A Search for the Unity of Religion and Literature in T. S. Eliot’s Literary Criticism

Abstract

An idea that there is an omniscient and omnipotent Absolute stayed with T. S. Eliot through various stages of his life. Being acutely aware of the Evil and the fundamental reality of human imperfection, he did not agree with the cheerful optimism of his time founded on the ideal of progress, as embodied in the Unitarian doctrine in under whose influence he grew up. As an alternative to this optimism, Eliot tries to find a way in which he could unite the religion and literature. His view on the relations of religion to literature is made explicit in the opening propositions of “Religion and Literature.” In that essay, Eliot calls for the completion of literary criticism from the ethical and theological viewpoint, saying that it is to an extent to which there is an agreement between the ethical and theological viewpoints that literary works could be enriched. Even as he acknowledges the value of literature, Eliot thinks that there must be something absolute that could enable readers to have a right judgment on literature, and that it might be provided by religion.