Thomas Stearns Eliot

Nationality

U.S.A./United Kingdom

Date of Birth

1888

Date of Death

1965

Political
Preference

Thomas Stearns Eliot, better known as T.S. Eliot, was an American and later British poet, essayist, playwright, literary critic and editor. After moving from St Louis, Missouri to Great Britain, Eliot became a British subject and a member of the Anglican church. He self-identified as Anglo-Catholic. While he is best known for his poems, plays and essays, he also participated in the informal discussion groups of the global ecumenical network that would unify under the World Council of Churches (WCC) in 1948. In 1939, Eliot was present at the ‘Moot’ meetings together with a group of church members and affiliates led by J.H. Oldham that was active from 1937 to 1949. This group, organised by the larger ecumenical Life and Work Movement, was tasked with tackling the challenges of post-war reconstruction and the role of the Church in the world. Eliot spoke at the Oxford Conference in 1937, also known as the World Conference on ‘Church, Community and State’, and was active in many Christian circles and discussions, such as the Anglo-Catholic ‘Christendom Group’. Furthermore, he was on the editorial board of the Christian news-letter and helped to set up the Council on the Christian Faith and the Common Life (CCFCL). Eliot argued that the history of Europe could not be divorced from the history, faith and values of Christianity and saw a united Europe as a valuable defensive force for these values, not unlike Adenauer’s Abendland-approach.