The Two Towers (book)

I finished reading "The Two Towers," the second part of The Lord of the Rings trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien, which contains two books - Book III, The Treason of Isengard, and Book IV, The Ring Goes East (The Lord of the Rings trilogy contains 6 books altogether).

The story picks up where "The Fellowship of the Rings" (the fist part) leaves off, at the breakup of the fellowship - that is where Frodo and Sam leave on their own to pursue the path towards destroying the ring of power, Boromir dies attempting to defend Merry and Pippin from the Orcs, the Orcs capture and steal away Merry and Pippin, under orders to capture alive a half-ling (another name for a hobbit), and Aragon, Gimli, and Leglolas, after sending Boromir down the river in a proper funeral boat, begin the chase on foot after Merry and Pippin to rescue them from the Orcs.  (Gandalf the Grey apparently dies in the first part, but reappears in the second part transformed into Gandalf the White - a more powerful wizard.)

As the story develops through deep twists and turns, you find yourself deeply immersed in the world of

Middle Earth, which has a deep, profound, and long history, sometimes conveyed in conversations, but more reflected in the actions of the many characters, the vast geography they travel, and the variety of those who people middle earth.  This is part of the draw which attracts many readers to read these stories again and again - some as often as once a year.

This part of the story revolves around two towers (as the title suggests) - the tower of Orthnac at Izengard ruled by Saruman, the White Wizard (who has turned traitor), and the tower of Barad-dur (which translates into English as the Dark Tower) where the Dark Lord Sauron rules from.  These two loci of evil seek to rule Middle Earth, which the Dark Lord can easily do if he can obtain the ring of power which Frodo bears in order to destroy it, though he must do so in the land of Mordor which Sauron rules.

The Ents

Tolkien continues many of the themes from the first part, such as the corrupting influence of power, the inevitability of decline, duty, the value of fellowship.  He again imparts how myths tend to promote the gospel message (a favorite topic of his).

I especially enjoyed his imaginative creation of the Ents, living trees who guard, shephard, and protect the trees of the forest.  They are so upset with Saruman's heedless destruction of the trees that they finally decide they must attack.  They destroy Isengard and keep Saruman essentially locked up in his tower so he can no longer spread his evil in the region.

Later on, Frodo and Faramir, Boromir's brother, have a long, fascinating conversation which covers much of the history of Middle Earth.  Most important to the plot development, Frodo spares Gollum's life from the hand of Faramir, much as his uncle did back in the original story, "The Hobbit." This will play an important role in the development of the story later on.

I again urge any who have not read these stories to do so.  They stand as a great work of literature.

Part 1: The Fellowship of the Ring

The Fellowship of the Ring (Film)

The Lewis-Tolkien Friendship

Predestination - Part 4 - The Bible

The reason many Christian traditions support predestination is that the Bible contains several passages that use that word, or variations of it.  Or else it expressly speaks about how God chose us way before we chose him.

So, for example, in his Epistle to the Ephesians, St. Paul writes, For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.  In love, he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will - to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. (Ephesians 1:4-6 - emphasis added)

Soon thereafter, Paul writes, In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory.  (Ephesians 1:11-12 - emphasis added)

Chapter 8 of the book of Romans also talks about predestination, twice.  More importantly, the Bible also talks about how God how God elected us, how he chose us long before we chose him, as well as God's sovereignty, all closely related to predestination.  I might discuss this in a future post, especially since it contains two different words for foreknowledge and predestination (since some consider predestination to simply be foreknowledge).

However, the Bible also asserts, time and time again, that God created man with free will.  Any understanding about predestination that denies mankind's free will goes against what the Bible teaches about both predestination and free will.  I will write more about this in a future post.

Part 3 (last post)
Part 1 (Intro)

Predestination - Part 3 - Mystery

As Christians, we accept there are many aspects of our faith we will never fully understand.  We call those aspects of our faith mysteries.

