REVISITED » 6 Life-Changing Insights From Tolkien

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planning to look into Tolkien's political views. So last episode we looked at Tolkien's it was called Tolkien versus the Nazis, and it was, you know, look into his real like contempt and you know, uh, just disdain for Nazi and race racist ideology, and uh, I thought that was pretty fascinating exploration, Greta. This one is going to be this We're going to look at his actual I guess you could call them positive political views, not that he was

a particularly political version person. He certainly wasn't an activist, but he still did express a lot of interesting things in his letters. And I think there's other there's other things we can explore from his own works, like other aspects of his fictional works that could maybe speak to what his if he had a political philosophy, like what might it have looked like?

It's just gonna be more of a discussion of you know what, what what were his general views in that area? So all right, and then we'll also we'll be doing some other interesting things, and then we've got a two hundredth episode coming up. Well I've got something I think a little fun planned for that. Oh not too fun, too boring to be too fun, but but fun in my book. And then lots of third age discussion coming

after that. So yeah, all right, sounds good. All right, So, Greta, we're going to talk about this little thing I made called six Spiritual Insights from Reading Tolkien. It's actually six spiritual insights from Tolkien that will change your life. So I want to say that this is actually a little mini book, mini guide PDF thing that I made a few years ago, and I lost track of it for a while, but then I was I found it and I wanted to get it back out there for people

to have. If you'd like this, you can head on over to tolkienoad dot com slash spirit and that's where you can find the guide and find out how to download it over there. So that's all you gotta go tolkienrooad dot com slash spirit and you can check that out and follow along with our discussion, or if you listen to our discussion, just go and then you like it and you want to know more about what's what's in there, head on over that tolkienoad dot com slash spirit.

So all right, all right, so it's you know, and here's the other thing. It's been a pretty dark few weeks, you know, especially here in the United States, and then this is of course coming on was already kind of a dark period in a lot of ways with the the COVID nineteen crisis, and that's really going on throughout

the world. So I really think that, you know, one of the themes of Tolkien, one of the great spiritual themes of Tolkien is that out of tremendous darkness, out of the shadow, good arrives right like, like, we can find we can find the good, we can find unity, we can find we can find peace. We can find beautiful things right emerging from that darkness, true and lasting light.

And that's that's one of the reasons that you know, I thought it might be a good time to spend a little time here because I think there's a lot of reasons to feel maybe discouraged. There's a lot of reasons to feel even despair for a lot of people right now. And Tolkien's worldview was one that went into you know, it really went into the depths of like some really dark places. But there's always that aspect of

the greater light above it. There's always that aspect of this there's some light that sits above all the darkness, that's unquenchable and and that ultimately in the end will win right, that has the final say. Even when things look their darkness, that's maybe when it's about to turn

right yep, in some magnificent way. So I you know, I just hope everybody in this in this episode can find what is that heroism that you're being called to, that like kind of ordinary heroism that you're being called to, and maybe this will help you find that. That's I know, that's what Tolkien has been to me in a lot of ways over the years. And one of the reasons I love his outlook so much is because he helps you.

He helps you maybe better discern your path to being this ordinary hero, not not somebody who's like, look at me, I'm so awesome, you know, like like so many people can be these days. Right, you know, I'm so wonderful. You just need to follow me and I'll tell you how everything gets done. This was a guy who was just writing books and shared some thoughts, but wrote something

beautiful because he kind of didn't care what everybody else thought. Right, But he followed his call, yep, and he did something amazing for the world. Right. So, so, yeah, why I wrote this, it's really this pdf, this little mini guide is really it's about what drew me. It what drew me to Tolkien in the first place. It's not really for me. It's never been for me about the the dungeons and dragons, if you will, right.

And and I think a lot of the people who work in that genre would salute him in that way too, Right, So lost my place, All right, there we go, So I would call that why I wrote this is really I wanted to explore a little bit more and share with you all the philosophical, moral, and spiritual fibers of his works, right, those underlying, those underlying, undergirding aspects of the stories of Middle Earth and the other writings that he had, and get to things that can actually be

transformative for our lives, right, that can actually pull us out of a dark place, that can actually give us hope for the future, that can transform who we are and help us find meaning, right, a deeper and greater meaning, right, and a lasting meaning to a meaning that even transcends death. Right. So, so that's where I'm coming from. Thoughts.

need to be discerning, like what are my gifts? How can I contribute and positive way right to enhance and protect the creation that's that we have been given?

of on fairy Stories, or close to it. And it's it's a little bit I mean, Tolkien was nothing if he wasn't a little bit wordy at times. But if you break that quote down, it's really so beautiful because it talks it basically says that we as human beings have this incredible dignity that we get to participate in in the in the like and like the create, like

the ultimate creative act. And and you're right, it's not like we're God and we made everything out of nothing, but at the same time, like we we seem to participate in in the creative act of God in a way that's utterly unique. Right, we do things as human beings that the other creatures on this planet, which is all the creatures we know about, are are.

