Blackening 
Frank Kermode
The story of Doubting Thomas, examined at length in this learned and fascinating book, has its origin in a brief passage near the end of St John’s Gospel. After the crucifixion, when the disciples were assembled behind locked doors ‘for fear of the Jews’, Jesus appeared among them and displayed the wounds in his hands and side. He also granted them the power to remit sins, or not, as the spirit moved them; so they had good reason to rejoice at having seen the Lord.
Subscribers to the print edition can log in to view the entire article. For information about subscribing to the London Review of Books click here. This article is available for purchase online. Buy this article.
Frank Kermode’s books include The Sense of an Ending and The Uses of Error.
Other articles by this contributor:
First Pitch · Marianne Moore
No Tricks · Raymond Carver
Nutmegged · The War against Cliché: Essays and Reviews 1971-2000 by Martin Amis.
Maximum Assistance from Good Cooking, Good Clothes, Good Drink · Auden’s Shakespeare
Flinch Wince Jerk Shirk · Christine Brooke-Rose
Point of View · Atonement by Ian McEwan
Nothing for Ever and Ever · Housman’s Pleasures
At Tate Britain · William Blake
print layout
tell a friend