Mr. Eliot's Idea of a Christian Society

It can hardly be necessary at this date to summarize the contents of a book which, one notes with thankfulness, has been so widely described and discussed. It will be recalled that Mr. Eliot's purpose in writing it was to offer a 'contribution to a discussion which must occupy many minds for a long time to come'; and the most fitting way in which to salute his work would therefore seem to be to confine oneself to suggesting the main points at which further elucidation appears desirable. The urgency of such continued discussion should also need no stressing; the background against which these lectures are to be read is the realization, in September 1938, of a 'general plight,' the conscious 'doubt of the validity of a civilization and that doubt is not assuaged but intensified, the urgent need of following as best we may the lead here given us is not diminished but increased, by the constant iteration, from press and platform, that the conflict in which we are now engaged is quite simply one between the powers of darkness and the powers of light, between Satan and Christianity.' The last thing we should like to do would be to examine that "Christianity" which, in such contexts as this, we say we keep.' We can make much emotional capital out of the use of labels that have lost all definite meaning; but the facts are quite plain

Citation · Library science · Sociology · Catholicism and Religious Studies · Computer Science