Eliot Society

The Eliot Society is a nonprofit based in Annapolis, MD, that exists to enrich the church and foster spiritual formation through the arts. T. S. Eliot believed that religion and the arts can illuminate one another. In a 2013 essay, “The Catholic Writer Today,” the poet Dana Gioia notes that Eliot’s life, particularly the two decades after World War II, coincided with a flowering of Christian art in Europe and America. Many of the Christian writers of that period are still household names in both Christian and secular circles: Walker Percy, Flannery O’Conner, Thomas Merton, T. S. Eliot, Dorothy L. Sayers, Graham Greene, J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis.

But the years since then, says Gioia, have marked a growing “schism between Christianity and the arts,” and along with it, “the intellectual retreat and creative inertia of American religious life.” Gioia proposes a remedy. He says, “Culture is not an intellectual abstraction. It is human energy expressed through creativity, conversation, and community.”

The Eliot Society exists to foster the creativity, conversation, and community that Gioia describes. Its members are working to create a place where writers, poets, musicians, visual artists, and others can gather and fellowship. The Eliot Society also provides opportunities for people within the church to experience excellent art in an intimate and accessible way. It hosts an annual lecture series that brings in various artists and scholars. It also hosts more intimate community gatherings, such as house concerts, poetry readings, discussion groups, and other special events. In everything, the Eliot Society aims to challenge and inspire both artists and lovers of the arts to grow in their appreciation for beauty and for the ways that human creativity reflects Divine artistry.