Tolkien’s Theology of Beauty


Book Description

In this book, Lisa Coutras explores the structure and complexity of J.R.R. Tolkien’s narrative theology, synthesizing his Christian worldview with his creative imagination. She illustrates how, within the framework of a theological aesthetics, transcendental beauty is the unifying principle that integrates all aspects of Tolkien’s writing, from pagan despair to Christian joy. J.R.R. Tolkien’s Christianity is often held in an unsteady tension with the pagan despair of his mythic world. Some critics portray these as incompatible, while Christian analysis tends to oversimplify the presence of religious symbolism. This polarity of opinion testifies to the need for a unifying interpretive lens. The fact that Tolkien saw his own writing as “religious” and “Catholic,” yet was preoccupied with pagan mythology, nature, language, and evil, suggests that these areas were wholly integrated with his Christian worldview. Tolkien’s Theology of Beauty examines six structural elements, demonstrating that the author’s Christianity is deeply embedded in the narrative framework of his creative imagination.




Tolkien’s Theology of Beauty


Book Description

In this book, Lisa Coutras explores the structure and complexity of J.R.R. Tolkien’s narrative theology, synthesizing his Christian worldview with his creative imagination. She illustrates how, within the framework of a theological aesthetics, transcendental beauty is the unifying principle that integrates all aspects of Tolkien’s writing, from pagan despair to Christian joy. J.R.R. Tolkien’s Christianity is often held in an unsteady tension with the pagan despair of his mythic world. Some critics portray these as incompatible, while Christian analysis tends to oversimplify the presence of religious symbolism. This polarity of opinion testifies to the need for a unifying interpretive lens. The fact that Tolkien saw his own writing as “religious” and “Catholic,” yet was preoccupied with pagan mythology, nature, language, and evil, suggests that these areas were wholly integrated with his Christian worldview. Tolkien’s Theology of Beauty examines six structural elements, demonstrating that the author’s Christianity is deeply embedded in the narrative framework of his creative imagination.




Creation and Beauty in Tolkien's Catholic Vision


Book Description

This book invites readers into Tolkien’s world through the lens of a variety of philosophers, all of whom owe a rich debt to the Neoplatonic philosophical tradition. It places Tolkien’s mythology against a wider backdrop of Catholic philosophy and asks serious questions about the nature of creation, the nature of God, what it means to be good, and the problem of evil. Halsall sets Tolkien alongside both his contemporaries and ancient authors, revealing his careful use of literary devices inspired by them to craft his own “mythology for England.”




The Philosophy of Tolkien


Book Description

While nothing can equal or replace the adventure in reading ; Tolkienಙs masterwork, The Lord of the ; Rings, Peter Kreeft says that the journey into its ; underlying philosophy can be another exhilarating ; adventure. Thus, Kreeft takes the reader on a voyage ; of discovery into the philosophical bones of Middle earth. ; He organizes the philosophical themes in The Lord of the ; Rings into 50 categories, accompanied by over 1,000 ; references to the text of Lord.Since many of the great ; questions of philosophy are included in the 50-theme ; outline, this book can also be read as an engaging ; introduction to philosophy. For each of the philosophical ; topics in Lord, Kreeft presents tools by which they can be ; understood. Illustrated.




Tolkien's Ordinary Virtues


Book Description

For Christians who are fans of Tolkien, Smith compares the tales of the Hobbits to those of spirituality, wherein God calls those that listen to embark on a journey.




The Worlds of J. R. R. Tolkien


Book Description

An illustrated journey into the life and imagination of one of the world's best-loved authors, Tolkien's Worlds provides a unique exploration of the relationship between the real and the fantastical and is an essential companion for anyone who wants to follow in Tolkien's footsteps.




Chesterton and Tolkien as Theologians


Book Description

Offers a new reading of Tolkien in terms of Chesterton's literary and theological project.




Pagan Saints in Middle-earth


Book Description

Is Tolkien's work Christian or pagan? This question has intrigued readers and scholars ever since The Lord of the Rings has been published. Even today this important problem has not been given the full critical attention it deserves, and the present volume is an attempt to provide an answer. The volume contains a comprehensive bibliography on the subject, detailed indices, a foreword by Verlyn Flieger, and an afterword by Tom Shippey. Claudio Antonio Testi graduated in Philosophy at the University of Bologna and received a Ph.D. summa cum laude in Philosophy at the Pontificia UniversitÀ Lateranense. He is the President of the Philosophical Institute of Thomistic Studies, Vice President of AIST (Italian Association of Tolkien Studies), and at the Dominican Philosophical Study of Bologna he holds courses on Tolkien and on Formal Logic. As a scholar he has written 43 papers (published, among others, in Tolkien Studies and Hither Shore), two books, and edited 15 volumes, two of them in collaboration with Roberto Arduini for Walking Tree Publishers. Critical voices on the book "[Testi] has brought his readers the best of both schools. He has shown how they work, and best of all, shown how they can work together." (Verlyn Flieger) "Both admirers and critics, however, have now been helped to a better and truer understanding of Tolkien's work by this admirable exposition, the deepest appreciation yet written of Tolkien's Catholicity, and one he himself would certainly have welcomed and approved." (Tom Shippey)




J.R.R. Tolkien's Sanctifying Myth


Book Description

With a new introduction by the author Peter Jackson's film version of J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy - and the accompanying Rings-related paraphernalia and publicity - has played a unique role in the disemmination of Tolkien's imaginative creation to the masses. Yet, for most readers and viewers, the underlying meaning of Middle-earth has remained obscure. Bradley Birzer has remedied that with this fresh study. In J.R.R. Tolkien's Sanctifying Myth: Understanding Middle-earth, Birzer reveals the surprisingly specific religious symbolism that permeates Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium. He also explores the social and political views that motivated the Oxford don, ultimately situating Tolkien within the Christian humanist tradition represented by Thomas More and T.S. Eliot, Dante and C.S. Lewis. Birzer argues that through the genre of myth Tolkien created a world that is essentially truer than the one we think we see around us everyday, a world that transcends the colorless disenchantment of our postmodern age.




Tree of Tales


Book Description

"This work examines the theological relationship between creation and creativity in the works of J.R.R. Tolkien. It does so by bringing together a synthesis of various disciplines and perspectives to the creativity of J.R.R. Tolkien. Hart and Khovacs provide a fresh reading of these important themes in Tolkien, and the result captures the multi-faceted nature of Tolkien's own vivid theology and literary imagination." --Amazon.com.