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The Christian News-Letter was established on 18 October 1939, shortly after the outbreak of the Second World War. The inception of the News-Letter came out of a Christian think-tank, known as “The Moot,” which was organized by J. H. Oldham between 1938 and 1947. These “Moot” meetings were held several times a year and were attended by a small heterogeneous group of approximately thirty to forty Christian laity and clergy. Of this group the members most closely affiliated with the News-Letter were Philip Mairet, William Temple, Sir Walter Moberly, Eleonora Iredale, Alec R. Vidler, and T. S. Eliot.
Despite the fact that Eliot guest-edited five issues of the News-Letter and served on its editorial committee, only a few critics have endeavored to delineate his involvement with the publication. The most complete attempt to do so was in T. S. Eliot's Social Criticism, where Roger Kojecký gave a clear picture of the prominent concerns of this eclectic group of Christian intellectuals. Kojecký's analysis, however, was concentrated largely on the Moot discussion group, and the News-Letter featured only as a supplementary concern. In the same manner, Stefan Collini's chapter on Eliot's social criticism, while praiseworthy in its scope, gives little attention to the News-Letter. This chapter, then, will scrutinize Eliot’s involvement with the News-Letter in closer detail and demonstrate that a thorough analysis of the publication is integral to a complete understanding of his agricultural thinking. It intends to reveal a clear affinity between Eliot and the News-Letter and clarify further some of the ideas concerning agriculture that emerged in the previous chapter on the NEW. In addition, this chapter will also examine Eliot's agrarian standpoint by comparing his vision of a Christian agricultural community with the communal farms established by Rolf Gardiner, Ronald Duncan, and John Middleton Murry. We shall see that, although Eliot was like-minded in his desire for society to return to a series of rural communities, there were distinct contrasts in their outlook. In looking at these differences in perspective, I shall indicate the limits of Eliot's agrarianism.
One of the issues most often raised in the News-Letter was the need for a shift towards a revived spiritual sensibility.
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