Discuss the problem of religion as addressed by T.S. Eliot as seen in his poem "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"
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T.S. Eliot had strong convictions about tradition (defined as the presence of the past in the present and exploration of the past in the present, through which circularity is created), the physical and spiritual devastation of the Western world, and the corrosion of Western religion.
In "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" Eliot addresses the problem of religion in part through religious allusions but also by the speakers self-consciousness about being so unlike figures such as John the Baptist.
Eliot's main remedy for the religion problem that accompanies a critical and unpoetical Western world, as drawn in "Love Song," is to draw upon the wisdom of religious tradition per above, which encompasses traditional religion of the past as well as Eastern religion, and employ the finer aspects of understanding in contemporary life.
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