Overview

T. S. Eliot was raised in the Unitarian faith of his family in St. Louis but drifted away from their beliefs while studying philosophy, mysticism, and anthropology at Harvard. During a year in Paris (1910-1911), he became involved with a group of Catholic writers there and subsequently went through a gradual conversion to Catholic Christianity. He surprised his brother during a visit to Rome in 1926, when he fell to his knees at St. Peter's, and he surprised his Bloomsbury friends a year later when he was received into the Church of England, becoming an adherent of the traditionalist Anglo-Catholic wing of that church. Many studies of Eliot's writings have mentioned his religious beliefs, but most have failed to give the topic due weight and many have misunderstood or misrepresented his faith. More recently, however, some scholars have begun exploring this dimension of Eliot's though more carefully and fully. The critics whose essays are collected here are among that group. Here the reader will find Eliot's Anglo-Catholicism accurately defined and thoughtfully considered. Several essays illuminate the all-important influence of the French Catholic writers he came to know in Paris. Prominent among them were those who wrote for or were otherwise associated with the Nouvelle Revue Francaise, including Andre Gide, Paul Claudel, and Charles-Louis Philippe. Also active in Paris at that time was the notorious Charles Maurras, whose influence on Eliot has been exaggerated by those who wished to discredit Eliot's traditionalist views. A more measured assessment of Maurras's influence has been needed and is found in several essays here. A wiser French Catholic writer, Jacques Maritain, has been largely ignored by Eliot scholars, but his influence is now given due consideration. Contributors to the volume take account of Eliot's intellectual relationship with such figures as John Henry Newman, Charles Williams, and the expert on church architecture, W. R. Lethaby. Eliot's engagement with other contemporaries who held a variety of Christian beliefs--including George Santayana, Paul Elmer More, C. S. Lewis, and David Jones--is also clarified. The keynote of Eliot's cultural and political writings is his belief that religion and culture are integrally related. Several writers in this volume examine his ideas on this subject, placing them in the context of Maritain's ideas, as well as those of the Catholic historian Christopher Dawson. The book as a whole presents the subject of Eliot's religious beliefs in rich detail, from a number of different perspectives, giving readers the opportunity to see the topic in its complexity and fullness.

Full Product Details

Author:   Benjamin G. Lockerd ,  Anderson D. Araujo ,  Hazel Atkins ,  William Blissett
Publisher:   Fairleigh Dickinson University Press
Imprint:   Fairleigh Dickinson University Press
Dimensions:   Width: 15.00cm , Height: 2.50cm , Length: 23.00cm
Weight:   0.522kg
ISBN:  

9781611477139

ISBN 10:   1611477131
Pages:   358
Publication Date:   03 March 2016
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Manufactured on demand  
We will order this item for you from a manufactured on demand supplier.

Table of Contents

Introduction I. Eliot and Anglo-Catholicism William Blissett, T. S. Eliot and Catholicity William Blissett, Catholicity: A Precis II. French Catholic Influences John Morgenstern, T. S. Eliot and the French Catholic Revival: 1910-11 Paris William Marx, Eliot and Maurras on Classicism Shun'ichi Takayanagi, S.J., T. S. Eliot, the Action Francaise and Neo-Scholasticism James Matthew Wilson, An `Organ for a Frenchified Doctrine': Jacques Maritain, and The Criterion's Neo-Thomism III. Christian Tradition William Charron, Medieval Aristotelian Theories of the Soul in `Tradition and the Individual Talent' Lee Oser, T. S. Eliot and John Henry Newman Dominic Manganiello, T. S. Eliot, Charles Williams, and Dante's Way of Love Hazel Atkins, T. S. Eliot, W. R. Lethaby, and Sacred Architecture IV. Culture and Religion Christopher McVey, Backgrounds to The Idea of a Christian Society: Charles Maurras, Christopher Dawson, and Jacques Maritain Anderson Araujo, Between `Absolutism' and `Impossible Theocracy': Hierarchy in Eliot's Anglo-Catholicism Paul Robichaud, Eliot's Christian Sociology and the Problem of Nationalism Benjamin Lockerd, Beyond Politics: Christopher Dawson and T. S. Eliot on Religion and Culture V. Contemporaries James Seaton, Poetry and Religion in George Santayana and T. S. Eliot David Huisman, 'A Long Journey Afoot': The Pilgrimages toward Orthodoxy of T. S. Eliot and Paul Elmer More Charles Huttar, C. S. Lewis's Appreciation of T. S. Eliot Thomas Dilworth, Eliot for David Jones Bibliography About the Contributors

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Benjamin G. Lockerd is professor of English at Grand Valley State University.

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