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Up to this point, Mythic Mind Fellowship has taken a
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fairly eclectic approach, in that the Mythic Mind podcast may
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be doing one thing, the Games podcast doing another, Mythic
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Mind Movies doing another, and this sometimes we also have
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a course that's not directly related to what's happening elsewhere.
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But I decided that moving forward, I really want to
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have some more cohesion and what we're doing across the board,
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and so starting this fall, we're going to be moving
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in seasonal themes, seasonal emphasis, in which all that we're
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doing across movies, games, the main show, courses that may
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be happening, book clubs, that everything in articles that we write,
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everything is gonna be oriented around some common themes. And so,
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because I was already planning on leading the Cureityguard study
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this fall on the concept of anxiety and the sickness
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unto death, looking at anxiety to spare how to live
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in an authentic, integrated human life, it made sense to
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me to go ahead and give this fall a psychology focus,
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for as I'm calling it, exploring the psyche, to have
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some some mythological nods there. We're going to be looking
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at different aspects of how to be a human self
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who is living a good life. And I'm being pretty
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big about that because we'll be hitting at this from
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so many different angles right here on the main Mythic
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Mind podcast. So we'll be having a number of conversations
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that deal with things like, what does it mean to
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live a good life? How do we handle anxiety? What
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is the psychological importance of the idea of home? How
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do you live a grounded life? Like, all these different
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aspects of what it means to live well all we
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be playing out in various conversations. And then you know,
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over in Mythic my Movies, Mythic My Games, there's gonna
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be a heavily psychological focus in what we're doing over there,
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as well as with the articles that we're writing. And
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so as we get that together to really kick off
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in September, things are a little bit slow regarding immediate
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production in August, just because we are working on getting
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this new season put together really well. And so for now,
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what I want to provide you with is a reading
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from the ink. Well, this is going to be a benefit,
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or this already is actually a benefit that is exclusively
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available to fellows and companions over at our new site
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at Mythicmindfellowship dot com, which you should check out if
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you haven't done so already. And so fellows and companions
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have this private podcast feed that provides readings from the
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articles that I write and that other members of the fellowship, right,
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and so this is a special benefit for fellows and companions.
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But I'm going to make some of these available for
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you in the month of August as we're getting this
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new season together. And so if this is something that
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you appreciate, something you enjoy, then make sure that you
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head over to Mythic Mindfellowship dot com sign on as
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a fellow or companion. And by the way, those tiers
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also include access to certain courses from Mythic Mine Academy.
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Right now you get access to Platohistoicism until we have
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Faces the Lord of the Rings and the fiction and
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Philosophy of C. S. Lewis, and then you'll also have
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access to the upcoming course on Kukyguard which begins in October.
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So there's a lot of good stuff there. We've definitely
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expanded the value that you get for your dollar over
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at Mythicmindfellowship dot com. But even if you don't sign
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on as a paid member right now. I recommend that
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you still sign on as a free member just to
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stay up to date with all the various things that
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we are doing. So again Mythic Mindfellowship dot com or
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to click that link in the show notes. But now
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let's go ahead and get to our first reading from
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the Inkwell. Welcome to the Inkwell, the member exclusive podcast
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where we read articles written for Mythic Mind by Andrew
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Snyder and other members of the Fellowship. We hope you enjoy.
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So today I will be reading my essay that I
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posted on the Mythic Mind substack. I'd like to thank
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Andrew Snyder for the opportunity to do this. I really
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appreciate it. It's been a lot of fun. So the
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title of my essay is Arta Healed, not Arta Unmarred.
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Deep Christian anthropology in Tolkien's Athrobeth. Many, if not most,
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people are well aware of the fact that J. R. R.
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Tolkien was a Christian, specifically a devout Roman Catholic. While
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some Christians may remain suspicious of fantasy as such for
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religious reasons, and many secular fans may try to pretend
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that Tolkien's Legendarium is a book haunted by the spirits
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of the old Gods. Most folks that know anything about
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Tolkien seem to know that he was a devout Christian.
