Churches Built and Churches Bombed: T. S. Eliot's Vision of National Loss and Spiritual Renewal

Abstract

Although his religious outlook is often seen as more mystical in nature than concerned with worldly realities, in a great deal of his writing from the 1930s and 1940s T. S. Eliot emerges as a passionate advocate of spiritual, and specifically Christian, engagement at all levels of society. As the embodiment of a Christian presence in an increasingly fragmented world, he saw the social role of the Church, as both a building in the community and as a body of believers, as an issue of great importance. These thoughts animate his 1934 verse-pageant The Rock, which centres on the construction of a new church building and its relevance in the contemporary world, but they assume an even greater degree of urgency with the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939. Much of the official art and propaganda from the war years made the Church an integral part, both architecturally and spiritually, of the Britain that was standing fast against fascism, but Eliot felt that Britain was still some way from being a truly Christian country. Although the conflict entailed the destruction (partial or complete) of many church buildings, Eliot retained a powerful belief not just in the need for churches to be materially rebuilt so as to serve in the post-war world, but also for the Church itself to play a prominent role in the moral and spiritual rebuilding of post-war society.