Is Eru God?

[Gurthang]

Originally Posted by Lalwendë

No. God is God and I believe because we cannot know exactly what 'God' is, how can we know if a fictional God is the same? Eru might well be the God of Arda, or the God of the Elves, or the God of the Elves and the Numenoreans, or the God of some Elves and some Numenoreans and some other beings. Some in Arda believe Eru is God. Others no doubt, do not; this does not make them wrong, only different. Just as in our own world there might or might not be God, and He or She or It may mean very different things to different people. Even (especially?) amongst Christians God is not always the same. God is not always even a Trinity.

Eru is the only 'good' God we are aware of in Arda, given to Arda by Tolkien. I say 'good' because a) that is sometimes debatable, and b) some worship other 'Gods', e.g. Sauron, and their 'God' may also be perfectly 'good' to them.

Well, I don't really say that I agree with much of that. But that's another fish in a larger sea, and really doesn't have much to do with Tolkien.

I will say that your statement here:

Originally Posted by Lalwendë

Some in Arda believe Eru is God. Others no doubt, do not; this does not make them wrong, only different.

is certainly not correct as far as I can see. If Eru is God, then he is God. If someone believes that, then they are right. If someone does not believe that, then they are wrong. They are believing that Eru is not God when he is.


Also, I just thought of this when I was reading Fordim's original question.

Originally Posted by Fordim Hedgethistle

There's a lot hanging on this question: if you believe that Eru is God, then you are saying that the moral "rules" of M-E are Christian. If you believe that Eru is not God, then those "rules" are something else.

I do believe that the Christian moral rules hold true in Middle-Earth. It would make perfect sense for Tolkien to hold the same sense of right and wrong in Middle-Earth as in his own beliefs, regardless of whether Eru is God. If that were the primary question, then I would have said YES.

[Formendacil]

Yes.

Completely, definitely, and totally.

The Legendarium, from the Ainulindale down to the fall of Sauron was intended to be the history of this world, in a somewhat distant time B.C. This same world which, in Tolkien's faith, is under the dominion of God. Therefore, if the world in that time was under the dominion of Eru, then Eru must be God.

Eru and God are intended to be one and the same.

And I personally feel that no amount of "personal opinion" on the matter changes it. If you accept the existence of Frodo, Sam, and Gollum in Middle-Earth, you have to accept the existence of Eru- as the Judeo-Christian God within the story.

Do as you wish in real life, but within the confines of the story you have to, in my opinion, accept Eru, as presented, as God, if you are going to accept it at all.