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Originally Posted by Nogrod
In the early mythologies, yes, but within thinking that is twisted with monotheism, not. I think here the prof took sides. It was not probably very common of him to do that but one can guess that at the roots of one's most fundamental metaphysical beliefs it's hard to stay calm and not bring one's own beliefs into the play?
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The interesting thing to me is the use Tolkien makes of Eru - very little in fact. He seems to be there because Tolkien felt he ought to be. Yet his major appearances are, first, the propounding of the Themes & the Destruction of Numenor. But as 'creator' he seems more of an artist - his great concern seems not to be that what is produced be good in any moral sense, but rather that it be 'beautiful'. To the extent that morality comes into it at all it seems to be Eru's annoyance with Morgoth's attempted spoiling of his 'opera'. Eru doesn't seem at all concerned with the suffering that will result on the human/Elven level from allowing Morgoth's dissonances into the creation, only with making sure its impressive, & redounds to his glory. It must be impressive, however much blood is shed. When he pops into Arda to sort out the Numenoreans its the same thing - do something impressive. Yet, the character is not necessary to the plot. So why leave it in? Yes the presence of Eru serves to make the world monotheistic (of you look hard enough) but it reduces him to an obessessed artist prone to hissy fits -when he can be bothered to intervene at all.
One begins to suspect that the real reason for the tradition introduced in the Athrabeth that one day Eru would enter into Arda personally has less to do with the desire to make the Legendarium conform to Christian belief (he stated the idea was too close to a parody of Christianity) & more to do with the idea of giving the character more depth & a real purpose within the Legendarium. Only if Eru plays such a significant role in the story does he have a real reason for keeping him around. Eru may work in the simpler world of the Lost Tales, but as far as the more mature developed legendarium is concerned he sticks out like a sore thumb, like some petulant Thunder God cowing the neanderthals...
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Its interesting that Eru is one of the few characters from BoLT who survives virtually unchanged throughout the Legendarium. All the others have time spent on them, they evolve, deepen & become more integrated into the Legendarium as it matures. Eru remains, until the Athrabeth, this simple (not to say simplistic) figure - as if Sauron had remained Tevildo, Prince of Cats. This seems to lend more weight to his being very much a secondary character, not worth developing, & used only when the plot required some spectacular event like the destruction of Numenor. Yet this very appearance reinforces his primitive nature. He is increasingly out of place in the Legendarium & Tolkien seems finally to acknowledge this & attempts to make something of the character. Yet the best he can do is produce a 'parody' of the Christian story. I wonder how long the character would have survived. He has to change if he is to remain in the story, yet changing him makes him into a parody of something Tolkien would have been very uncomfortable parodying. Perhaps Eru's fate would ultimately be to have gone the way of Tevildo, & be cahnged into something entirely, or to have gone the way of the three odd figures in BoLT, who were personifications of Days, Hours & Minutes & be lost altogether ...