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If they know a little more than they might know
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of his friendship with the great Christian apologist C. S. Lewis,
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If they've really begun to wade into the waters of
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tolkien nerdom, then they might have read some of his letters,
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or perhaps an essay or two. If you're one of
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these people, then you do not need me to convince
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you of his Christianity. And I'm not here to do that. However,
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I do hope to introduce you to a rather obscure
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work of Tolkien's and help you understand not only that
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Tolkien's work is Christian, but how and why exactly. The
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Legendarium is quote a fundamentally religious and Catholic work using
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a short little philosophical dialogue by Tolkien and published posthumously
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by his son called the Athrabeth Finrod Andreth sometime in
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the early sixties. Christopher has a hard time dating it exactly.
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Tolkien penned this work seemingly in an effort to explain
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some of the philosophical problems that he created for himself
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in the lore surrounding the Elves and Men in Middle Earth.
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It takes the shape of a philosophical dialogue and much
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the same tradition as those of Plato, Cicero, or Barkley
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and others, though the drama of the dialogue is distinctly Tolkienian.
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Athrabeth translates to converse or debate, and so the title
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is the Debate of Finrod and Andreth. It's set very
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early in the history of Arda, prior to the Battle
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of Sudden Flame in the first Age of the World,
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and the debate is between a high eleven lord, Finrod
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Felgund and a human wise woman named Andreth of the
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House of Bayor. Finrod, who is one of the Elvin
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lords most friendly with men, opens the dialogue mourning the
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swift passing of men. Finrod is grieved by this brevity,
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but Andreth observes that their passing was swifter before we
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found this land. Finrod, surprised, then, asks, then are you
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content here? Content? Said Andreth, No heart of man is content.
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All passing and dying is a grief to it. But
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if the withering is less soon than that is some amendment,
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a little lifting of the shadow thus begins the dialog.
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Tolkien created a world in which death is no less
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a tragedy than it is in the primary world, and yet,
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according to the Lore of the Eldar, death is Eru's
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gift to men. In his night famous nineteen fifty one
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letter to Milton Waldman, Tolkien explains that the doom of
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elves is to be immortal, to love the beauty of
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the world, to last well it lasts, never leaving it
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even when slain. The doom or gift of men is mortality,
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freedom from the circles of the world. This creates attention
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in Tolkien's lore. If death is a gift of error
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to men, then why do men fear it so? If
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death means freedom from the circles of the world, why
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does it strike them and us as unnatural and abominable.
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On the other hand, if the Eel's immortality is so
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wonderful and enviable, then why does Tolkien, via the Lore
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of the Eldar, frame death as a gift from the creator. Tolkien,
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by creating these two peoples who are essentially kin and
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yet essentially estranged because of the problem of mortality, sets
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the background and creates opportunity for a poignant and rich
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reflection on Christian anthropology. A highly sophisticated and deeply Christian
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anthropology rooted in Patristic theology, is woven into the fabric
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of Tolkien's Arda. Tolkien's Athrobeth reveals the theology in which
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the fall is seen primarily as ontological and cosmological, not
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merely as a breach of command and punishment. Tolkien's theology
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therefore necessitates, within the secondary world of Arda, the resurrection
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of the body and the incarnation of the Son of God.
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In the midst of his grief, Finrod attempts to account
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for the lore of his people. Concerning the children of men,
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he says, claim that ye are our kin, and a
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kinship far closer than that which binds together all other
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creatures of Arda. If we consider the briefness of life
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in all Middle Earth, must we not believe that your
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brevity is also part of your nature. In typical high
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Elvish fashion, he completely fails to understand the weight of
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the fear and hatred of death which men experience. For him,
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it is easy to see death as a gift ages
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of life bound to the earth, and which elves witness
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the marring of Arda have yielded a kind of grief
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in memory of things past. For the elves, being bound
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to the circles of the world is not a problem,
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and death is seen as something of an escape not
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allotted to them. But Andreath, for whom the human experience
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of death is all too near, maintains that men are
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not now as they were, nor as their true nature
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was in their beginning. The wise say plainly that men
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are not by nature short lived, but have become so
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through the malice of the Lord of darkness. In response
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to this, Finrod assumes that if this be so, then
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men shared a fate more akin to the elves, i e.
