[Durelin]

Originally Posted by Lal

I can't help thinking that Tolkien's pre-occupation with monsters and bad guys and so on stems at least in part from his religion?

We're back to your "Nightmare World of Tolkien" thread. And I think the following reply should go on that thread, but since it was sparked here...

I was trying to think of a more precise approach to why the heck Catholicism is so rooted in this idea of humans having a tendency towards sin, and original sin and damnation and all that being inescapable except through this God guy who is...well, we don't know you have to believe, and being born into it...loss of innocence, temptation, Old Testament striking down-ness... But it just goes way too far back. And that's not where I wanted to go, perhaps because anthropology is something I like to think about but never would even think of really drawing conclusions from... And we're talking more about more modern Catholicism, rather than Judaism and early Christianity, I suppose. Well, we can try and limit it to that, anyway, to help my little brain...

Anyway... Then I remembered Augustine. Where does Catholicism get a ton of its more "modern" philosophy? Who wrote a proof for the existence of God? From a guy who had a "concubine" for over fifteen years before his conversion. Then we have Paul. He supposedly was persecuting Christians before he started writing his epistles. Whether or not he really was doesn't really matter, because it's Christian (or at least Catholic) tradition that says he did. Whether or not he was a really nasty jerk, or whether or not Augustine was a sordid man is very debatable, but Catholicism isn't about denying all sorts of nasty stuff.

Catholicism, in its aspects that still reflect early Christianity, is still a lot about conversion - conversion of the sinner, even though people typically only consider that the sort of "born again" fundamentalist-type thing. But, Christianity has always been attractive to people in bad situations.

But what does that have to do with all the blood and gore and dark stuff? Maybe it's meant to be self-reflective? Or maybe it wasn't meant to be, but the darkness of the human heart manifests itself in strange ways? Admonishment through figures and symbols and even architecture? It's always been: look at Jesus, the blood, the pain, the suffering, the death...that's God. The ultimate being. That's like the ultimate admonishment. And not necessarily in a negative way...nor in a parent scolding a child sort of way. I think it's more of a personal admonishment.

Those are my thoughts on it, anyway (and there's a lot missing there I wanted to express, but I'm getting bogged down). Basically just part of my own personal philosophy, I guess. Or my own personal philosophy of the moment... Yep, after almost seven years of Catholic school that's all I've got.

Apologies for how my mind likes to bounce all over the place...