Quote:
Originally Posted by Tuor in Gondolin
Turin becoming a Valar seems a bit bizarre. They were the
equivalent of angelic spirits. To have a human become one
is rather "unChricstian" if you will, for Tolkien's pre-Christian
Christian theological worldview of Middle-earth.
I imagine he was just playing around with various scenarios,
as he was wont to do.
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Forgive me for being a little blasphemous (I am not Catholic, so I don't know if this argument would wash) But I can sort of see a twisty sort of way Tolkien could allow that without tecnically violating Christian dogma. As far as I remember, Catholocism recognized that non human heavenly beings can also double as saints (or why some of the patron saints are angels and archangels) and perform the functions thereof. And certianly Eurpoean folklore is rife with stories of saints being sent down to earth to basically fulfill the same functions as angles (to carry dircet messages from God, and to intercede in human affairs when God so wills). So in a certain sense, becoming a saint, from the point of view of the individual who it is happening to (laying aside the temportal canonization process) is basically a human spirit being raised up to stand equal with the angels. Thought of that way, there is no real contradiction. Turin commits and act of true holyness (killing Morgoth/Ancalagon i.e. permanently vanquishing a great/the greatest source of evil) and as a reward, is rasied up to stand with the Valar (i.e. the angels of ME). I admit the thing is a bit easier to explain in a pre Cristian light (for one thing, there aren't that many examples in Christianity of an individual being raised to such a level while alive (I can think of citing Elijah who tecnically is taken up into heaven while still alive, but it's an akward fit) but I don't see a
direct contradiction.