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The life which endures as long as the world, but
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no longer, but that the Shadow took that from them.
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He asks, you say, we were not made for death,
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nor born ever to die. What do you mean that
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ye were as we are or otherwise? Andreth is surprised
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by this. She says, we considered only dying, and not
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dying of life as long as the world, but no longer.
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We had not heard. Tolkien thus introduces two types of immortality.
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The immortality of the elves is such that they last
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as long as Arda, and as Arda will have an end,
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soll the elves. But Andres speaks of another kind of immortality.
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We knew that in our beginning we had been born
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never to die, and by that, my Lord, we meant
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born to life, everlasting, without any shadow of any end.
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Finrod disputes this. He says, you claim to have had
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imperishable bodies, not bounded by the limits of Arda, and
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yet derived from its matter and sustained by it. And
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you claim, also, though this, you may not have yet
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perceived to have had roar in fear that we're from
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the beginning out of harmony. And as a footnote, these
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terms roar and fay a are defined than a footnote
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of Tolkien's proa or plural roar, corresponds roughly to the
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body of one of the incarnates, in which is housed
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the faa or plural faar, which corresponds roughly to the soul.
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Tolkien explicitly and importantly states that the Elvish conception of
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the self includes both. Moving on with a quote. Yet
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harmony of the heroa in Fea is we believe essential
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to the true nature unmarred of all the incarnate. From
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Finnrod's perspective, death represents the separation of the soul from
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the body, and therefore true immortality would necessitate the immortality
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of the body, not only of the soul. This is
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inconsistent with the Lore of the Elder, which states on
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one hand that Arda will have an end, and on
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the other that the gift of men lies in their
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not being bound to Artis's fate. But if the true
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fate of men is to have life, which is truly everlasting,
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then this would necessitate Arda being everlasting. Therefore, the fate
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and nature of men is bound up with the fate
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of Arda. This is where we begin to see Tolkien's
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Christian theology really come to the forefront. In the early
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fourth century AD, Saint Athanasius of Alexandria wrote a treatise
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entitled On the Incarnation of the Word. I have chosen
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to focus on this text as the voice of Patristic
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theology in the essay for a few reasons. For one,
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it is vastly influential on Christian theology both East and West,
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and is widely respected as one of the great defenses
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of Christian orthodoxy related to the incarnation of the Son
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of God for another. As will be seen, its themes
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of death as an ontological enemy of human nature and
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the restoration of that corrupted nature resonate deeply with Tolkien's themes,
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as expounded on explicitly Indiathbeth. It is certainly the case
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that Tolkien was deeply acquainted with patristic and of course
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medieval theology, especially that of the West, and my central
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claim is that Tolkien weaves this theology into the very
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fabric of his legendarium. At the beginning of the on
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the Incarnation, st Athanasius makes its interesting claim. He explains
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that by virtue of being created, humans are brought from
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non existence into being. This initial state of non being
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means that quote, by the principle of its own coming
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into being, it would not be able to endure eternally,
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and so Athanasius seems to be saying that men are
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by nature mortal. He even states this explicitly, for the
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human being is by nature mortal, having come into being
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from nothing. However, Athanasius emphasizes that because of his likeness
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to the One who is, he would have remained incorruptible.
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That is, the grace of being in the image of
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the Creator makes man incorruptible in spite of his mortal nature.
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Athanasius then makes clear that the cause of death then
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is sin quote. But human beings turning away from things eternal,
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and by the counsel of the devil turning us towards
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things of corruption, were themselves the cause of corruption in death.
