The baptism and confirmation in June 1927 is surely the most important event in Eliot’s life. To think first and most of the “supernatural order” became the prime principle of his new life and thought. It is an indispensable task, therefore, for Eliot scholars to assess why he decided to join the Church of England’s Anglo-Catholic wing, and what sort of effect his belief exerted upon his literary works. In this paper I intend to do two things: firstly, to present a thesis how Eliot came to espouse Anglo-Catholicism; I will look into the influence of the Oxford Movement, the solidification of his faith manifested in his vehement attack on the scheme for the Church Union in South India, and his freeing himself from the prejudices against Roman Catholicism that he encountered at first hand in St. Louis, Boston, and London. Catholicism was fixed with the image of unintellectual Irish immigrants, and totally alien to the English Protestant identity. He chose the Established, and national, Church of England because he believed it was “the Catholic Church in England”, and in his adopted country, Roman Catholic Church was only “a sect”. Secondly, I consider the “limits” of Eliot’s Christian faith. So far, the problem of his faith has not been fully addressed. It looms large, however, in a postcolonial context. The claim I should like to make is that the world of Eliot’s Christianity is closed to the ‘other’ worlds. This I discuss looking into the world of The Cocktail Party. Set in a post-Vatican II context, Eliot’s Anglo-Catholicism looks very restricted.

Ⅰ. Espousal of Anglo-Catholicism
 Ⅱ. Limitations of Eliot’s Faith seen in The Cocktail Party
 Works Cited
 Abstract

• Keiji Notani(Kobe Univ.)