Desperately Seeking God

Norwegian Jon Fosse is one of the most spiritual and mystical voices in contemporary poetry and drama. For his vast production, ranging from plays to poetry to novels, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2023 with the following motivation: "For his innovative dramaturgy and prose that give voice to the unspeakable."

Fosse, in his career spanning more than forty years, has always sought to investigate what is most mysterious, profound and sacred in human beings. He has explored the fears and doubts that accompany men and women and has never been afraid to tackle issues that are often considered antiquated today, such as the search for the divine, faith, the certainty or uncertainty of God's existence. In the essay-interview "The Mystery of Faith" (Baldini+Castoldi, 2024, pp. 176) Fosse talks with theologian Eskil Skjeldal on these very issues, recounting his conversion to Catholicism - which occurred when the writer was over fifty - in the light of his human experience. An experience made up of mystical encounters, doubts, suffering, alcoholism, boundless love for writing and for the ability of words to give meaning to thoughts, emotions and our deepest self.

In the poetic word, in art, in literature, Fosse has often rediscovered and continues to rediscover the voice of God. A God who whispers, who is omnipresent rather than omnipotent, who, like a breath of wind in the desert, blows softly, sometimes almost imperceptibly, but blows constantly, infinitely. A God, that of Fosse, who remains a mystery to the human being, but who manifests himself in the most unexpected moments as the great playwright recounts: "My faith is linked to doubt and desperation. And desperation is again linked to suffering and pain, to death. The crucifixion, the cross, takes suffering upon itself, transforming it into something that is not suffering. Because where desperation reaches its limit, there is God. I am against using capital letters, underlining in bold. But I wanted to write this sentence in bold, so I repeat it: where desperation reaches its limit, there is God. This is my experience."

An experience that Fosse recounts with disarming sincerity, leaving aside all rhetoric and sweeping away every legacy of "incense and sacristy". The Norwegian writer is, in fact, a believer who shuns the excesses of dogmatism, even if he understands that many human beings need dogmas, rules, fixed liturgies. He is a Catholic respectful of the teachings of the Church, but also critical of those choices of the institution that do not convince him and that he does not share. Above all, he demonstrates an extraordinary humility in showing himself first of all as a fragile, uncertain, wandering human being, who has found in faith a "guide" with which to travel with greater serenity and courage the tortuous paths of existence.