David 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
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Scholar’s Compass: Sir Gawain Seeks Christmas
David Russell Mosley delves into Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, a poem that starts at Christmas. Mosley draws on an argument by Tolkien, not coincidentally one of the translators of  Sir Gawain, that fairy tales and mythical figures point beyond themselves to the truth of the Gospel. David will share more about Faerie and the Gospel in future Scholar’s Compass posts.
Reading
Quotations from Sir Gawain and the Green Knight in this post. [Read more…] about Scholar’s Compass: Sir Gawain Seeks Christmas