That doesn't mean we should give up understanding as much of our faith as we can.  Christianity is not a mystery religion (in contrast to most world religions).  Instead, it emphasizes reason as holding a vital role in faith, as Rodney Stark does in, The Victory of Reason.  But it recognizes our reason has limits, often expressed as mysteries.

When it comes to predestination, it helps when we recognize the limitations of our reason when it comes to certain issues revolving around predestination such as God's election, His sovereignty, His gift of free will (part of the image of God), His foreknowledge, the assurance of the saints, etc.  Some Christians seem to assert almost an absolute knowledge about these matters.  I tend to be suspect of such assertions.

On the other hand, some Christians seem to all to hastily deny predestination, sometimes along with the other related issues I mentioned in the previous paragraph.  I also tend to be suspect of such hasty denials.

Instead, while I try to ask for support for these positions, I also seek to urge them to recognize some of the mysteries surrounding some of these issues.

I hope to convey, and you will appreciate, some of the mysteries about predestination as I discuss it further in future posts.

Part 4 (The Bible)
Part 2 (Misconceptions)
Part 1 (Personal Testimony)

Predestination - Part 2 - Misconceptions

Many hold a common misconception that only Calvinists teach Predestination, or that they somehow originated this teaching (or doctrine).

Instead, many Christian traditions hold various forms of Predestination, which originates with the Church fathers.  St. Augustine wrote, "A Treatise on the Predestination of the Saints," back around 428 or 429 A.D..  He was not the first Church father who addressed this issue.  The Bible itself addresses predestination, but I plan to more fully address that in another post.

Both the Roman Catholic Church and Eastern Orthodoxy teach about predestination.  So Thomas Aquinas largely agrees with St. Augustine about this issue.  However, Catholics usually do not like to talk about predestination.

Lutherans also usually do not like to talk about predestination, though Luther largely agreed with Calvin about it.  Luther usually wanted to stick to talking about the Law and Gospel.  Methodists also do not like to talk about predestination since the Wesley brothers emphasized free will, though they closely worked with those who held strong views about predestination, such as George Whitefield (a Calvinist).

Yet, even those who usually do not like to talk about predestination usually agree with the closely related teachings about the Sovereignty of God, as well as Election.  Thus, I usually find more agreement about predestination among Christian traditions than disagreement, even when some want to talk about Election or the Sovereignty of God.

Another common misconception - many equate predestination with pre-determinism (or simply determinism, or just fatalism).  In another words, in this misconception, they believe predestination means God controls (or compels) people and their decisions.  Thus God compels the evil people act out.  This view simply misunderstands the historic teachings about predestination.

A similar misconception - many believe predestination opposes, cancels out, or negates free will.  Simply stated, it does not.

In future posts, I will try to carefully set forth how I understand what historic Christianity usually asserts about predestination, and some variations about this held by various traditions.

Part 1 - Predestination - Personal Testimony

Predestination - Part 1 - Testimony

Detail -  "Creation of Adam" by Michelangelo -  1512

Predestination remains a complex and controversial topic within the Church.  After holding some challenging conversations with some Christian friends, I want to begin to address this topic in this blog.  It may take more than one post here (since I try to keep them short), so I want to begin with a personal testimony.

My parents raised me Catholic.  But when they divorced, I (along with my family) drifted away. In public high school (following parochial elementary school), I became an atheist.  But later, near 20, I converted to a born-again evangelical faith.

For several years, I was proud I made a decision for Christ.  However, as the years went by, I began to realize that all along, God had a plan for me, and moved first to reach out to me, long before I made a decision to accept Christ, and the price he paid at the cross to save me.

Before long following that, I began to realize, that most of what of goes on around me revolves more of what

God does, and less of what I do.  Regardless of what I plan or decide, purpose or determine, it seems to go different, and as I look back, it seems it went according to God's plan all along.  I don't mean what I do is not important, it is.  It just means what God does is more important.  That is why I pray.

