Emerging Scholars Blog

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J.R.R. Tolkien

Science Corner: Portrait of an Emerging Scholar

B & W Photo of J. R. R. Tolkien in his army uniform
Recognizing that the Tolkien family did not endorse the film, I’ve opted to use a photo of the man himself rather than promotional material from Tolkien. (Photo public domain)

This post discusses the film Tolkien. I don’t think there is anything in this film to spoil, given that it depicts events from a century ago, but consider yourself advised.

Tolkien, a biographical film about author and philologist J. R. R. Tolkien, is admittedly a stretch from my usual science-themed fare. But when I realized the advertising of the film underplayed its focus on the early days of Tolkien’s scholarly career, I figured I should bring it to the attention of this community. Consider it the inverse of Avengers: Endgame; a film I suspect most Emerging Scholars will want to see even if relatively few moviegoers do. I expected something like a cross between War Horse and Shakespeare in Love, an on-the-nose tour of WWI and the elements of Middle Earth Tolkien drew from it; what I got was more of a spiritual sequel (prequel?) to Dead Poets Society.
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Book Review: The Fellowship

The Fellowship: The Literary Lives of the INKLINGS. Philip Zaleski and Carol Zaleski. New York: Farrar, Strauss, and Giroux, 2015.
The Fellowship: The Literary Lives of the INKLINGS. Philip Zaleski and Carol Zaleski. New York: Farrar, Strauss, and Giroux, 2015.

The Fellowship, Philip Zaleski and Carol Zaleski. New York: Farrar, Strauss, and Giroux, 2015.

Summary: This traces the literary lives of the four principle Inklings (Lewis, Tolkien, Barfield, and Williams) the literary club they formed and its impact on literature, faith, and culture.

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Scholar’s Compass: Myth Made Fact

609px-Arundel_Cathedral_Sanctuary,_West_Sussex,_UK_-_Diliff

Photo by DAVID ILIFF. License: CC-BY-SA 3.0

David Russell Mosley finishes his series on how human creativity participates in God’s creativity. Tolkien fans will enjoy Mosley’s exploration of the idea of subcreation, articulated in Tolkien’s essay “On Faerie Stories.” Tolkien argued that human creativity is a gift from God to those made in His image, and that when a human writer imagines something, that writer is “sub creating,” crafting a fictional setting in a small and respectful imitation of God’s creative abilities. Today, Mosley explores Tolkien’s idea that God gave humanity hints of the Gospel through mythology and fairy tales, so that when Christ came His historical appearance fulfilled the desires expressed through human storytelling: Myth became Fact. 

Quotation

I would venture to say that approaching the Christian Story from this direction, it has long been my feeling (a joyous feeling) that God redeemed the corrupt making-creatures, men, in a way that is fitting to this respect, as to others, of their strange nature. The Gospels contain a fairy-story, or a story of a larger kind which embraces all the essence of fairy-stories. They contain many marvels––peculiarly artistic, beautiful, and moving: “mythical” in their perfect self-contained significance; and among the marvels is the greatest and most complete conceivable eucatastrophe. But the story has entered History and the primary world; the desires and aspirations of sub-creation has been raised to the fulfillment of Creation. The Birth of Christ is the eucatastrophe of man’s history. The Resurrection is the eucatastrophe of the story of the Incarnation. This story begins and ends in joy. – J. R. R. Tolkien, “Tree and Leaf” [Read more…] about Scholar’s Compass: Myth Made Fact

Scholar’s Compass: The Fantastic and the Real

bread photoDavid Russell Mosley continues a three part series exploring how human creativity participates in God’s creativity. Tolkien fans will enjoy Mosley’s exploration of the idea of subcreation, articulated in Tolkien’s essay “On Faerie Stories.” Tolkien argued that human creativity is a gift from God to those made in His image, and that when a human writer imagines something, that writer is “sub creating,” crafting a fictional setting in a small and respectful imitation of God’s creative abilities. The idea that we in some way imitate and participate in God’s creative activity can apply to more than writing an epic, and Mosley explores some ways Christians can think about it. In this reflection, Mosley engages Tolkien’s idea that experiencing fairy stories restores our sense of the wonder of the world God created, letting us see through a fantastic setting how astonishing the real world around us is.  [Read more…] about Scholar’s Compass: The Fantastic and the Real

