Theology and Tolkien - Constructive Theology

J.R.R. Tolkien's fantasy epics are imbued with a deep sense of the spiritual from which readers discern aspects of his beliefs about God, life, good, and evil. In this book, an international group of scholars explore and build on numerous theological ideas that percolate through Tolkien's works.

List of contents

Introduction
Douglas Estes
Part I: Aman
Chapter 1: Freedom and Fidelity: Improvisation in the Ainulindalë
Bradley K. Broadhead
Chapter 2: "When Things Are in Danger, Someone Must Give Them Up": Redemption and Ecology in Tolkien's Legendarium
Alison Milbank
Chapter 3:Critiquing Tolkien's Theology
Austin M. Freeman
Chapter 4: In the Brilliant Darkness of a Hidden Silence: J.R.R. Tolkien's Apophatic Tendencies
Douglas Estes
Chapter 5: Gandalf, Sauron, Melian, and the Balrog as Angels: A Study of J.R.R. Tolkien's Maiar in the Context of Biblical Angelology
Charlie Trimm
Part II: Erebor
Chapter 6: The Marian Valkyrie: Tolkien's Theology of the Heroic Feminine
Lisa Coutras
Chapter 7: Songs of Light and Darkness: Theological Imagination and Metaphor in J.R.R. Tolkien
Beth M. Stovell
Chapter 8: Christianity and Paganism in The Silmarillion and The Lord of the Rings: A Typology Based on Niebuhr's Christ and Culture
Allan M. de Novaes, Milton L. Torres, and João Fernando O. Barboza
Chapter 9: Perceiving the Material and Immaterial in Middle-earth
Adam B. Shaeffer
Chapter 10: A Chance for Metanarrative to Prove its Quality
Jeremy M. Rios
Part III: Ithilien
Chapter 11: "An Encouraging Thought": The Interplay of Providence and Free Will in Middle-earth
Devin Brown
Chapter 12: The Redemptive Power of Love: Arwen as the Anti-Eve in Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings
Julie Loveland Swanstrom
Chapter 13: Spiritual Sloth and Diligence in Tolkien's Work
Martina Juri¿ková
Chapter 14:Evil and the Fall into Violence in Tolkien's Mythopoesis
John C. McDowell
Chapter 15: A Far Green Country: The Eschatology of Tolkien's Middle-earth
Donald T. Williams
About the Contributors

About the author

Edited by Douglas Estes - Contributions by João Fernando O. Barboza; Bradley K. Broadhead; Devin Brown; Lisa Coutras; Douglas Estes; Austin M. Freeman; Martina Juricková; John C. McDowell; Alison Milbank; Allan Novaes; Jeremy M. Rios; Adam B. Shaeffer; Be

Product details

• Authors: Douglas Estes Estes
• Assisted by: Douglas Estes (Editor)
• Publisher: Rowman and Littlefield
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 15.09.2024
• EAN: 9781978712638
• ISBN: 978-1-978712-63-8
• No. of pages: 354
• Subjects: Non-fiction book > Philosophy, religion > Religion: general, reference works; RELIGION / Spirituality, RELIGION / Theology, Theology, Spirituality & religious experience, Spirituality and religious experience