a warrant for contempt toward those in distress.
Places to read
In this edition
The rhetoric of delight in affliction describes a spiritual transformation of adversity. It should not be mistaken for a lexical claim that “affliction” itself means pleasure.
Source note
Primary text: I.98, III.73, IV.91. III.73 is a psalmic citation and commentary; I.98 and IV.91 supply Traherne’s own applications.