So as time went on, it became easier to accept what the Bible describes as predestination.  The Church has taught this through the ages to varying degrees in different tradtions.  When properly taught, it does not take away from the freedom (free will) God bestowed upon mankind in his creation.  However, I will deal with this issue in future posts.

For now, I pose the question: Did you choose God first, or, as you look back, did God choose you first?  Or another way of looking at it: Did you act first, or did God?

Part 2 - Predestination - Misconceptions

Holiness

Catholics and Evangelicals alike agree on the call on Christians to live a holy life.  (See the 2005 statement by Evangelicals and Catholics Together, The Call to Holiness.)  However, I find, when I raise this topic with my Christian friends, they tend to view the terms holy, or holiness, negatively.  At least they are being honest.  They know they are sinners and so they do not feel holy, or, at least, they do not feel those terms should be applied to them.  They know God is holy; they believe, or at least hope, their priest or pastor is holy; they know others who might qualify as holy; but they feel uncomfortable if those terms are applied to them.  They often hold to no hope of becoming holy.

The New Testament seems to hold a different view.  It uses the word "saints" over 60 times, usually to refer to any believer who is "in Christ" -that is whom Christ dwells.  Some New Testament versions translate the Greek word hagios, as the holy ones.

Fra Angelico.
The Forerunners of Christ with Saints and Martyrs
 (about 1423-24)

The New Testament writers did not employ a rose colored filter.  They knew well that all believers are sinners.  Yet they did not shy away from using the term saints (holy ones) broadly to apply to all believers.  Why?

St. Paul asserts, in his Epistle to the Romans that God applies the righteousness of Christ to us sinners through faith. In other words, though we deserve punishment, since Jesus Christ completely lived a holy life, and because He fully paid for our sins by His death at the Cross; when we fully place our faith in Christ as paying the price for our sins, God looks at us as though we lived as holy a life as Jesus did.  (Romans 3:21-31)

St. Paul goes on to clarify - this teaching does not mean we can simply sin all we want.  Instead, he asserts we are dead to sin, but alive in Christ.  (Romans 6:11)

No doubt, we all sin.  So John says if we claim to have no sin, we are not truthful.  (1 John 1:8 & 10)  Instead, he urges us to confess our sins.  (1 John 1:9)  John goes on to urge all of us to live a holy life.

St. Peter sums this up when he recalls what God says in the Old Testament, But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do;  for it is written: Be holy, because I am holy. (1 Peter 1:15-16 - referencing passages in Leviticus)  Peter addresses this to all believers, not just to a select few.  He urges all of us to live a holy life.

Probably the best way to think about holiness is as a journey.  Isaiah refers to a highway called a way of holiness (Isiah 35:8).  As sinners, we embark on a journey where God, through His Holy Spirit, transforms us, step by step, into holiness.  Though we never quite arrive, we embarked on that journey and hopefully progress on that highway.  Though we may sin, we confess it, receive God's forgiveness, and continue on that journey.

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (2014)

I watched the final part of The Hobbit film trilogy by Peter Jackson: The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, released in 2014.  It covers the portion of The Hobbit book from when the dragon Smaug leaves the Lonely Mountain to attack Lake-town, to the end of the book.

Galadriel

In my favorite part of the movie, Galadriel (played by Cate Blanchett), accompanied
by Elrond and Saruman, rescues Gandalf, and battles with and defeats Sauron, along with the Nazgul (the Ring-wraiths), banishing them to the East.  She expends tremendous power in this effort, which explains why she seems somewhat diminished when we get to The Fellowship of the Rings.  However, Tolkien does not explain this in The Hobbit, where Gandalf mention he was detained on a mission longer than he expected without explanation.  Apparently Tolkien explained this in the appendices to The Fellowship of the Ring.  So I appreciated that Jackson included this aspect of the story in the film.

Smaug attacks Lake-town - Bard takes aim

I also liked the scenes where Smaug attacked Lake-town - brought down to his death by Bard the Bowman.

