Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 40 Page 41 Page 42 Page 43 Page 44 Page 45 Page 46 Page 47 Page 48 Page 49 Page 50 Page 51 Page 52 Page 53 Page 54 Page 55 Page 56 Page 57 Page 58 Page 59 Page 60 Page 61 Page 62 Page 63 Page 64 Page 65 Page 66 Page 67 Page 68 Page 69 Page 70 Page 71 Page 72 Page 73 Page 74 Page 75 Page 76 Page 77 Page 78 Page 79 Page 80 Page 81 Page 82 Page 83 Page 84Plough Quarterly • Winter 2017 77 “The Liberal notion that religion was a matter of private belief and of conduct in private life, and that there is no reason why Christians should not be able to accommodate themselves to any world which treats them good- naturedly, is becoming less and less tenable,” he wrote. “The reason why members of dif- ferent communions have been able to rub along together is that in the greater part of the ordinary business of life they have shared the same assumptions about behavior.” This is part of Eliot’s argument that Christians should not simply claim the freedom to worship as they please and suffer no harm to their faith. Rather, they should strive for a society whose instincts and goals are Christian: “The Christian can be satisfied with nothing less than a Christian organization of society.” This does not entail the criminaliza- tion of other religions or the persecution of nonbelievers. Rather, it means that Christians should strive to have a society in which the things we hold in common – despite our pluralism – are Christian things. Christians will flourish much more in a pluralistic society that forbids wife-beating and widow-burning because of the dignity of the human person – a concept derived from Christianity but not exclusive to it – than in one that allows these acts on religious grounds. Seventy-seven years later, on both sides of the Atlantic, we can see just how many of Eliot’s prophecies have come to pass. Secular liberalism has not only continued to erode the Christian cultural foundation of our societies, but has begun to replace it with its own. The Christian assumptions that once united the various elements in our pluralistic societ- ies have broken down, leaving us less civil toward one another. We are more free to do what we want, but less sure that what we want will actually make us happy or good. We speak of our society not as pagan but as post-Christian – a continued rebellion against one deep structure rather than an adherence to a robust replacement. As the disease has progressed, its symp- toms have become more extreme. But what about Eliot’s diagnosis? To begin with, Eliot was clear that his thoughts would require modification for application outside of Britain. He assumed a relatively uniform society with an established church, not the plu- ralism of the globalized West. Nonetheless, he identifies three elements that remain necessary for Christians anywhere to form their society. The first of these is education. Eliot saw education as essential to the foundation of a society: “A nation’s system of education is much more important than its system of government; only a proper system of education can unify the active and the contemplative life, action and speculation, politics and the arts.” The purpose of education, then, is not to impart information Image from the Smithsonian American Art Museum William H. Johnson, Church on Lenox Avenue