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Spiritual roots of the Inklings: J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, O. Barfield, C. Williams

#1
C C Offline
http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainm...story.html

EXCERPT: In “The Fellowship,” Philip and Carol Zaleski examine the lives and works of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Owen Barfield and Charles Williams [...] the focus is less literary than religious or metaphysical. What did the Inklings, as this group of friends called themselves, believe? How did their beliefs affect their writing and thinking? What did they hope to achieve with their novels, stories and nonfiction? These are the sort of questions that most interest the Zaleskis. Overall, they argue that the Inklings aimed at nothing less than “a revitalization of Christian intellectual and imaginative life.”

[...] All four of these writers, as well as a handful of other friends, met regularly over beer in an Oxford pub to discuss their scholarly and literary projects — or almost anything else. [...] In general, the all-male group shared a longing for that half-imaginary time before man’s alienation from God, nature and self, the time before the chaos and materialism of the post-industrial era had displaced the elegantly organized cosmos of the Middle Ages. In their ­various ways, each hoped to spearhead a rehabilitation, a re-enchantment of our fallen world.

Christianity, the Zaleskis remind us, was central to their lives. [...] Yet if you were to name the great Catholic novelists of 20th-century Britain, would Tolkien be on the list with G.K. Chesterton, Evelyn Waugh, Graham Greene and Muriel Spark? Probably not. Middle Earth lacks any theological system one would call Christian, let alone Catholic. There are no churches in the Shire and, at best, only vague hints of some kind of afterlife. One might liken Morgoth — the evil Sauron’s master — to Satan, and the Valar to demigods or archangels, but this is reading into the text.

Nonetheless, the Zaleskis assert that the tales of Middle Earth are suffused with Christian themes, such as “pity and mercy, faith and trust, humility, self-sacrifice, the powers of the weak, providence (disguised as chance), freedom (deformed by sin), and grace when all seems lost.” This is certainly true, yet are these virtues and ideals restricted to Christianity....
#2
Magical Realist Offline
When I was an avid reader of C.S. Lewis I was familiar with these literary figures he hung out with but never read their works. Charles Williams was known for his horror fiction as well. One must also include the fantasy works of Scotsman George MacDonald among Lewis's influences. Then when I read LOTR I sort of left behind the allegorical stories of Lewis for high fantasy. I don't see Middle Earth as tinged with the scarlet hue of Christ's blood as was the case with Narnia. With Tolkien one experiences a true cosmogenesis or "world builidng" that transcends any references to this world or to religion. The detail he put into the languages and the landscape and the characters carried me far beyond anything I was used to from the Good Book. It was a major turning point away from theology for me. It revealed to me the power of the imagination and of story, which afterall was the whole appeal of the Gospel to begin with. With LOTR here was something even more beautiful and exciting than that tale, and a newfound value in my own imagination over my former faith.


[Image: ghavens.jpg]
[Image: ghavens.jpg]



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