However, Jackson dragged out the battle scenes too long.  The battle does not take up much length in the book, and Jackson seemed to want to get every ounce he could out of the battle scenes, and then more.

Still I enjoyed the film, as well as the film trilogy, and recommend watching it.

The Hobbit (the book)

The Lewis Tolkien Friendship

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (film)

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (film)

The Fellowship of the Ring (the book)

I just finished reading The Fellowship of the Ring.  J.R.R. Tolkien published it in 1954.  It formed the first volume of a trilogy, The Lord of the Rings.  I will write about the trilogy in another post, most likely when I have finished all three book.

As I will explain in more depth when I write about The Lord of the Rings, the Fellowship of the Rings follows the story of The Hobbit.  However, while Tolkien wrote that book (The Hobbit) around 1932, and finally had it published in 1937, it took almost 20 years for Tolkien to write the follow-up story.  I will explain this delay when I post about The Lord of the Rings.

The Fellowship of the Rings picks up on the story of Bilbo Baggins, the hero of The Hobbit, who celebrates his 111th birthday at the beginning of the story.  Weary of life, he decides to leave the Shire, his home, and leave everything he owns to his nephew, Frodo Baggins, including the magical ring in adventures Tolkien earlier wrote about in The Hobbit (or as revised in a second edition).

Frodo eventually finds out that he has accidentally received a ring of power, devised by a powerful dark lord, Sauron. As the story develops,he finds out that the only way he can deliver the world (middle earth),

from certain domination by Sauron, is to destroy the ring in the fires where it was forged, in Mount Doom.  He knobbly undertakes an adventure to Mount Doom in order to destroy the ring with the fellowship of a wizard (Gandalf), two men (Aragon and Boromir), three hobbits (Sam, Merry, and Pippin), a dwarf (Gimli), and and an elf (Legolas) - a company called the Fellowship of the Ring.  Their adventures follows through this book to the break-up of their Fellowship.

More importantly, the book allows Tolkien to work out several themes, often with Christian elements since he was a devout Catholic, such as

the corrupting influence of power, the inevitability of decline, and how myths tend to promote the gospel message.

In addition, Tokien fills The Fellowship of the Rings with songs and singing (often as poetry), emphasizes the rewards and dangers of the road, the importance of paying attention to prophecy, the importance of symbols such as the rings of power, the sword of Elendil (the sword which long ago almost killed the Dark Lord), and the Mirror of Galandriel which shows the future, explains the present, or recalls the past.

Anyway, Tolkien, a philologist who avidly studied the stories and legends of the past, drew the best from that tradition in order to enrichen our age.  I strongly encourage the study of this book as an avid way of understanding our age, as many do - who often read it on a regular basis.  (My doctor confessed on a recent visit that she has read it four times already.)

Tolkien, along with his good friend, C.S. Lewis, believed that good storytelling was the best way to introduce a general audience to the good news of the gospel.  They worked vigorously in this endeavor.

If you haven't read The Fellowship of the Ring, I strongly urge you to read this book.

The Two Towers

The Hobbit (the book)

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (film)

The Lewis Tolkien Friendship

Theology

Many friends of mine disdain any talk of theology.  Yet they quickly share thoughts about God, Jesus Christ, the Church, or at least, spirituality - all which involves, or at least touches upon issues of, theology.

Yet, since its origins, the Church, then composed of early Christians, discussed and developed theology.  In one sense, any talk about God, Jesus Christ, etc., usually involves theological issues.  It might not involve what might be called formal theology - like what you might find taught at a seminary - but it still involves what some might call an informal, or practical, theology (some might call it an undisciplined theology).

Catechism

On a simple level, theology involves the study of God.  So early on, the Church saw the preparation of candidates for baptism as involving theology, which it called catechism, based on a Greek word which means to teach orally (though many catechisms are now written down in the form of questions and answers).  These truths often developed into the sermons and homilies of the early church.