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And so Athanasius has presented the fall as a consequence
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of sin, but he clarifies that repentance and moral purity
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are not enough to rect to fire our nature. He writes,
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what should God do demand repentance for human beings for
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their transgression. One might say that this is worthy of God,
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claiming that just as they were set towards corruption by
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the transgression, so by repentance they might again be set
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towards incorruptibility. But repentance does not recall human beings from
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what is natural, but merely halt's sins. If then there
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were only offense and not the consequence of corruption, repentance
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would have been fine. And so, much like Tolkien, Athanasius
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has presented a philosophical problem that is not limited to
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a transgression and penalty, but rather as concerned with death
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as an ontological infection of human nature. Andreth and Athanasius
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both agree that we had been born never to die,
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but the evil one call him Melchor or Satan, has
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changed the doom of a whole people and robbed them
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of their inheritance. In the Aphabeth, then Tolkien offers further
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philosophical explanation of this problem. Finrod argues that due to
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the nature of man and his intended fate, eternal life
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is something of an ontological necessity. Speaking of the proa
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or body and Fea or soul, he says that to
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divide them is a grievous hurt, and yet each must
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fulfill its right nature without tyranny of the other. Then
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this must surely follow. The Fea when it departs, must
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take with it the proa as its eternal spouse and companion,
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into an endurance everlasting beyond Aa and beyond time. This, then,
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I propound, was the errand of men, not the followers,
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but the heirs and fulfillers of all, to heal the
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marring of Arda, For that Arda healed shall not be
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arda unmarred, but a third thing and greater, and yet
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the same. If this be so, then grievous was the
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wounding of man's nature. Tolkien, in the voices of Finrod
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and Andrath, meditates on the calamity of the fall. Finrod says,
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mighty indeed, under erru were men made in their beginning,
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and dreadful beyond all other calamities was the chain in
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their state. This is not a matter of mere transgression
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and penalty, but a calamity affecting the whole cosmos. Thus
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Finrod and Andreth are left to speculate how the nature
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of men might be restored, forced to rely on hope
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or estelle, that Christian virtue which does not rely on
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uncertain expectation of good, but rather trust in him who
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quote will not suffer himself to be deprived of his own,
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not by any enemy, not even by ourselves. Athenaxious writing
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from the other side of the great yu catastrophe can
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give us the answer. And yet Andreth speaks of a rumor,
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an inkling of the salvation to come espoused by those
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of the old Hope. When asked of this, Andreth says
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that it was not in the might of men, nor
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in any of the peoples of Arda that the old
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hope was grounded. They say that the One will himself
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enter into Arda, heal men, and all the marring from
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the beginning to the end enter. Athanasius Tolkien has thus
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explicated the central problem of the human condition and how
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it affects the cosmos, and imply the solution. Man, whose
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nature contains both roa and phaia, body and soul, was
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created to be immortal, but death has brought us unto corruptibility.
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The death inflicted upon us as bound up with the
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fate of the world, and marred our nature in all
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of creation. Therefore, the solution must come from without, from
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outside Aea itself, from the one who must enter his
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creation in order to heal it. And Athanasius teaches us
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about this. He says, being the Word of the Father
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and above all, he alone consequently was both able to
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recreate the universe and was worthy to suffer on behalf
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of all, and to intercede for all before the Father.
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For this purpose, then the incorporeal and incorruptible and the
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immaterial Word of God comes into our realm by taking
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on our corruptible nature, delivering it over to death on
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behalf of all, he offered it to the Father. He
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gave them life from death by making the body his own,
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and by the grace of the resurrection, banishing death from
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them as straw from a fire. For Athanasius, the very
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purpose of the incarnation of the Word is to heal
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his own creation and to heal our nature, because he
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will not suffer himself to be deprived of his own
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The resurrection of the body, by defeating death, undoes the
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marring of Arda and restores the grace bestowed upon our
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nature of being in the image true children of a Luvitar.
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In this essay, I hope to use this text of
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the Athrobeth, Finrada and Dreth to demonstrate the degree to
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which Tolkien's fantasy is foundationally Christian and points to the
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mysteries of our sylation. Tolkien's project of the escape and
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consolation of fantasy, as describes in his Essay on Fairy Stories,
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is not meant to deprive us of reality, nor to
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distract us from the truth. Rather, through the medium of
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stories told of a secondary world, Tolkien points to the
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true story of the primary world. If I've convinced you
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of nothing else, reader or listener, I hope I have
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convinced you toley leg take up and read these words
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of Tolkien and of Saint Athanasius. I've only scratched the
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surface of these works. They bear reading and rereading. So
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once again i'd like to thank Andrew Snyder for the
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opportunity to read this to you all.
