I really enjoyed this article! It made me think of Hebrews 11 where part of faith is portrayed as longing for a better country, a heavenly one (v. 16). I also think of C.S. Lewis' quote, "Aim at Heaven and you will get Earth 'thrown in': aim at Earth and you will get neither.” There is a goodness in looking beyond death at what awaits us, trusting in the power of Jesus' resurrection.
I do not know if Tolkien ever mentioned it, but this is not unrelated - in Genesis, after the Fall, God puts the cherubim to guard the Tree of Life lest the humans eat of it and live forever - to protect them from living forever in the fallen nature, subject to the trials of the curse, which seems very much like JRRT's ."limitless serial longevity." It is an act of divine mercy that they will be allowed to escape in death, and to await the redemption promised in 3:15. Early Church Fathers were quick to associate the Cross with the Tree of Life both in Eden and in the New Jerusalem.
It is really interesting that so many people take Tolkien's dislike of allegory to mean that he doesn't have any messaging at all. Thanks for this thoughtful essay about some of the meaning we can find in it.
Loved this post! I just copied the quote about divine punishment as divine gift into my commonplace journal, because it absolutely blew my mind. And I think the idea of seeing death as an evil from which God can bring greater good is so so important for just getting through this life of ours-we go through a lot of deaths (suffering, pain, loss, etc) before the ultimate one, and it’s best to start rehearsing the self-surrender to God’s will and trust in his love/care now. And Tolkien, with all the suffering he experienced and witnessed in his life/time period of history, understood that so well I think
In the Akallabeth the spokesman for Mandos tried to convert the Numenorians from attempting to cross the ban to the Undying Lands. It would have little benefit, since their mortality was not a result of geography. It was their nature. Most readers and moviegoers in our world misread that as much as they did.
Theologically we have much to learn about the significance of weakness, vulnerability, finiteness, and mortality in humanity. It is as if we are afraid of knowing it.
Right. They thought it was the land that made people immortal and not the other way around. Even Frodo, when allowed to go to the Undying Lands, gained only some healing and not immortality.
This article made me incredibly depressed. Death is a punishment for our irredeemable evil and any alternative interpretations aren't allowed because Death must be evil because we are evil. This article is so tentative and frightened with the idea that Death might be something else, something more positive, that it has to keep hammering the "Death is evil and a punishment" thing. What is the point of trying to do any kind of good when we're all punished equally no matter what.
I am sorry that you were thus affected by the article. Neither Tolkien nor I believe anyone is irredeemable, nor that death should only be seen in terms of punishment. I do believe that death can be defined as a bad thing because I, like Tolkien, hold to the view that being is good, so that an absence of being is not good. But the Christian understanding is that death itself has been transformed in the death and resurrection of Christ, so that now this cessation of being leads directly to a higher form of being than that enjoyed in this present earthly life.
I really enjoyed this article! It made me think of Hebrews 11 where part of faith is portrayed as longing for a better country, a heavenly one (v. 16). I also think of C.S. Lewis' quote, "Aim at Heaven and you will get Earth 'thrown in': aim at Earth and you will get neither.” There is a goodness in looking beyond death at what awaits us, trusting in the power of Jesus' resurrection.
“Death, you cannot end my gladness…”
Great work. Thank you
I do not know if Tolkien ever mentioned it, but this is not unrelated - in Genesis, after the Fall, God puts the cherubim to guard the Tree of Life lest the humans eat of it and live forever - to protect them from living forever in the fallen nature, subject to the trials of the curse, which seems very much like JRRT's ."limitless serial longevity." It is an act of divine mercy that they will be allowed to escape in death, and to await the redemption promised in 3:15. Early Church Fathers were quick to associate the Cross with the Tree of Life both in Eden and in the New Jerusalem.
Beautiful and thoughtful analysis by the way! Well done. Please do more!
It is really interesting that so many people take Tolkien's dislike of allegory to mean that he doesn't have any messaging at all. Thanks for this thoughtful essay about some of the meaning we can find in it.
Loved this post! I just copied the quote about divine punishment as divine gift into my commonplace journal, because it absolutely blew my mind. And I think the idea of seeing death as an evil from which God can bring greater good is so so important for just getting through this life of ours-we go through a lot of deaths (suffering, pain, loss, etc) before the ultimate one, and it’s best to start rehearsing the self-surrender to God’s will and trust in his love/care now. And Tolkien, with all the suffering he experienced and witnessed in his life/time period of history, understood that so well I think
In the Akallabeth the spokesman for Mandos tried to convert the Numenorians from attempting to cross the ban to the Undying Lands. It would have little benefit, since their mortality was not a result of geography. It was their nature. Most readers and moviegoers in our world misread that as much as they did.
Theologically we have much to learn about the significance of weakness, vulnerability, finiteness, and mortality in humanity. It is as if we are afraid of knowing it.
Right. They thought it was the land that made people immortal and not the other way around. Even Frodo, when allowed to go to the Undying Lands, gained only some healing and not immortality.
This article made me incredibly depressed. Death is a punishment for our irredeemable evil and any alternative interpretations aren't allowed because Death must be evil because we are evil. This article is so tentative and frightened with the idea that Death might be something else, something more positive, that it has to keep hammering the "Death is evil and a punishment" thing. What is the point of trying to do any kind of good when we're all punished equally no matter what.
I am sorry that you were thus affected by the article. Neither Tolkien nor I believe anyone is irredeemable, nor that death should only be seen in terms of punishment. I do believe that death can be defined as a bad thing because I, like Tolkien, hold to the view that being is good, so that an absence of being is not good. But the Christian understanding is that death itself has been transformed in the death and resurrection of Christ, so that now this cessation of being leads directly to a higher form of being than that enjoyed in this present earthly life.