Well, how much do we know about Eru's personality? (Does He have a 'personality' in teh sense in which we have a personality?)
We can't say He's a 'sadist' because we have too little evidence on which to base an analysis. He is too transcendent a figure. If we had the account of His incarnation in Middle Earth as foretold in the Athrabeth, & could see what He got up to - if he went around 'doing a Sauron', etc, then we could judge Him. Unfortunatley, we're limited to basing our judgement of Him on events which occur in Middle Earth, because we can't know his mind. Of course, one could make a case for him being uncaring - if he's so powerful, why doesn't He just make the bad stuff go away? We'd judge other supposedly 'good' characters in the story harshly if they stood by & allowed the innocent to suffer. Indeed, Tolkien seems to state very clearly (to this reader, at least, though maybe I'm just reading it into the text, & its not really there
), that there is a moral obligation to protect the innocent & if necessary, sacrifice oneself for the 'Good' & that there really
is such a thing as 'Good' - deliberately capitalised, with all the implications of that acknowledged & accepted!
But as we can't see things from an 'Eruian' perspective, we don't know why He only intervenes occasionally, & in specific ways. Maybe Tolkien is trying to do a Milton, & justify the ways of God to Man, or maybe he's trying to keep the
deus ex machina back for the really dramatic moments.
As Bethberry has said, we can't really equate Eru with Tolkien in a one-to-one way. Particularly if, in any way at all, he intended Eru to be a 'reflection' of God.
There is a question to be asked, perhaps, about what Tolkien's concept of God was. The God presented in Job, for example, is difficult to reconcile with 'Gentle Jesus, meek & mild'. I think Tolkien's God is the God of Job, & there we come to
another problem. As I stated in another thread, viewed literally, God in Job is playing a game with Satan, & Job is the playing piece. Littlemanpoet pointed me in another direction - seeing God's appearance to Job as an experience of Transcendence for Job, so that he is rising above his suffering, the suffering of humanity in general, & seeing it from a 'higher' perspective - If I'm not over simplifying his position - I'd advise you to read his later posts in the 'Nebulous It' thread for clarification.
Oh, please, not
another long thread - Canonicity is taking over my life