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Up to this point, Mythic Mind Fellowship has taken a
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fairly eclectic approach, in that the Mythic Mind podcast may
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be doing one thing, the Games podcast doing another, Mythic
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Mind Movies doing another, and this sometimes we also have
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a course that's not directly related to what's happening elsewhere.
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But I decided that moving forward, I really want to
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have some more cohesion and what we're doing across the board,
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and so starting this fall, we're going to be moving
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in seasonal themes, seasonal emphasis, in which all that we're
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doing across movies, games, the main show, courses that may
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be happening, book clubs, that everything in articles that we write,
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everything is gonna be oriented around some common themes. And so,
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because I was already planning on leading the Cureityguard study
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this fall on the concept of anxiety and the sickness
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unto death, looking at anxiety to spare how to live
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in an authentic, integrated human life, it made sense to
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me to go ahead and give this fall a psychology focus,
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for as I'm calling it, exploring the psyche, to have
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some some mythological nods there. We're going to be looking
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at different aspects of how to be a human self
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who is living a good life. And I'm being pretty
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big about that because we'll be hitting at this from
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so many different angles right here on the main Mythic
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Mind podcast. So we'll be having a number of conversations
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that deal with things like, what does it mean to
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live a good life? How do we handle anxiety? What
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is the psychological importance of the idea of home? How
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do you live a grounded life? Like, all these different
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aspects of what it means to live well all we
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be playing out in various conversations. And then you know,
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over in Mythic my Movies, Mythic My Games, there's gonna
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be a heavily psychological focus in what we're doing over there,
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as well as with the articles that we're writing. And
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so as we get that together to really kick off
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in September, things are a little bit slow regarding immediate
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production in August, just because we are working on getting
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this new season put together really well. And so for now,
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what I want to provide you with is a reading
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from the ink. Well, this is going to be a benefit,
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or this already is actually a benefit that is exclusively
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available to fellows and companions over at our new site
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at Mythicmindfellowship dot com, which you should check out if
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you haven't done so already. And so fellows and companions
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have this private podcast feed that provides readings from the
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articles that I write and that other members of the fellowship, right,
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and so this is a special benefit for fellows and companions.
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But I'm going to make some of these available for
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you in the month of August as we're getting this
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new season together. And so if this is something that
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you appreciate, something you enjoy, then make sure that you
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head over to Mythic Mindfellowship dot com sign on as
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a fellow or companion. And by the way, those tiers
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also include access to certain courses from Mythic Mine Academy.
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Right now you get access to Platohistoicism until we have
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Faces the Lord of the Rings and the fiction and
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Philosophy of C. S. Lewis, and then you'll also have
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access to the upcoming course on Kukyguard which begins in October.
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So there's a lot of good stuff there. We've definitely
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expanded the value that you get for your dollar over
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at Mythicmindfellowship dot com. But even if you don't sign
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on as a paid member right now. I recommend that
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you still sign on as a free member just to
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stay up to date with all the various things that
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we are doing. So again Mythic Mindfellowship dot com or
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to click that link in the show notes. But now
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let's go ahead and get to our first reading from
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the Inkwell. Welcome to the Inkwell, the member exclusive podcast
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where we read articles written for Mythic Mind by Andrew
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Snyder and other members of the Fellowship. We hope you enjoy.
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So today I will be reading my essay that I
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posted on the Mythic Mind substack. I'd like to thank
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Andrew Snyder for the opportunity to do this. I really
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appreciate it. It's been a lot of fun. So the
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title of my essay is Arta Healed, not Arta Unmarred.
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Deep Christian anthropology in Tolkien's Athrobeth. Many, if not most,
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people are well aware of the fact that J. R. R.
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Tolkien was a Christian, specifically a devout Roman Catholic. While
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some Christians may remain suspicious of fantasy as such for
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religious reasons, and many secular fans may try to pretend
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that Tolkien's Legendarium is a book haunted by the spirits
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of the old Gods. Most folks that know anything about
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Tolkien seem to know that he was a devout Christian.
