Philip Larkin's Church Going

Larkin's "Church Going": A Failed Exploration for Religious Faith

Murdoch's artistic and natural beauty critique, called The Sovereignty of Good and Other

Concepts, quotes Plato’s belief that "beauty is the only spiritual thing we love by instinct."

Therefore, beauty is the only spiritual connection Atheist Philip Larkin seeks in a church.

Larkin's poem Church Going, begins as a confessional since he mentions how he often stops at

random churches, perhaps because he is searching for a place of worship that is beautiful, both

naturally and artistically. In other words, in the nature of the church he is looking for a warm

group of people, rather than an uptight group. As for artistic beauty, Larkin is searching for

truthful religious scriptures and an aesthetically pleasing environment, not in the sense of

luxurious windows and golden decorations, but rather an inviting sense. Larkin begins Church

Going by confessing his unfamiliarity with church and religious practices, and then creates a

scenario of a faithless world where churches are no longer used, which is possible taking into

consideration the political issues that occurred around this poem’s publication (1955). Larkin

creates a scenario of a religion-free world as a way to sub-consciously rationalize his worries and

uncertainty about his own afterlife, and also to create "good art" while sitting in this church full

of "bad art.”

Larkin’s search for spirituality begins to deteriorate when he realizes that there is no

natural beauty in this particular church. His discomfort is evident in the first stanza of the poem

as he describes the church’s nature as being uptight with "a tense, musty, unignorable silence,"

and typical, with th...

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...and solely focuses on beauty for a connection. Finally, Larkin’s

epiphany lies in his ability to produce a beautiful scripture while pondering in this imprudent

church. His ability to tell the "ugly truth" and give his honest, yet controversial opinions on

religion, makes Larkin a good artist according to Murdoch's The Sovereignty of Good and Other

Concepts.

Works Cited

Larkin, Philip. "Church Going." The Norton Introduction to Poetry. Ed. Paul Hunter, Alison

Booth, and Kelly J. Mays. New York: W.W. Norton and Company,2007.

Murdoch, Iris. "from The Sovereignty of Good and Other Concepts." Online Posting. 1 Mar.

2010. 21 April 2010. .

Walker, Jim. "Hitler's Religious Beliefs and Fanaticism." Professional Website. 7 July 2001.

20 April 2010. < http://www.nobeliefs.com/Hitler1.htm>.