like creation. Creation is something that's in progress. Like there's a I read a really startling thought a little while ago that basically said, like, if you kind of break it down, we're not We're I'm not getting into like, you know, nobody misinterpret my words is the thing I'm getting to, like, you know, like literalism in the Bible

or anything like that, Like a literalistic interpretation. But if we kind of just like look at you know, the the meaning, you know, the whatever you want to call it, the allegorical, their poetic meaning or whatever of the first text of the first chapter of Genesis. You've got these six days of creation, and on the sixth day you have man, and then on the seventh day God rests. And in that I read this amazing quote that basically put out there that like we still are in the

sixth day. So in other words, like you see all seven days of history and then like on the seventh day God comes to arrest and everything seems to be all good, and that maybe we're still in that sixth day, right, that maybe we are in the process of being created ourselves, and part of that process is our own participation in creativity, right, Yeah,

that part of and think about it. You see this reflected in the story of I know Linda, right in the story of the ire right, because he creates these beings that he then tasks with completing his creation, right, Yes,

it is. Yeah, So I mean this gives this incredible it gives this incredible significance and this incredible dignity to you know, to the labor of our hands, and and and I think that extends not just to like kind of traditional things we think of as creative artistic endeavors and so forth, but I think it actually extends to you know, everything we give ourselves to as human beings.

be said. I think Leaf by Nigols shows us that maybe there was an inside that Tolkien head somewhere along the way that you know, it was like it's not just our like kind of the creative acts either, but like the the mo it's maybe like the moral acts, right, It's it's maybe the acts of heroism, the acts of uh, you know, the acts of self sacrifice that are perhaps like the even greater creative acts, right, that are the like highest creative acts we can actually partake in, right,

because in doing so we give ourselves to the life of another right, We give ourselves for the life of another right.

Insight number two, the way things really work. In letter eighty nine, Tolkien said, I remember saying aloud with absolute conviction, but of course, of course that's how things really do work. We actually did an episode on this particular letter.

You know, we don't you normally use that word in the US. It's the hospital, right, it's a place for sick people. And and he's writing by this place which is maybe not thought of as a particularly like happy place, and then all of a sudden he just has this epiphany. It's like it came out of nowhere from heaven, right, and he just is like, of course that's the way things really work. Like death, Death doesn't have the final say, right, death is actually the thing that leads to new and

greater life through the power of Christ's resurrection. Yep. And yeah, it's just a really it's just a really cool little episode in one of those things that like, I think

it's so it's so important to remember. It's the thing that has been such a consolation to me as a Christian for so long, Right, is this this foundational thing that like death cannot hold the power of love and the power and the power of Christ right, and that in his own crucifixion it led to resurrection and broke up and broke up and the bonds of death right.

It's set mankind free right. And so our lot, our lot in this lives, in this life, is to realize that freedom and to live in that freedom, live in the light of that freedom. Yeah, I live in the light of that freedom, all right. The next insight is number three, the cure for spiritual depression, So Tolkien said in letter two to fifty, the only cure for sagging of fainting faith is communion. So, at one point or another, we all go through periods of spiritual darkness in our lives.

And you may call it depression, but I'd even go so far as to call it an existential bleakness, a period wherein the beliefs we've built our lives on are put to the test. But Tolkien was a big believer in the power of the Eucharist as a Catholic. It was the center of his faith, and so in letter two fifty he was right to one of his sons

who was talking about his own sagging faith. I mean, this communion really communicates to us the closeness of of the closeness of Christ and the darkness of our lives right in the in the dark times we go to we go through. Can you agree with that? Yeah, yeah, totally, Yeah.

I mean it's it's there's a reason it's such an important thing for you know, for Catholics, and it expresses that real presence that God is there, that God is there with us, and the quiet in the and you know, of whatever moment we find ourselves in that we always have access to Him, right, that we always have access to Him in the most intimateive ways.

to him and you know all that. But now as a Catholic and having the Eucharist and having access to adoration, it's you know, I mean, we are feeble human beings and it just really helped help the you know, you can know in your brain, but to be able to see, you know, to see that consecrated host and to be able to receive it know that like He's He's there, you know, I mean, it just helps. It helps be able to see it with your own two eyes. So I that that's been a huge, huge blessing for me

as a Catholic. And if if I had, you know, if Catholic had said something like that to me before I was Catholic, I would have been I wouldn't have gotten it, like at all. But so it's something I feel like you definitely have to experience to to truly believe. But but you know, it just it helps with that

whole faith thing because having faith is hard. And being able to see just you know, to actually see something that we believe is Jesus is you know, body, blood, soule, divinity is it's a huge lift for the spirit and the soul.

horrible things. And Manwey, looking back on all of this, says, even as Aero spoke to us, shell, beauty not before conceived, be brought into Ai, and evil yet be good to have been. So there's this real mystery that is all through Tolkien's works, and it's this idea that evil is never a good thing in and of itself. Right, And by this statement, he's not saying like, well, you should go commit acts of evil because that leads to good.