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If they know a little more than they might know
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of his friendship with the great Christian apologist C. S. Lewis,
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If they've really begun to wade into the waters of
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tolkien nerdom, then they might have read some of his letters,
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or perhaps an essay or two. If you're one of
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these people, then you do not need me to convince
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you of his Christianity. And I'm not here to do that. However,
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I do hope to introduce you to a rather obscure
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work of Tolkien's and help you understand not only that
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Tolkien's work is Christian, but how and why exactly. The
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Legendarium is quote a fundamentally religious and Catholic work using
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a short little philosophical dialogue by Tolkien and published posthumously
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by his son called the Athrabeth Finrod Andreth sometime in
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the early sixties. Christopher has a hard time dating it exactly.
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Tolkien penned this work seemingly in an effort to explain
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some of the philosophical problems that he created for himself
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in the lore surrounding the Elves and Men in Middle Earth.
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It takes the shape of a philosophical dialogue and much
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the same tradition as those of Plato, Cicero, or Barkley
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and others, though the drama of the dialogue is distinctly Tolkienian.
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Athrabeth translates to converse or debate, and so the title
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is the Debate of Finrod and Andreth. It's set very
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early in the history of Arda, prior to the Battle
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of Sudden Flame in the first Age of the World,
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and the debate is between a high eleven lord, Finrod
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Felgund and a human wise woman named Andreth of the
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House of Bayor. Finrod, who is one of the Elvin
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lords most friendly with men, opens the dialogue mourning the
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swift passing of men. Finrod is grieved by this brevity,
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but Andreth observes that their passing was swifter before we
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found this land. Finrod, surprised, then, asks, then are you
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content here? Content? Said Andreth, No heart of man is content.
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All passing and dying is a grief to it. But
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if the withering is less soon than that is some amendment,
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a little lifting of the shadow thus begins the dialog.
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Tolkien created a world in which death is no less
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a tragedy than it is in the primary world, and yet,
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according to the Lore of the Eldar, death is Eru's
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gift to men. In his night famous nineteen fifty one
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letter to Milton Waldman, Tolkien explains that the doom of
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elves is to be immortal, to love the beauty of
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the world, to last well it lasts, never leaving it
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even when slain. The doom or gift of men is mortality,
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freedom from the circles of the world. This creates attention
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in Tolkien's lore. If death is a gift of error
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to men, then why do men fear it so? If
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death means freedom from the circles of the world, why
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does it strike them and us as unnatural and abominable.
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On the other hand, if the Eel's immortality is so
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wonderful and enviable, then why does Tolkien, via the Lore
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of the Eldar, frame death as a gift from the creator. Tolkien,
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by creating these two peoples who are essentially kin and
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yet essentially estranged because of the problem of mortality, sets
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the background and creates opportunity for a poignant and rich
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reflection on Christian anthropology. A highly sophisticated and deeply Christian
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anthropology rooted in Patristic theology, is woven into the fabric
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of Tolkien's Arda. Tolkien's Athrobeth reveals the theology in which
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the fall is seen primarily as ontological and cosmological, not
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merely as a breach of command and punishment. Tolkien's theology
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therefore necessitates, within the secondary world of Arda, the resurrection
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of the body and the incarnation of the Son of God.
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In the midst of his grief, Finrod attempts to account
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for the lore of his people. Concerning the children of men,
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he says, claim that ye are our kin, and a
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kinship far closer than that which binds together all other
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creatures of Arda. If we consider the briefness of life
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in all Middle Earth, must we not believe that your
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brevity is also part of your nature. In typical high
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Elvish fashion, he completely fails to understand the weight of
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the fear and hatred of death which men experience. For him,
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it is easy to see death as a gift ages
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of life bound to the earth, and which elves witness
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the marring of Arda have yielded a kind of grief
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in memory of things past. For the elves, being bound
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to the circles of the world is not a problem,
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and death is seen as something of an escape not
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allotted to them. But Andreath, for whom the human experience
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of death is all too near, maintains that men are
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not now as they were, nor as their true nature
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was in their beginning. The wise say plainly that men
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are not by nature short lived, but have become so
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through the malice of the Lord of darkness. In response
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to this, Finrod assumes that if this be so, then
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men shared a fate more akin to the elves, i e.
