Choruses from the Rock by T.S. Eliot

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Choruses from the Rock by T.S. Eliot

In order to understand T.S. Eliot’s poem, Choruses from “The Rock,” one must first understand Eliot’s views on contemporary theology and spirituality. He felt as if people were moving away from the Church and were losing their religion in favor of more secular worship. The following passage from Eliot’s poem can summarize his entire argument that he makes in Choruses from “The Rock”.

But it seems that something has happened that has never happened before: though we know not just when, or why, or how, or where. Men have left GOD not for other gods, they say, but for no God; and this has never happened before that men both deny gods and worship gods, professing first Reason, And then Money, and Power, and what they call

Life, or Race, or Dialectic.

The Church disowned, the tower overthrown, the bells upturned, and what have we to do but stand with empty hands and palms turned upwards in an age which advances progressively backwards?

T.S. Eliot - Choruses from 'The Rock'

Eliot complains that something has happened that has never happened before: for the first time, man stands alienated from God. He believes that man stands lonely, in great darkness, with no light to guide him; and Eliot is right. "Something has happened that has never happened before." One might ask why or how it has happened. These things do not happen in a certain moment. They happen so gradually that one never becomes really aware of when, where, or how.

The civilized man has lost something because now we live in the man-made world where it is almost impossible to find any sign of God. God is hard to find in the asphalt roads or in cement structures. These things are not alive. How can one find God in machine...

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...oney as god. Power has become a god. The politician has become the most important person in the world. We have denied God, but how can we deny our emptiness? We have rejected God, and we had to stuff something in the empty space, so we stuff it with political power, with money, with reason, with race, with dialectics.

Man cannot live without religion. Man cannot live without God. If the true God is not available, then man is bound to create home-made gods. "The Church disowned, the tower overthrown, the bells upturned, and what have we to do but stand with empty hands and palms turned upwards in an age which advances progressively backwards?" Yes, T.S. Eliot is right. In his poem, Choruses from “The Rock,” Eliot berates society for losing their faith in God and placing it in non-Christian symbols. This is exactly the movement that will harm us all in the long run.

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