Middle-earth and the Return of the Common Good
Middle-earth and the Return of the Common Good

Author: Joshua Hren

Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers

Published: 2018-10-05

Total Pages: 219

ISBN-13: 1532650396

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Political philosophy is nothing other than looking at things political under the aspect of eternity. This book invites us to look philosophically at political things in J.R.R. Tolkien's legendarium, demonstrating that Tolkien's potent mythology can be brought into rich, fruitful dialogue with works of political philosophy and political theology as different as Plato's Timaeus, Aquinas' De Regno, Hobbes's Leviathan, and Erik Peterson's "Monotheism as a Political Problem." It concludes that a political reading of Tolkien's work is most luminous when conducted by the harmonious lights of fides et ratio as found in the thought of Thomas Aquinas. A broad study of Tolkien and the political is especially pertinent in that the legendarium operates on two levels. As a popular mythology it is, in the author's own words "a really long story that would hold the attention of readers, amuse them, delight them, and at times maybe excite them or deeply move them." But the stories of The Silmarillion and The Lord of the Rings contain deeper teachings that can only be drawn out when read philosophically. Written from the vantage of a mind that is deeply Christian, Tolkien's stories grant us a revelatory gaze into the major political problems of modernity--from individualism to totalitarianism, sovereignty to surveillance, terror to technocracy. As an "outsider" in modernity, Tolkien invites us to question the modern in a manner that moves beyond reaction into a vivid and compelling vision of the common good.

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal
Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

Author: Bruce R. Johnson

Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers

Published: 2021-02-10

Total Pages: 236

ISBN-13: 172529656X

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Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal, established by the Arizona C. S. Lewis Society in 2007, is the only peer-reviewed journal devoted to the study of C. S. Lewis and his writings published anywhere in the world. It exists to promote literary, theological, historical, biographical, philosophical, bibliographical and cultural interest (broadly defined) in Lewis and his writings. The journal includes articles, review essays, book reviews, film reviews and play reviews, bibliographical material, poetry, interviews, editorials, and announcements of Lewis-related conferences, events and publications. Its readership is aimed at academic scholars from a wide variety of disciplines, as well as learned non-scholars and Lewis enthusiasts. At this time, Sehnsucht is published once a year.

Tolkien for Beginners
Tolkien for Beginners

Author: Louis Markos

Publisher: Red Wheel/Weiser

Published: 2022-09-23

Total Pages: 228

ISBN-13: 1939994829

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Tolkien For Beginners will introduce the reader to the multilayered depth and breadth of Tolkien's tales of Middle-earth, what critics, following Tolkien's lead, refer to collectively as his legendarium. J.R.R. Tolkien sweeps us away to a distant time and place that is at the same time, our own time and place. He takes us to a world where difficult choices must be made and are made, where character is defined by those choices, and where redemption is possible though not always embraced. The Lord of the Rings taps a deep root in the human psyche. There is much death, destruction, and defeat in Tolkien's world, but there is even more friendship, courage, and hope. What one remembers when one finishes reading The Lord of the Rings is not the vice of the villains, as strong and as well drawn as it is, but the virtue that empowers the heroes to resist it, even at the cost of their own lives. It will be the goal of Tolkien For Beginners to introduce the reader to the multilayered depth and breadth of Tolkien's tales of Middle-earth. To do justice to the full dimensions of that legendarium, author Louis Markos will speak in two voices: that of the storyteller who loves the stories he tells and that of the critic who seeks to identify and explicate key themes from those stories. In his telling and analysis, he will treat the legendarium both as a collection of secondary-world myths with their own integrity and as a reflection of Tolkien's Catholic worldview.

