Fleming Rutledge(0/0)
Great teaching helps a people to see a wider horizon
Great teaching helps a people to take a long view, to see a wider horizon. Boromir sees only Minas Tirith; he is representative of the great majority of people who are staunchly committed to their own tribe but have little capacity for understanding the bigger picture. If an advantage for their own group appears, it must be a gift from God; so goes the logic.
Real life is an endurance test
Real life–as distinguished from romanticized, sentimentalized life–is largely an endurance test, a “long defeat.” Hope based on empirical evidence of human goodness or human perfectibility is not true hope; it is only optimism or “positive thinking” and cannot stand up to the actual situation. True hope is the hope-against-hope of which Paul speaks in Romans 4:18; that is to say, it is based on a promise from a sphere beyond this one.…
Suffering undertaken for a higher cause
θλῖψις can be translated “apocalypic suffering” because it refers to the affliction suffered by the servants of God in the ongoing conflict with the “world rulers of this present darkness” as Ephesians calls them (6:12). This is not ordinary suffering that comes willy-nilly to everyone. This is suffering that is voluntarily undertaken for the sake of a higher cause. The entire Ring saga could be described as a tale of apocalyptic affliction endured so that the united kingdom [βασιλεία] of Arnor and Gondor can be restored to its rightful ruler.…
The forces of evil work from within and without
The forces of evil are able to work from within as well as without. There is much misunderstanding about this in the Church as well as in the world; it is widely believed and taught that through various spiritual practices one can gain access to an untainted center at the core of being. This is not orthodox Christian belief and it certainly is not Tolkien’s belief; hence his emphasis on the demonic element within.…