The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (725 page)

 
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(1888–1965).
Poet and critic. His religious background was Unitarian, which gave way to a despairing agnosticism which finds expression in his early poems and, especially,
The Waste Land
(1922). Many religious traditions appealed to him, including Hindu philosophy,
Neo-Thomism
, and the classical Anglicanism of
Andrewes
and the
Metaphysical poets
(though an
anti-Semitic
note is also evident), and in 1927 he was baptized and declared himself ‘an
Anglo-Catholic
in religion’. His later poems (especially
Four Quartets
, 1935–42) and his plays explore human doubt and scepticism within an intellectual framework, with deep traditional roots in the mystics,
Dante
, and the Greek tragedians: what is believed is more readily lived than expressed in words.

 
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(9th cent. BCE).
Israelite
prophet
.
Elijah
chose Elisha to be his successor. In the
aggadah
, it was taught that Elijah's promise to bestow a double portion on Elisha (ch. 2. 14) was fulfilled by Elisha's performing sixteen miracles to Elijah's eight.

 
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(early 2nd cent.).
Jewish
tanna
who subsequently renounced Judaism. Although he was the teacher of R.
Meir
who quoted his sayings (e.g.
Avot
4. 20), the reason for his
apostasy
was not known. He is referred to in the Talmud (even by R. Meir when quoting him) as
a
er
, ‘another’, in order to avoid mentioning his name.

 
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Elixir
.

(Arab.,
al-iks
r
). Substances believed, especially in China, to confer immortality or simply longevity and magical powers, and as such the object of much herbal lore, myth, and
alchemy
. In China, the elixir is based on preparations to unite
yin and yang
and synchronize the microcosm and macrocosm.

 
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