Scholar’s Compass: Creativity as Gift

leaf photoDavid Russell Mosley generously shared Advent and Christmas reflections with us in 2014. Today, he begins a three part series exploring how human creativity participates in God’s creativity, a subject he explores as a scholar of theology and writer of poetry. Tolkien fans will enjoy Mosley’s exploration of the idea of subcreation, articulated in Tolkien’s essay “On Faerie Stories.” Tolkien argued that human creativity is a gift from God to those made in His image, and that when a human writer imagines something, that writer is “sub creating,” crafting a fictional setting in a small and respectful imitation of God’s creative abilities. The idea that we in some way imitate and participate in God’s creative activity can apply to more than writing an epic, and Mosley explores some ways Christians can think about it in the fantasy genre and beyond. 

Quotation

‘Of course, in human beings other than Christ there is no absolute co-incidence of the human will with the divine creative will; but nevertheless one can logically speak of a ‘participating’ in this creative will, where human action brings about something that is generically new, as in the case of a new sort of legal convention or a new sort of artistic idiom. But because the creative human being is ‘inspired’, and because she does not fully grasp or command the new thing she has brought about, there is no absolute creation here: the new thing invented is also ‘discovered’, given to the creator herself as a mysterious new potency.’ – John Milbank, Beyond Secular Order

Reflection

John Milbank, for those already acquainted with his work, may not be amongst the first people to spring to one’s mind as a source for devotional contemplation. And yet, in this passage above, I find myself led to a truly devotional contemplation. Milbank describes an intimate relationship between the Creator and human creators. It is a divine-human relationship, and yet it is implicitly not the same as the divine-human relationship in Jesus Christ. We are Christians, little Christs, made in his image, participating in his Sonship through adoption. Yet this adoption not only allows us to become adopted Sons, deified by God’s grace. What’s even more truly in-credible (that is unbelievable) is that we humans, created in God’s Image, redeemed and deified by his Son and through his Spirit, can, in a way, add to Creation. Our creativity can make new things, things that did not exist in Creation, and might not if we weren’t there to create them. But, and this is key, even the Creation of new things is a gift given to us by God. Our very existence, and the fact that we are created in the image and likeness of God is itself a gift. As is our free will. But so are our creations. Milbank describes what seems to be common to most writers and poets, that their creations seem to be given to them. As if they did not fully originate from their own minds. This is because they are not. Our creations, however new, are still gifts, given to us by the Creator.

As a young theologian and sometimes poet, this reality is both inspiring and terrifying. The things I create, whether in theological narratives or poems or stories, are not wholly mine. Insofar as they are good, beautiful, and true they are gifts to me from God, they will be added to Creation as new things both from me and yet are given to me. This is the weight we bear as human beings redeemed and being deified by Christ. How can I bear this weight? This responsibility? What am I that You are mindful of me? Yet we are called to bear it. He is mindful of us. We can join the font of all existence in bringing new things into existence, yet not as a person of the Trinity, but through the Triune God. In J. R. R. Tolkien’s story “Leaf by Niggle,” Niggle is a painter who can never seem to finish his picture of a tree. In death, he finally sees his tree finished and real. He looks at it and says, “It’s a gift!” We can say with Niggle when we create, “It’s a gift!”

Questions

How might this notion of creativity affect your scholarship? How might this understanding of human creation change the way we interact with the creations of others?

Prayer

God, Poet of the Cosmos, help us to remember that we are only creators because we participate in You Who is the True Creator. Thank you for the gift of our creations. It is incredible that You choose to work through us to introduce new things into Your Creation. Guide us to seek to create things that are good, beautiful, and true. Remind us that the things we create are gifts, they are not solely derived from us but are given to us from you. We pray this in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Further Reading

John Milbank, Beyond Secular Order: The Representation of Being and the Representation of the People (Chichester: Wiley Blackwell, 2013), 196.

J. R. R. Tolkien, “Leaf By Niggle,” The Tolkien Reader (New York: Ballantine Books, 1966).

 

Image courtesy of francok35 at Pixabay: http://pixabay.com/en/users/francok35