Theology and Tolkien - by Douglas Estes (Hardcover)

About the Book

J.R.R. Tolkien and his works have impacted many areas of thought and culture, including theology. In Theology and Tolkien: Practical Theology, an international group of scholars discuss numerous themes related to living out theology in our world today.

Book Synopsis

J.R.R. Tolkien and his works have impacted many areas of thought and culture, including theology. In Theology and Tolkien: Practical Theology, an international group of scholars discuss numerous themes related to living out theology in our world today.

Review Quotes

Theology and Tolkien: Practical Theology, edited by Douglas Estes, is a brilliant compilation of essays by fourteen authors delineating different aspects of Tolkien's theology as it applies to the real world. This work is unequivocally successful. Having read extensively within the field of Tolkien Studies, I consider this work to rank well within its numbers... Theology and Tolkien: Practical Theology is a valuable addition to Tolkien Studies. Its content is both original and perceptive, engaging with theology in a knowledgeable manner and offering realistic applications to the real world. While scholarly in nature, the essays are accessible to non-scholars with an intellectual interest in Tolkien. This book provides a refreshing engagement with Tolkien's work and is a worthy contribution to the field.

Each new generation of scholars re-discovers important texts by reading and interpreting them with new eyes. This is the aim of Theology and Tolkien, which unites a wide range of approaches in order to provide engaging insights into the 'theology' of Tolkien's works in an easily accessible form, illustrating theological concepts by means of 'practical' applications to Tolkien's texts.

Estes has done a great service for scholars and fans of Middle-earth alike who want to dig deeper into such key Tolkien themes as friendship and fellowship, death and immortality, salvation and sub-creation, theodicy and the corruption of the senses, the art of power and the power of art, and even home and food. All the writers balance a critical eye with a robust love of the legendarium and a desire to be changed, theoretically and practically, by their interaction with Tolkien. I was particularly glad to see several of the contributors analyze Jackson's films alongside Tolkien's epic in a positive and fruitful way.

Rather than assessing the compatibility of Tolkien's legendarium with Christian theology, the essays in Estes's collection use Tolkien's Middle-earth writings to explore everyday themes such as friendship, home, and food, as well as more obviously theological concepts, like apostleship, salvation, and theodicy. Both sides of the equation benefit.

Tolkien and Theology, edited by Douglas Estes. Let me say at theoutset that this is an excellent collection of state-of-the-art Christian theological/literary criticism of Tolkien's work, that fully reflects Tolkien's own observation, quoted early on by Douglas Estes, that, "TheLord of the Rings is of course a fundamentally religious and Catholic work." Further, as Estes also says in his Introduction, "When we read Tolkien... our imagination absorbs truth that we may not be able to explain in words, but challenges us, and changes us, to live differently." Even if it does, we can try and explain this truth that challenges and changes, as is so effectively demonstrated by this collection.

About the Author

Douglas Estes (PhD, University of Nottingham) currently teaches at Friends University in Wichita, Kansas.