Building A Christian Society

T.S. Eliot's Christianity and Culture

Recently I read T.S. Eliot’s Christianity and Culture, an excellent selection of essays by Eliot where he speaks to the significance of culture and most importantly, a Christian culture. It’s a book I highly recommend Christians to read, especially those who are interested in culture and heritage and preserving positive aspects of it. The original essays were published from lectures that took place I believe in 1939, right on the cusp of the second World War and they have that certain world-weary English tone that readers of Tolkien or CS Lewis may recognize. Eliot is a somewhat more tedious read however. As a poet he is of course to be counted among one of England’s very finest; The Waste Land is in my mind one of the only Modernist poems worth reading. Yet as a writer he seems to struggle for the right words to express his ideas, often stating so himself that he has difficulty conveying his intended message. It is either as a writer or a lecturer where the struggle takes place, I cannot say for certain. It is the paradoxical struggle typical of the artist’s mind, that he is so capable of eloquent ideas in poetic form yet in a straightforward writer or lecturer’s fashion, he seems to stumble.

This does not hamper the book’s message however. It is the sort of the book that a modern reader may struggle to stay attentive to the words, as it is written from a different era from a different sort of man than the modern writer, er, “content creator” as I believe they are referred to nowadays. I recommend perhaps reading only a few pages at a time. Don’t be afraid to take it slow and digest the information within, as it is all quite valuable and will likely stick with you once you give it time to get into your system. By all means, please do not merely skim the book and move on to the next. It is not that sort of book. There is a real message to it and good advice that any practical man can implement into his life.

The first essay in the book, The Idea of a Christian Society, is relatively short and attempts to paint in broad strokes the idea of having a Christian society and what that might mean to implement and maintain. He rightfully points out that there can really only be two types of society: Christian or pagan. By pagan, Eliot does not mean those who go out in the woods and chant in circles, but rather anyone who places something else central to its society other than Christ and the Church. Thus, he calls out liberalism, conservatism and democracy all as pagan societies, albeit societies in which Christians are tolerated to various degrees. It is interesting to note Eliot’s apparent revulsion against Western democracies. It is not that he dislikes democracy, he seems to be tolerant of it, but he sees democracy and liberalism’s endgame of a giant chaotic mass with no real order. Readers today would likely be more shocked by his words than readers of his era, with such pagan ideals as freedom and liberty virtually enshrined across the globe. Forget for a moment how America’s forefathers may have interpreted the notions of freedom and liberty when they wrote the Declaration of Independence and think of how such notions are abused today. Freedom is now freedom from constraint and liberty is now liberty to do as thou wilt.

He also, even then, calls out liberalism’s increasing intolerance towards Christianity, pushing such notions as religion into a private sphere of its own, separating it from the world at large. Eliot finds little use in this, especially if one is to build a Christian society. A Christian society must be founded on Christian principles, though he is careful to point out that he does not believe there should be a state religion, nor mandatory inclusion in the Church. He is more interested instead of infusing society and culture from the bottom up with Christian ideals and goals, starting with small local communities that care for each other in a Christian spirit, working its way up to an overarching Christian community that organizes society into a unified religious-social code and finally, an ultimate Christian State. Eliot takes great care not to call for a Nationalistic Church but he does stress the importance of ensuring the ruling class follow Christian ideals at all times, to the point that Christianity becomes habitual throughout all layers of society. Similar to my own views, he decries the profit-driven society and the use of machines and a business class that seek only more profit and decidedly un-Christian aims, saying they have no place in a society organized by truly Christian standards. A proper balance must be struck between man, machine and the search of profits, though he does not go into detail how that would take place.

Time is also taken to point out the follies of the educational system and how, at that time, they had become little more than propaganda tools of whatever ruling political party was currently in power. This is of course absurdly easy to see nowadays, with the very idea of Christian ideals in public schools deemed an absolute menace while the new pagan religion of globalist homosexuality is paraded about with glee.

In the end, Eliot paints a picture of Western society that is disjointed, stumbling and unsure of itself. There are a million things all blaring off at once but all of it compartmentalized and sectored off into its own little corner of the average person’s life. There is the financial, the educational, the political, the religious and so on. Eliot presents a unifier, not in liberalism or democracy, but in Christianity and God. He wishes for a society built around communities and parishes instead of banks and insurance companies. This was in 1939, on the eve of WWII before the world truly fell apart. After the war I don’t believe it was ever truly put back together, as Christianity became a subsidiary to freedom instead of the other way around. We are free to choose to be Christian if we desire instead of being Christian and having freedom in Christ.

There is quite a lot for the modern reader to take away from all this. If one has a feeling that society is not quite right, well, this book will answer as to why you feel that way. As a Christian you are a sheep among a pack of wolves who wish nothing more than to be done with you. If Eliot felt that way nearly 100 years ago, how does the average Christian feel today? That is the problem I think; the average Christian simply doesn’t think about his or her place in society and merely goes about doing their usual thing. Or as Eliot would put it, bothered about just getting on with life. There really is no “getting on” though if our way of life is so ostracized that it becomes illegal according to the laws of the land. And in a pagan society, the laws will shift ever away from Christ and His law.

So what can we do about such a thing? We’re simply not at a place where we can up and form our own country at this point in time. There is no Christian overthrow of government, that is simply not how Christianity works. Yet Christianity has “overthrown” governments before. We forget, Christianity has toppled empires. After the death of the Roman empire and the tribal warfare settled down, what took its place? The High Middle Ages, one of the most thoroughly Christian societies in western history. And let us of course not forget the long-lived Byzantine Empire. Some would even argue the current Russian state is Christian-based. Christian societies are indeed possible, but only with great courage and devotion to Christ. It is important to start with what you as an individual can control. Yourself. Live as though you were in a Christian society. Follow Christ’s rules and for His sake, don’t just relegate Christianity to a corner of your life that gets dusted off once a week for Sunday. It must be a complete and total embrace throughout all aspects of life.

Once you have yourself under control, go to the next step. Family. Lead your family in a Christian manner. The pillar of all societies throughout history rests on the family unit and its ability to grow and flourish. A Christian family that acts in a manner befitting their Christian moniker is one of the greatest joys of God. It is a Christian family that would ultimately be the pillar of a Christian society, so why not become part of that pillar? One could spend time and effort bemoaning the fact that we currently do not live in a Christian society or that modern society is terrible and pagan and useless, but what good would such negative thinking and actions do? Such depression only leads to lethargy and ultimately petrification, where one succumbs to the pressures of society because he has no desire to fight against them because he sees no immediate success. I say fight all the same. You might not win today and you might not win tomorrow, but every step you take in today’s battle could lead to a win for your children or your grandchildren. Plant the oaks now that will grow into the trees to shade your progeny years from now.

I will cover Eliot’s next essay, Notes Towards the Definition of Culture next time. That essay deals more with the definition of culture at large, as well as what it means to accept a culture passed on to you and what it means to pass your culture on to the next generation. It is more general and deals with tradition, but Eliot felt it important enough for Christians to consider. I shall leave this article with the above message though, for I feel there is nothing more important for a Christian to do at this time than to be a Christian, a real true Christian, and act as though we were in a Christian society. As Americans we know the importance of civil disobedience and quiet revolution. It is time we follow in Christ’s footsteps and stand up for our own. After all, He only needed twelve. How many more do we now have that can stand up alongside each other, a Christian society apart from the world?

The second part of this two-part discussion on T. S. Eliot’s Christianity & Culture can be found here.