Sárospataki Füzetek 17. (2013)
2013 / 1-2. szám - TANULMÁNYOK - Sawyer, Frank: Krisztus, egyház és világ T. S. Eliot Kórusok "A sziklá"-ból, 1934 c. versében
Sawn ep Fi was Christ” (I Corinthians 10:4), as well as to the words of Jesus: “...on this rock I shall build my church” (Matthew 7:24). The drama posits that God has been abandoned for the pseudo-gods of Money, Power, Life (Enjoyment), Race (Fascism), and Dialectic (Communism). In the modern man-made technological world, God is difficult to perceive. Yet without something greater than daily life, something holier and awesome, meaning slips away into a trivial pursuit of small ends. When worship and prayer disappear, meditation on our values is removed, and soon human love is exchanged for utilitarian goals. When the Christian symbols of the cross, the dove, rites of baptism, marriage and death, and meaningful ways of communal identity are lost, all of this is reduced to fragmented choices without a framework. Such is Eliot’s perception and prophetic insight. He illustrates the illusion and isolation of the modern self, in search of itself. This is the anguish of the barren land and barren soul, as the poet had expressed in a way that captivated a generation, in his Waste Land and other early poems. His answer to the problem is transcendent, or theological, for like Augustine, Eliot perceives that only divine grace can revive us. The great contrast, as Augustine had said, is between the temporal and the eternal ‘city’ or society.10 The answer to depersonalizing alienation is the return (regeneration) to the image of God. That is why the church is needed in the city. In contrast to the lack of will found in hollow people, Eliot (once again like Augustine), points to the ‘perfection’ of the will by means of the love of God. How else can the self be salvaged? III. The ten ‘Choruses from the Rock’ We shall summarize the major themes found in the choruses and indicate their setting in the pageant. While we will notice things Eliot says about Christ at a couple of intervals, we save the summarizing of this theme for section IV which deals with aspects of Eliot’s Christology. Our quotations from the Choruses are representative, leaving much unsaid. III. 1. First chorus - Introduction to the problem and to the ‘Rock’ The opening of the first chorus (7ff) establishes the major themes and contrasts: The Eagle soars in the summit of Heaven, The Hunter with his dogs pursues his circuit. O perpetual revolution of configured stars, O perpetual recurrence of determined seasons, O world of spring and autumn, birth and dying! The endless cycle of idea and action, Endless invention, endless experiment, Where is the Life we have lost in living? Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information? 10 This theme has been written on by Stephen Spender, IS. Eliot (New York: Viking Press, 1975), ch.vi, ‘The Temporal City of Total Conditioning’, and ch.vii, ‘Toward the City Outside of Time’. 70 SÁROSPATAKI FÜZETEK 2013/1 ■ 2