Recovering Consolation
Recovering Consolation

Author: Greg Maillet

Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers

Published: 2024-09-19

Total Pages: 155

ISBN-13: 1666785148

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Although Tolkien’s letters call Samwise Gamgee the “chief hero” of The Lord of the Rings, Sam is easily underestimated by both readers and critics. Recovering Consolation focuses attention on Sam’s point of view throughout the long journey that is the novel. This book responds to Frodo’s famous words at the Stairs of Cirith Ungol, imagining a child speaking to a parent: “I want to hear more about Sam, dad; why didn’t they put in more of his talk, dad? That’s what I like, it makes me laugh. And Frodo wouldn’t have got far without Sam, would he, dad?” Listening to Sam not only makes us laugh but also shows him to be, like Tolkien himself, a master of mythopoesis; as the novel’s narrator puts it, “Sam had more on his mind than gardening.” Yet the concrete act of gardening, another passion that Sam shares with Tolkien, should help us to understand how consolation is recovered, as is well explained in Tolkien’s great essay, “On Fairy Stories.” Both there and in The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien offers a “theological aesthetic” that has much to teach us. Although we may not realize it while laughing along with Sam, this humble servant-hobbit is key to this aesthetic.

The Road Goes Ever On and On
The Road Goes Ever On and On

Author: Jeb Smith

Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.

Published: 2023-04-12

Total Pages: 152

ISBN-13: 1685701264

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Engrossing...Tolkien's principles--patriotism, Medievalism, localism, Catholicism--are certainly out of fashion today. And yet they're the foundation for all his books, which have sold hundreds of millions of copies. Mr. Smith does a wonderful job of explaining why modern readers are so enthralled by Tolkien's reactionary vision. Whether you're a casual Lord of the Rings fan or a serious Tolkien scholar, every page of Mr. Smith's book will delight and fascinate. And if anyone ever tells you that fairy-tales are only for children, hand him this book. Tolkien ought to be regarded as one of the great social critics of our time, as Mr. Smith so masterfully demonstrates. -Michael Warren Davis is an editor for Sophia Institute Press and the author of The Reactionary Mind: Why Conservative Isn't Enough. You can find him on his blog, The Common Man. As the popularity of Tolkien's work continues to endure, the importance of Jeb Smith's work continues to grow. This is because of a prolonged siege against Tolkien's work: the attempt to dislodge it from its Christian and Biblical foundations. Jeb Smith's insights are immensely helpful to this and future generations of Tolkien admirers. Scott L. Smith, author of Lord of the Rings and the Eucharist J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-earth has captured the imaginations of millions of readers around the world for generations. He is considered the father of modern fantasy, but few understand how Tolkien's worldview impacted his mythology. The Road Goes Ever On and On is the first book of its kind to place Tolkien within his proper context, giving the reader a deeper understanding of Tolkien and Middle-earth. Smith takes us on a quest through a wide range of Tolkien's writings to unlock Tolkien's perspective--a perspective that, like the elves who have sailed into the West leaving Middle-earth, has faded away from our world. You will gain an in-depth knowledge of Tolkien's views on politics, environmentalism, religion, and much more. From the Valar to Hobbits, the free peoples closely follow Tolkien's sentiments. In contrast, forces under the Shadow represent what Tolkien believed was immoral. Covering a wide range of topics, The Road Goes Ever On and On is filled with breathtaking illustrations bringing Middle-earth to life like never before, making this the 'one book to rule them all.'

Liberal Education and Citizenship in a Free Society
Liberal Education and Citizenship in a Free Society

Author: Justin Buckley Dyer

Publisher: University of Missouri Press

Published: 2023-07-24

Total Pages: 462

ISBN-13: 0826274889

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The liberal arts university has been in decline since well before the virtualization of campus life, increasingly inviting public skepticism about its viability as an institution of personal, civic, and professional growth. New technologies that might have brought people together have instead frustrated the university’s capacity to foster thoughtful citizenship among tomorrow’s leaders and exacerbated socioeconomic inequalities that are poisoning America’s civic culture. With Liberal Education and Citizenship in a Free Society, a collection of 19 original essays, editors Justin Dyer and Constantine Vassiliou present the work of a diverse group of scholars to assess the value of a liberal arts education in the face of market, technological, cultural, and political forces shaping higher learning today.

