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 8478 Plough Quarterly • Winter 2017 for the sake of a career or citizenship, but to form a moral foundation for one’s life. This holistic formation should be the goal of Christian education, too, in homes and Christian schools. Christian education is not simply a project to make men and women pious Christians, but to “train people to be able to think in Christian categories.” Beauty is not just the gratification of contem- porary tastes, but a reflection of the order and symmetry God inscribed in the world. Riches are not God’s blessing to you for your personal use; you hold them in trust for the benefit of others in your church and community. Thinking in Christian categories instead of simply giving worldly ones the veneer of faith leads to authentically Christian lives – and thereby, ever so slowly, to authentically Chris- tian societies. Second, Eliot says that a society that would be Christian needs a “community of Christians.” This is not an organization or a particular caste but “a body of indefinite outline; composed of both clergy and laity, of the more conscious, more spiritually and intellectually developed of both. It will be their identity of belief and aspiration, their background of a common system of education and a common culture, which will enable them to influence and be influenced by each other, and collectively to form the conscious mind and the conscience of the nation.” In other words, the Christian renewal of society will need a critical mass of those who think and live according to authentically Christian principles and categories. These Christians need to talk to each other, to inquire into the truth, to bring their families together over dinner. They need to determine and cling to what they hold in common as Christians, despite the real differ- ences they have. They must commit to living and thinking according to Christ’s “more excellent way.” Third, this will auto- matically entail humility and conversion of self before conversion of society. Eliot’s lectures were provoked by a letter he read in the Times (London) from J. H. Oldham, the Scottish missionary who was part of the same round- table of Christian thinkers. In the letter, Oldham writes: “To focus our attention on evil in others is a way of escape from the painful struggle of eradicating it from our own hearts and lives and an evasion of our real responsibilities.” Eliot saw this as one of the great differences between secular and Chris- tian reformers. The secular reformer conceives of the evils of the world as something outside himself. The Christian, by contrast, must see them within. He himself must be converted along with the rest of the world and is deprived of the exhilaration of only seeing an external enemy. To forget this is to fall into a pride that would poison our efforts. In his book, Reno does not emphasize education or our own pursuit of the virtues to the same degree. When he does talk about education, it is in the context of America’s post-Christian elite destroying the moral fabric our society needs: “The most pressing social justice issue today is the moral exploitation of the poor and vulnerable by the well-off and powerful, an exploitation masked by the rhetoric of liberation.” The deregulation of our morality has had far greater social effects than The secular reformer conceives of the evils of the world as something outside himself. The Christian, by contrast, must see them within.