Historical Value

[Bill Ferny]

I haven’t time to reply in full. However, I do require some clarification.

Well, as you say, that was before the Fall. My statement was regarding circumstances afterwards.

Kuruharan, are you suggesting that a human act can undue an act of God? I’m not bringing into question the state of a fallen world, but the essence of creation, the very nature of existence. To whatever degree something exists, to the same degree it is good. Good is a transcendental; it is interchangeable with being. This is simple Aristotelian metaphysics. It is also simple Thomistic metaphysics, thus the Catholic/Tolkien connection.

Tolkien’s spurious view of chivalry (I say spurious because chivalry does not necessarily equal courtly romance as he seems to take for granted in the above example), is beside the point. That Tolkien believed in original sin is obvious throughout his writings, no less, I’m sure in his letters. I’ve read enough examples on this forum to be convinced. None-the-less, the Catholic notion of the “shipwreck” of the human condition does not negate the essential goodness of the human person. Once again, no human act can undue an act of God. If there is nothing worth saving about sinful humanity, why save it?

However, arguing Tolkien’s theology is shaky ground, as he was neither a theologian or philosopher. I admit the only grounds for making the above claims is that Tolkien was an educated and devout Catholic. I don’t think a Catholic Oxford professor would be unfamiliar with Saint Thomas Aquinas, nor do I think a devout Catholic would be of a mind to diverge radically from a system of thought that has been the basis for Catholic doctrine since the Council of Trent.

While Frodo’s pity was an important ingredient, it only opened the door for an event that was nothing less than divine intervention.

If I gave the impression that Christian optimism is the same as Pelagianism, I apologize. Even though all of creation is essentially good, in as much as it exists to some degree, the sin of man, according to Catholic theology, is beyond the power of man to heal. Thus, divine intervention, or as Tolkien would call it, a eucatastrophic moment, is not a surprising addition to his mythology.

At any rate, you bring up other points of interest, but unfortunately I haven’t the time to address them with the sufficiency they deserve.