Even when addressing non-Christians, Christian humanism’s willing receptiveness of the supernatural opens itself to the truths of revelation and of the human religious experience, allowing it to speak intimately and truthfully to the whole person… The Return of Christian Humanism: Chesterton, Eliot, Tolkien, and the Romance of History by Lee Oser (University of Missouri Press, [...]
The so-called Boromir Option raises the question as to whether it is ever permissible to use evil means in pursuit of a good end… In a recent essay for the Imaginative Conservative I wrote about what I called the Mercutio Option, based on the character in Romeo & Juliet who cursed both the warring factions [...]
Through the Tea Club he formed with his young classmates, J.R.R. Tolkien felt his first comradery among friends dedicated to something higher than themselves… Long before Tolkien began his own personal mythology, he had already lived a rather full life. Joy as well as tragedy had filled it. His father had passed away while Tolkien, [...]
Religion shaped the Inklings as much or even more than did whatever generational zeitgeist one might want to attribute to the group… Though not the best-known Inkling, Adam Fox had the privilege of being the first of the group to arrive in this world. Through no choice of his own, he appeared on July 13, [...]
Taken together, C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, and G.K. Chesterton might not be a holy trinity but they are certainly a holy triumvirate enabling us to see the world with rooted clarity and childlike wisdom. One of the most interesting and spontaneously thought-provoking questions that I’ve ever been asked in an interview was asked by an [...]
The chief purpose of life, for any one of us, is to increase according to our capacity our knowledge of God by all the means we have, and to be moved by this knowledge to praise and thanks. What will you do? Editor’s Note: This address was delivered to the graduating class of Hillsdale Academy, [...]
G.K. Chesterton had a profound impact on the visions of both J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, so much so that he could be said to have baptized their imaginations… Editor’s Note: Joseph Pearce recently granted the following interview to The Whetstone, a student newspaper of Montreal College, North Carolina. What do you see as your role, your calling, and [...]
J.R.R. Tolkien knows the sunlight. He may not be a wizard but he possesses a wizard’s wisdom. To see as he sees is to see everything in the glorious sunlight of Ilûvatar, the One who sees all and knows that it is Good… It might be stretching things a little to describe the author of [...]
For some time I’ve had the intention of drawing up a list of what I consider to be the best books on J.R.R. Tolkien. It is, therefore, not a list of the best books by him but the best books about him. That said, I can’t help but begin by giving The Letters of J.R.R. [...]
Friendship, or philia, is one of the “loves” that C.S. Lewis elucidates and celebrates in his book, The Four Loves, the others being familial love (storge), sexual love (eros) and Divine love (caritas or agape). Although not the greatest or highest of the loves, Lewis saw friendship as the noble coming together of those who [...]
This year marks the centenary of the Battle of the Somme, one of the bloodiest conflagrations in human history in which more than a million men were killed or wounded. One of the lucky survivors was J.R.R. Tolkien, who described the battle as being an “animal horror.” Bearing the psychological scars of this horror for [...]
It has long been my passion (and, I believe, also my calling) to serve as a catalyst for a new Christian cultural revival in the English-speaking world. In this sense, it could be said that I am striving to be what might be called a “catalytic converter” of the culture. Thanks be to God, there [...]
The roaring success of the English television drama Downton Abbey had little to do with the grand house, the sumptuous costumes, the superb cast and intricately intriguing storyline. Having just finished watching the final season, it occurred to me that the series’s success has everything to do with fairytales. […]
As our own society seems plunged into ever darker decadence and despair, the beauty, truth and goodness of Tolkien’s classic is an astringent balm. It is the bright clear air of a spring morning in the midst of the contemporary atmosphere of the Dead Marshes. For Christmas last year, friends bought me the super-duper, fiftieth-anniversary, [...]