There are many themes and many contradictory aspects in T. S. Eliot's works, such as religious themes of Christianity, Buddhism and Hinduism, and philosophical themes of time and space, conflict and unification, and good and evil. It is natural that a researcher of T. S. Eliot has an impulse of finding out a whole and inclusive code which can cover most of the themes in his work. My argument is that we can find an effective critical Ariadne of Christian mysticism to provide a narrative thread to unite and reconcile various contradictory themes like conflict and unification. This thesis intends to reveal that T. S. Eliot’s criticism has much in a common with many kinds of mystic thoughts. Many mystic scholars define the various aspects of mysticism; immanence and transcendence, and introvertive mysticism and extrovertive mysticism. F. C. Happold, Evelyn Underhi11, and Colin Wilson are the influential mystical scholars whose concepts of unification and transcendental experience are found in their works. Among the critics who approach Eliot’s works from the perspective of Christian mysticism are Karl Shapiro, Robert Sencourt, Lyndall Gordon, Kristian Smidt and F. M. Ishak. Their comments provide effective supplement to the thought of medieval Christians represented by Pseudo-Dionysius and John of the Cross. The core concepts of Eliot’s criticism can be found in Eliot’s critical discourse about his predecessors, written from the perspective of Christian mysticism. As Eliot says, surrendering oneself to the work to be done is the best way to reaching depersonalization. We can say that the course of depersonalization is similar to the course of the union to God in that each of them has the extinction of emotions and selves. And so it will be said that the objective correlative is to the art what the union with God is to the religious self. The sexual experience of Dante is said to be not a simple experience but a mature reflection related to the attraction towards God. This shows that a common and simple everyday experience can be a divine and reverential experience in the mystical point of view. Seen from the point of view of Eliot, the terrible experience like the despair and disil1usion of Baudelaire can also be the prelude and joy of faith. Eliot said that Tennyson also had the aspect of Christian mysticism in that he was desperately anxious to hold the faith of the believer. According to Eliot's view, Tennyson’s despair and doubt can be said to be an intense experience and a penultimate stage of ‘dark night of soul'. In conclusion, various critical and philosophical concepts of Eliot such as impersonal theory, unified sensibility, tradition, objective correlative, and the Absolute can be unified ín the scheme of Christian mystícism. By followíng various critical essays about poets, Eliot can be said to manifest his attitude and belief towards Christian mysticism.

• 김신표(동국대학교) | Shin Pyo Kim