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The life which endures as long as the world, but
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no longer, but that the Shadow took that from them.
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He asks, you say, we were not made for death,
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nor born ever to die. What do you mean that
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ye were as we are or otherwise? Andreth is surprised
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by this. She says, we considered only dying, and not
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dying of life as long as the world, but no longer.
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We had not heard. Tolkien thus introduces two types of immortality.
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The immortality of the elves is such that they last
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as long as Arda, and as Arda will have an end,
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soll the elves. But Andres speaks of another kind of immortality.
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We knew that in our beginning we had been born
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never to die, and by that, my Lord, we meant
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born to life, everlasting, without any shadow of any end.
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Finrod disputes this. He says, you claim to have had
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imperishable bodies, not bounded by the limits of Arda, and
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yet derived from its matter and sustained by it. And
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you claim, also, though this, you may not have yet
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perceived to have had roar in fear that we're from
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the beginning out of harmony. And as a footnote, these
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terms roar and fay a are defined than a footnote
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of Tolkien's proa or plural roar, corresponds roughly to the
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body of one of the incarnates, in which is housed
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the faa or plural faar, which corresponds roughly to the soul.
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Tolkien explicitly and importantly states that the Elvish conception of
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the self includes both. Moving on with a quote. Yet
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harmony of the heroa in Fea is we believe essential
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to the true nature unmarred of all the incarnate. From
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Finnrod's perspective, death represents the separation of the soul from
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the body, and therefore true immortality would necessitate the immortality
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of the body, not only of the soul. This is
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inconsistent with the Lore of the Elder, which states on
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one hand that Arda will have an end, and on
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the other that the gift of men lies in their
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not being bound to Artis's fate. But if the true
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fate of men is to have life, which is truly everlasting,
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then this would necessitate Arda being everlasting. Therefore, the fate
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and nature of men is bound up with the fate
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of Arda. This is where we begin to see Tolkien's
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Christian theology really come to the forefront. In the early
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fourth century AD, Saint Athanasius of Alexandria wrote a treatise
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entitled On the Incarnation of the Word. I have chosen
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to focus on this text as the voice of Patristic
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theology in the essay for a few reasons. For one,
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it is vastly influential on Christian theology both East and West,
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and is widely respected as one of the great defenses
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of Christian orthodoxy related to the incarnation of the Son
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of God for another. As will be seen, its themes
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of death as an ontological enemy of human nature and
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the restoration of that corrupted nature resonate deeply with Tolkien's themes,
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as expounded on explicitly Indiathbeth. It is certainly the case
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that Tolkien was deeply acquainted with patristic and of course
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medieval theology, especially that of the West, and my central
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claim is that Tolkien weaves this theology into the very
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fabric of his legendarium. At the beginning of the on
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the Incarnation, st Athanasius makes its interesting claim. He explains
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that by virtue of being created, humans are brought from
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non existence into being. This initial state of non being
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means that quote, by the principle of its own coming
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into being, it would not be able to endure eternally,
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and so Athanasius seems to be saying that men are
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by nature mortal. He even states this explicitly, for the
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human being is by nature mortal, having come into being
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from nothing. However, Athanasius emphasizes that because of his likeness
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to the One who is, he would have remained incorruptible.
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That is, the grace of being in the image of
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the Creator makes man incorruptible in spite of his mortal nature.
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Athanasius then makes clear that the cause of death then
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is sin quote. But human beings turning away from things eternal,
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and by the counsel of the devil turning us towards
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things of corruption, were themselves the cause of corruption in death.