Infinite Regress
Infinite Regress

Author: Joshua Hren

Publisher: Angelico Press

Published: 2022-01-15

Total Pages: 290

ISBN-13: 1621388174

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In the years since his graduation from St. Marquis University, Blake Yourrick has fled his family and Milwaukee, rotating from job to dead-end job-working the Bakken oilfields in Dakota and even signing on as the night caretaker of a rural abbey graveyard. Deep in student debt and estranged from his misanthropic, alcoholic father, Blake is haunted by the memory of his mother's death-and by his relationship with his college mentor, a defrocked priest named Theo Hape, who is known for his adventurous theological ideas as well as for the uncanny, seductive power he wields over his students. When Hape, learning of his former charge's desperate straits, proposes a perverse exchange of services, Blake finds himself tempted to test the professor's radical theories in real life. What follows is a metaphysical duel reminiscent of the novels of Dostoevsky and Bernanos, pitting a modern-day anti-Christ against a reckless but resilient young man and his well-meaning, dysfunctional kin.

Truths Breathed Through Silver
Truths Breathed Through Silver

Author: Joe R. Christopher

Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing

Published: 2009-03-26

Total Pages: 175

ISBN-13: 1443807265

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Representing a decade of scholarly activity within the C. S. Lewis & Inklings Society (CSLIS), this book challenges readers to examine the complex factors that shaped the theological perspectives, cultural concerns, and literary conventions in the works of the Oxford Inklings. The mythopoeic fiction that Lewis, Tolkien, Williams, and their associates enjoyed and composed put mortal humanity in contact with the immortal and the divine. The selection of papers in this volume, intended not only for experts but also for undergraduates and general readers, includes keynote presentations by Joe R. Christopher, Rolland Hein, Kerry Dearborn, David Neuhouser, and Thomas Howard that explore the Inklings legacy of moral mythopoeia, as well as essays that analyze works like Screwtape (Tom Shippey), The Magician s Nephew (Salwa Khoddam), The Silmarillion (Jason Fisher), The Lord of the Rings (David Oberhelman) and The Dark Tower (Jonathan B. Himes). The Inklings believed there was still power in the old myths, and ultimately that there was still truth to fortify humanity in them. Their friendship and their fiction provided these men a forum for entertaining speculative and sometimes unorthodox answers to the complex realities of sacred tradition.

The Hobbit Party
The Hobbit Party

Author: Jay Richards

Publisher: Ignatius Press

Published: 2014-09-18

Total Pages: 234

ISBN-13: 1586178237

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Anyone who has read The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings can gather that their author hated tyranny, but few know that the novelist who once described himself as a hobbit Òin all but sizeÓ wasÑeven by hobbit standardsÑa zealous proponent of economic freedom and small government. There is a growing concern among many that the West is sliding into political, economic, and moral bankruptcy. In his beloved novels of Middle-Earth, J.R.R. Tolkien has drawn us a map to freedom. Scholar Joseph Pearce, who himself has written articles and chapters on the political significance of TolkienÕs work, testified in his book Literary Giants, Literary Catholics, ÒIf much has been written on the religious significance of The Lord of the Rings, less has been written on its political significanceÑand the little that has been written is often erroneous in its conclusions and ignorant of TolkienÕs intentionsÉ. Much more work is needed in this area, not least because Tolkien stated, implicitly at least, that the political significance of the work was second only to the religious in its importance.Ó Several books ably explore how TolkienÕs Catholic faith informed his fiction. None until now have centered on how his passion for liberty and limited government also shaped his work, or how this passion grew directly from his theological vision of man and creation. The Hobbit Party fills this void. The few existing pieces that do focus on the subject are mostly written by scholars with little or no formal training in literary analysis, and even less training in political economy. Witt and Richards bring to The Hobbit Party a combined expertise in literary studies, political theory, economics, philosophy, and theology.

Leadership in Middle-Earth
Leadership in Middle-Earth

Author: Michael J. Urick

Publisher: Emerald Group Publishing

Published: 2021-05-25

Total Pages: 152

ISBN-13: 1800715250

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By examining leadership examples, Leadership in Middle-Earth explores evidence-based leadership and management practices from the unique perspective of J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-Earth, making actionable recommendations you can implement in your organization.