Raising "The Rock": The Importance of T. S. Eliot's Pageant-Play

T. S. Eliot's The Rock was written as part ofa fundraising campaign to assist the Forty-Five Churches Fund to build new churches in Londons suburbs. The pageant play has to-date received little critical attention partly due to the fact that it was a commissioned piece, and partly due to its undeniable flaws. A thoroughgoing reassessment of the important place the play holds in Eliot's oeuvre is therefore long overdue. I aim to show that an attentive re-reading of The Rock in its church setting is indispensable for gaining a full understanding of the development of Eliot's post-conversion ideas about community, tradition, and the ritual function of art.