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Old 02-23-2007, 05:10 PM   #290
Raynor
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Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Sarmisegethuza
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That wasn't perhaps what you expected, but that's where I come from and possibly why I can accept Eru for what he is within that context.
What does it mean you accept it? That you think what he does is good? Or that a transcendent being can err? Or can it do actual evil?
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About Tolkien applying Christian concepts to interpreting LotR - I think he did indeed apply some in retrospect*, but as for the actual drafting, I think rather he was most careful not to put specifics in there.
In retrospect? He was writting in his letters as early as, arguably, 1951, that "myth and fairy-story must, as all art, reflect and contain in solution elements of moral and religious truth (or error), but not explicit, not in the known form of the primary 'real' world." The famous letter #131, the preface to the Silmarillion.
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It's possibly a difficult thing to accept if you have a particular view of your own God as being absolutely Good, but note, this idea is consistent with Catholicism, so is quite possibly actually the way Tolkien saw things in reality.
Compare this to: "Now can we even say that a god like Eru is like the God known by all Christians anyway?". Aren't your statements contradictory?
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Melkor being who he is and stemming from Eru makes the whole thing hang together.
How does the whole thing hold together, if you state that "he is not 'nice'" but he is repeatedly depicted as good, and that considering him bad is the root of evil? Please explain.
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