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And so Athanasius has presented the fall as a consequence
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of sin, but he clarifies that repentance and moral purity
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are not enough to rect to fire our nature. He writes,
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what should God do demand repentance for human beings for
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their transgression. One might say that this is worthy of God,
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claiming that just as they were set towards corruption by
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the transgression, so by repentance they might again be set
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towards incorruptibility. But repentance does not recall human beings from
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what is natural, but merely halt's sins. If then there
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were only offense and not the consequence of corruption, repentance
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would have been fine. And so, much like Tolkien, Athanasius
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has presented a philosophical problem that is not limited to
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a transgression and penalty, but rather as concerned with death
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as an ontological infection of human nature. Andreth and Athanasius
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both agree that we had been born never to die,
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but the evil one call him Melchor or Satan, has
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changed the doom of a whole people and robbed them
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of their inheritance. In the Aphabeth, then Tolkien offers further
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philosophical explanation of this problem. Finrod argues that due to
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the nature of man and his intended fate, eternal life
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is something of an ontological necessity. Speaking of the proa
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or body and Fea or soul, he says that to
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divide them is a grievous hurt, and yet each must
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fulfill its right nature without tyranny of the other. Then
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this must surely follow. The Fea when it departs, must
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take with it the proa as its eternal spouse and companion,
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into an endurance everlasting beyond Aa and beyond time. This, then,
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I propound, was the errand of men, not the followers,
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but the heirs and fulfillers of all, to heal the
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marring of Arda, For that Arda healed shall not be
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arda unmarred, but a third thing and greater, and yet
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the same. If this be so, then grievous was the
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wounding of man's nature. Tolkien, in the voices of Finrod
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and Andrath, meditates on the calamity of the fall. Finrod says,
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mighty indeed, under erru were men made in their beginning,
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and dreadful beyond all other calamities was the chain in
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their state. This is not a matter of mere transgression
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and penalty, but a calamity affecting the whole cosmos. Thus
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Finrod and Andreth are left to speculate how the nature
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of men might be restored, forced to rely on hope
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or estelle, that Christian virtue which does not rely on
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uncertain expectation of good, but rather trust in him who
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quote will not suffer himself to be deprived of his own,
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not by any enemy, not even by ourselves. Athenaxious writing
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from the other side of the great yu catastrophe can
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give us the answer. And yet Andreth speaks of a rumor,
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an inkling of the salvation to come espoused by those
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of the old Hope. When asked of this, Andreth says
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that it was not in the might of men, nor
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in any of the peoples of Arda that the old
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hope was grounded. They say that the One will himself
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enter into Arda, heal men, and all the marring from
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the beginning to the end enter. Athanasius Tolkien has thus
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explicated the central problem of the human condition and how
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it affects the cosmos, and imply the solution. Man, whose
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nature contains both roa and phaia, body and soul, was
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created to be immortal, but death has brought us unto corruptibility.
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The death inflicted upon us as bound up with the
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fate of the world, and marred our nature in all
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of creation. Therefore, the solution must come from without, from
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outside Aea itself, from the one who must enter his
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creation in order to heal it. And Athanasius teaches us
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about this. He says, being the Word of the Father
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and above all, he alone consequently was both able to
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recreate the universe and was worthy to suffer on behalf
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of all, and to intercede for all before the Father.
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For this purpose, then the incorporeal and incorruptible and the
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immaterial Word of God comes into our realm by taking
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on our corruptible nature, delivering it over to death on
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behalf of all, he offered it to the Father. He
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gave them life from death by making the body his own,
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and by the grace of the resurrection, banishing death from
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them as straw from a fire. For Athanasius, the very
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purpose of the incarnation of the Word is to heal
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his own creation and to heal our nature, because he
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will not suffer himself to be deprived of his own
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The resurrection of the body, by defeating death, undoes the
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marring of Arda and restores the grace bestowed upon our
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nature of being in the image true children of a Luvitar.
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In this essay, I hope to use this text of
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the Athrobeth, Finrada and Dreth to demonstrate the degree to
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which Tolkien's fantasy is foundationally Christian and points to the
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mysteries of our sylation. Tolkien's project of the escape and
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consolation of fantasy, as describes in his Essay on Fairy Stories,
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is not meant to deprive us of reality, nor to
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distract us from the truth. Rather, through the medium of
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stories told of a secondary world, Tolkien points to the
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true story of the primary world. If I've convinced you
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of nothing else, reader or listener, I hope I have
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convinced you toley leg take up and read these words
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of Tolkien and of Saint Athanasius. I've only scratched the
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surface of these works. They bear reading and rereading. So
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once again i'd like to thank Andrew Snyder for the
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opportunity to read this to you all.