All orthodox Christian traditions agree Holy Scriptures provides the supreme authority for all Christian teachings, while tradition often, or usually, provides the means for interpretive understanding of Scripture - the two work hand in hand. However, all agree Scripture does not set forth teaching in any sort of systematic manner.  Instead, Scripture usually sets revealed truth within the context of the historical, or of prophecy, or of poetry, or of allegorical story-telling, or of parables, or of letter-writing in a non-systematic manner.  Thus, one of the important role of Christian theology involves taking the revealed teachings of Scripture, and then organizing it in a systematic manner of stating revealed truths.  As such, it stands as the organizer of Christian thought.

We best understand the role of theology as a good attempt to get as close to the thoughts of God as possible.  Another way we can understand it involves the hidden structure of Christianity.  Much as we cannot see the hidden structure of the steel beams of skyscraper, we often might not see the hidden theological structure which supports the faith that provides our spiritual life.

In another analogy, theology often provides the backstory of our faith and beliefs, much as Tolkein wrote an extensive backstory in the Silmarillion, starting long before he wrote The Hobbit, or The Lord Of The Ring trilogy, or like George Lucas wrote a back story to the Star Wars story.  The backstory provides the structure and form for the story we so much enjoy.  If we remove that structure and form, much like the building falls apart, so does the story falls apart, and so does our Christian beliefs fall apart.  We then become vulnerable to many beliefs, including non-Christian beliefs. Historically, bad theological beliefs leads to false beliefs and eventually a false Christian faith.

In general, I encourage study of solid Christian theology - it provides structure and backbone to our beliefs.

Perelandra

I finished reading Perelandra by C.S. Lewis, which he completed in 1943, as the second book in his Space Trilogy.  I previously posted on his first book in that trilogy, Out of the Silent Planet.

In this book, Lewis gets to explore the question - what would have happened if Eve had not given in to the temptation posed by Satan in the Garden of Eden?  In the story, the planet Perelandra (Venus) stands as a newly created planet by Maleldil (Jesus Christ - the Creator as the second person of the Trinity), who placed a woman (Tinindril - the Queen) and a man (Tor - the King) there in a fantastical Garden of Eden setting, where they are naked without shame.  None of it has yet been spoiled by the Fall.

Archon (Satan) comes as a man from earth, Weston, to tempt Tinindril.  We saw Weston before in Out of the Silent Planet, where, as an atheist, he sought to conquer Malacandra (Mars), but failed.  In the meantime, he converted to a spiritualist dedicated to the "Life Force"), and later shows signs of demon possession or control.

Water largely covers Perelandra, with many islands which float on the waters and undulate with the waves.

Perelandrian Island

 It contains one large fixed land, but though Tinindril and Tor visit it by day, Maleldil forbids their staying overnight and sleeping on the fixed land.  Weston sets out to convince Tinidril (Eve's counter-part) to disobey this command and to stay overnight and sleep there.

The Oyarsa (the angelic protector) of Perelandra, acting in concert with the Oyarsa of Malacandra (Mars) to summon and transport Elwin Ransom, the protaganist in Out of the Silent Planet, to help Tinidril resist the temptation by Weston, though he does not know this at first.  It proves a challenge as Weston is very clever - the Queen is very innocent - and Ransom often finds it difficult to explain evil to someone unfamiliar with it.

Eventually, Ransom succeeds, but you will have to read the book to find out how.  However, it involves a long, drawn out fight, with the future of Perelandra hanging in the balance.  Eventually, Ransom gets to see how a planet turns out when sin is rejected.  It also explores themes about the nature of God, the nature of mankind, the nature of good and evil, the sovereignty of God and free-will, among others, in a story setting instead of a theological setting.

Lewis, a medieval scholar, also incorporates much of the medieval cosmology in creating an imaginative setting for his story.

I will go on to read the last story in the Space Trilogy, That Hideous Strength.

Out of the Silent Planet

That Hideous Strength

The Lewis Tolkien Friendship