When the Eternal Can Be Met: The Bergsonian Theology of Time in the Works of C. S. Lewis T. S. Eliot and W. H. Auden

When the Eternal Can Be Met excavates the philosophy behind the theology of the twentieth centurys most prominent Christian writers: C. S. Lewis T. S. Eliot and W. H. Auden. These three literary giants converted to Christianity within little more than a decade of one another and interestingly all three theological authors turned to the theme of time. All three authors also came to remarkably similar conclusions about time positing that the temporal present moment allowed one to meet the eternal. Decades before Lewis Eliot and Auden sought to creatively construct a fictive or poetic theology of time the prominent philosopher Henri Bergson wrote about times power to transform an individuals emotional and spiritual state a theory well known by Lewis Eliot and Auden. When the Eternal Can Be Met argues that one cannot fully understand Lewis Eliot and Audens theology of time without understanding Bergsons theories. From the secular philosophy of Bergson dawned the most important works of literary theology and treatments of time of the twentieth century and in the Bergson-influenced literary constructs of Lewis Eliot and Auden a common theological articulation sounds out--time present is where humans meet God.