Seeing With the Eye of Sauron: Amazon’s “Rings of Power”

By |2022-09-09T18:14:32-05:00September 9th, 2022|Categories: Film, J.R.R. Tolkien, Joseph Pearce, Senior Contributors|

The whole point of "The Lord of the Rings" is that true heroism is inseparable from true humility, and that true humility is inseparable from true love. The spirit of Amazon’s "Rings of Power" is the very reverse of this. Heroism is inseparable from pride, and pride is inseparable from self-empowerment. What would happen if [...]

Nobody Cares About the Doom of Númenor

By |2022-08-20T19:07:00-05:00August 19th, 2022|Categories: Fiction, J.R.R. Tolkien, Literature|

From police procedurals to fantasy extravaganzas, genre fiction often struggles to balance the appeal of its subject matter with the demands of storytelling. Smaller, self-contained novels that artfully suggest a world beyond their pages are usually more successful than broad, sweeping epics that try to cram in every single thing. According to The Hollywood Reporter, The Rings [...]

The Privilege of Little Words and Mighty Swords

By |2022-06-09T22:38:55-05:00June 9th, 2022|Categories: Bradley J. Birzer, Christian Humanism, Christianity, Essential, G.K. Chesterton, History, J.R.R. Tolkien, T.S. Eliot, Timeless Essays|

Let not future generations say of us: We slept. Instead, may they remember us as those who fought the good fight for the Logos and for humanity. Let it be said that in the twenty-first century we took up either of our mythically-laden swords and wielded them with all the force imaginable. My talk today [...]

Tolkien on Reality

By |2022-04-27T15:59:11-05:00April 27th, 2022|Categories: J.R.R. Tolkien, Joseph Pearce, Literature, Senior Contributors, Technology|

What does Tolkien mean by insinuating that centaurs and dragons are more “alive” than cars? Well, he is referring to the fact that centaurs and dragons are animate creatures, albeit animated only by the imagination. He seems also to be saying that subcreation in the service of goodness, truth and beauty is better than subcreation [...]

The Impact of Mythologist Joseph Campbell

By |2022-03-31T18:49:45-05:00March 28th, 2022|Categories: Catholicism, Christianity, Dwight Longenecker, Film, J.R.R. Tolkien, Literature, Senior Contributors|

American mythologist Joseph Campbell’s discernment of the hero’s quest and his distillation of world myth into an easily-digestible template has had a powerful impact on contemporary culture, including influencing George Lucas' "Star Wars" films. The mythologist Joseph Campbell was the grandson of an Irish peasant-immigrant. Brought up in a Catholic home in New York, he [...]

The Inklings: Remembering and Preserving

By |2022-02-14T08:22:30-06:00February 14th, 2022|Categories: Bradley J. Birzer, C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Senior Contributors|

In a Platonic sense, the Inklings might very well have brought about an "anamnesis," a remembering of what had been lost, but they might also very well have been simply preservers of timeless wisdom for many ages to come, so far into the future that they seem unimaginable. A number of things can be stated [...]

Who Were the Inklings?

By |2022-02-09T16:01:38-06:00February 3rd, 2022|Categories: Bradley J. Birzer, C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Senior Contributors|

Would it be possible, J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis wondered in the 1930s, to write fiction that might combine: a love of history; a desire to debate the defenders of the modern world and point out the many foibles of modern living; and a way to promote one’s philosophical and religious beliefs without being overly [...]

Stand, Men of the West!

By |2021-12-09T16:41:11-06:00December 9th, 2021|Categories: Christianity, Conservatism, J.R.R. Tolkien, Stephen M. Klugewicz, Timeless Essays, Western Civilization|

Western Civilization is undeniably in decline and indeed its very existence is in doubt. Yet these thoughts ought not to drag conservatives down into a morass of defeatism. Though the hour is late, a remnant must run to the barricades and shield itself and whatever is left of Western Civilization from the barbarians at the [...]

Tolkien and the Roman Catholic Church

By |2021-11-06T22:39:31-05:00November 6th, 2021|Categories: Bradley J. Birzer, Catholicism, J.R.R. Tolkien, Literature, Senior Contributors|

Though J.R.R. Tolkien said that the Roman Catholicism only entered "The Lord of the Rings" consciously in its revision, one finds prayer, notions of hierarchy, and Catholic sacramental elements in the earliest conceptions of the legendarium. In 1900, much to the dismay of her family, Mabel Tolkien was confirmed in the Roman Catholic Church. Her [...]

Meeting Gollum

By |2021-09-30T15:00:56-05:00September 30th, 2021|Categories: J.R.R. Tolkien, Joseph Pearce, Senior Contributors|

How could one possibly identify with the utterly pathetic and self-centred Gollum? The only answer, I came to understand with a sickening sense of resignation, is that those who identify with Gollum are those whose own identity has been gollumized by their slavery to the power of the real-life Ring which rules their lives. One [...]

Parable & Middle-Earth: “The Good News of the Return of the King”

By |2021-08-31T19:36:22-05:00August 31st, 2021|Categories: Books, Bradley J. Birzer, J.R.R. Tolkien, Senior Contributors|

Michael Jahosky argues in his new book that J.R.R. Tolkien engaged in the telling of a parable, and that the great author wanted to create Christian art and mythology, not Christian propaganda. The Good News of the Return of the King by Michael T. Jahosky (230 pages, Wipf and Stock, 2020) Scholar Michael T. Jahosky [...]

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