Ash Wednesday: The Turning of T. S. Eliot



(T. S. Eliot in 1923)

When Thomas Stearns Eliot first converted (“turned around”) to Anglicanism (or, more specifically, to Anglo-Catholicism) in 1927 - he had already lived quite a full life as a student, poet, philosopher, teacher, husband, writer, publisher, banker and caregiver.  Nearing 40 at that point, he was seeking a spiritual way out of The Waste Land that he had so eloquently described.

Because I do not hope to turn again

Because I do not hope

Because I do not hope to turn…

This conversion inspired a shift, not only in his poetry, but also in his general approach to life.  Christianity Today reports that Eliot then produced numerous works that addressed “complex moral and religious themes” – and was convinced that society should be ruled, not by the church, but “only by Christian principles, with Christians being ‘the conscious mind and the conscience of the nation.’”

Eliot’s Christianity and Culture (a combination of two long essays – the first, The Idea of a Christian Society, debuted in 1939 – and the second, Notes towards the Definition of Culture, debuted in 1948) met with decidedly mixed reviews from the goodreads.com crowd.  Whereas one reviewer praised Eliot for teaching such things as “greed is likely the dominant vice of the modern age” and “culture is the incarnation of religion” – another panned Eliot’s “snide” comments about the need for social and educational stratification, then added:  “Religious snobbery doesn’t get any worse than this.”    

Philip Yancey, in his article titled T. S. Eliot’s Christian Society: Still Relevant Today?, concludes that “Eliot’s fervent attempts to reshape the actual structure of civilization came to nought, leaving us with many of the same problems he encountered – and few commanding answers.”  For example, many doubt whether a

“Christian elite” such as Eliot proposed would practice and promote true tolerance of other faiths.  Regarding that, Yancey states:  “History gives us little reason for optimism.”

And pray to God to have mercy upon us

And pray that I may forget

These matters that with myself I too much discuss

Too much explain

Because I do not hope to turn again…

Resources

http://www.msgr.ca/msgr-7/ash_wednesday_t_s_eliot.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglo-Catholicism

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ch/131christians/poets/tseliot.html?start=2

http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=1076

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T._S._Eliot

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/79941.Christianity_and_Culture

Copyright February 22, 2012 by Linda Van Slyke   All Rights Reserved