davem posted:
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I don't know if Satan is believed to have 'suffused' himself into the fabric of the world, so i can't say how much this idea of Eru & Morgoth is exactly like the Christian concept. In other words, is this Tolkien dressing orthodox Christian belief in ME clothes? Or is it qualitatively different ...
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In Orthodox Christian [and I presume older Catholic] Theology, Man was understood to be the link for the vivifying Spirit between God and creation. A sort of energetic step down station, if you will. When Man fell [and failed to repent, but engaged in a blame game] this severed the link. So the loss of the Spirit in nature [though there are still echoes of it, as there are in Man] was due to Man, and only indirectly to the fallen Angels.
However the Story of the Flood indicates that Man's very presence [or at least an overwhelming number of 'bad guys'] also caused a pollution, in addtion to the havoc wreaked by the fall. The fallen Angels also played a part in this, but never as far as i have heard, tainting all of creation ditrectly as Morgoth did.
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Finally, didn't Tolkien state that he felt the Arthurian legends 'failed' in some way, because they brought in the Christian religion too prominently, & so confused the Secondary world of Logres/Camelot with the primary world. It seems strange that Tolkien would attempt the same 'confusion'.
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I recall the Arthurian quote, a quick peruse through Letters did not show any Arthurian/myth [just non-related references] entries
after the Athrabeth, so I think, JRRT seemed either to have changed his mind somewhat on the subject, or felt that the Athrabeth was somehow not too intrusive.
To my mind, when I read the Athrabeth, I felt the Legendarium had finally received it's 'crowning gem' so to speak, but of course, I am a Christian, so that is hardly an un-biased opinion.
He may have come to see the need to tie his M-E theology more closely to the RW, just as
he wished to tie the science more closely and jettison [or ascribe it to the ignorance of Man] the idea of there being a Flat -Earth before the Fall of Numenor.
I will try and remember to update this thread if I come across anything more definitve.