But what he's saying is that when evil befalls us, and even when even when we find ourselves looking back and saying I did something evil, right and feel kind of ashamed of that. Right that even through that, there is a greater good that can and will emerge, right that we don't that we don't yet know. And that's that's related to that creative power of God, right, right.

you know, good will come from this. We might not always see it, you know, but it's we just have to have the faith that it's that's what's going to happen eventually in some way or another, absolutely, and believe that our ways are are not God's ways, and God's ways are much bigger and better than ours.

his own life. So and and even through all of that, we have we have this assurance, if you go back to number two, right, that resurrection is the way things really work. We have this assurance that even through all of that, that that that that the evil never has the final say right over any of it, right, that nothing is actually lost, right, nothing can be lost in the end, right because evil has been conquered exactly all right.

Number five of Christianity is history's plot, so he says, in unfairy stories, the Gospels contain a fairy story or a story of a larger kind, which embraces all the essence of fairy stories. But this story has entered history in the primary world. The birth of Christ is the YU catastrophe of man's history. The resurrection is the catastrophe

EU catastrophe of the story of the incarnation. For you know, for those of you who who aren't who aren't Christians, who are listening, you know, we say this not to be controversial, not to provoke, but but to say like that this was an idea that was central to Tolkien's own outlook. This is an idea that was central to you know, his the things that drove him to create The Lord of the Rings right and his other works.

But it also you know, it that that little bit right there he talks about in the context of YOUU catastrophe. So you know, we've talked, we've talked a good bit about the resurrection already. But this reminds us that like history, like human history, actually has a plot, right, that it's actually a story that that we're inhabiting. Each of us has our own individual stories too, which reflect this story, right, yep. But in the greater sense history Christianity is is the

plot of history. So got any thoughts on that?

One Ring is destroyed. March twenty fifth is the date of the Annunciation, which is literally the day of the incarnation date, the kind of traditional date of the incarnation, and it's in the traditional date of the Crucifixion as well in some reckonings.

of stuff. And all those people have their own stories too, and they have their roles to play. But what Tolkien says here is that it's really not those people that you know, you think of as being the most important people in the world that are actually the most important people in the world. But it's actually it's actually the little people. It's the people who you wouldn't give a second thought to mm hmm. It's the protos and the SAMs exactly. And that's all because and I mean, think

about what a tremendous theme of that is. And you know, the Gandalf is the only one who who recognizes the important role that the Hobbits are going to play right, and everybody else is just like, oh, they're these like backwards little people that you know who cares about them? Right right? And you know, Gandalf recognizes this. So there's

wisdom in recognizing this. There's wisdom in saying, like, wait a minute, maybe I shouldn't care so much about what, uh you know, this politician or that politic or this celebrity or that celebrity or you know this talking head or that talking head thinks about anything, but maybe I should actually like be attending to the you know, the little the little people in my life, the insignificance in my life right in paying them a little more attention, right.

I know, as a father, this is something that comes back to me often because I'm always so busy in my work and and I'm just you know everyone, so I have to step back and just say, like, wait a minute, My greatest responsibility is like to my kids. Like I don't think I can ever go wrong by spending too much time with him, but I like find so many excuses not to and not because I want to, but because I feel like all this other stuff is kind of more important.

they have too many responsibilities at home or whatever. And so just being able to reorder your perspective and be like, you know what, my mission field is right here, and finding those opportunities to serve where you are, to bloom where you're planted. To choose a rather cliche phrase.

This one's from Evan d. He says, Hello, John, after hearing your tentative theories, I have come to a conclusion on this that I think explains that I think explains this, and so the subject of the email is my thoughts upon Thorn's making more important the role of a mother's figure and growing up. He says, Hobbits are largely agrarian and similar to early English life. Why would this not

be reflected in child rearing? At that time, child rearing was a largely maternal duty, from punishment to praise until a child learned a trade or worked either under a tradesman or their father. Morality, seriousness, and other major formative thresholds for the mother's business. Maternal parenting became soft if you will in recent history. Before the mid to late eighteen hundreds, mothers beat and whip their children as they saw fit for discipline. Tough love was the only way

for much of history ergo. Learning the harshness of the world and having a man made of oneself, if you will, was maternal duty. Hence thorn seemingly nonsensical statement, my best to you and those close to you, Evan. That's good, Yeah,

really good. So again, like this is in the context of that question of I think it was originally raised by Maryland, the librarian of like why is why do is in the Quest of Arab or why does Thorn say that his mother died too early when they're talking about he's talking about how soft he is, and he's saying his mother died and so this is this is an interesting thought in one I hadn't really thought of, but I can definitely, I can definitely see that as as a possibility.

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