All thinkers
Writer · Contemporary
J. R. R. Tolkien
1892–1973 · Catholic mythopoeia; sub-creation
Catholic
Latin
Oxford philologist and author of “The Lord of the Rings,” a work he called “fundamentally religious and Catholic,” raised by a priest of the Birmingham Oratory after his mother's death. His essay “On Fairy-Stories” set out the theory of sub-creation and “eucatastrophe,” the joy of the sudden turn, of which the Gospel is the true story; his legendarium is shot through with providence, the Fall, mercy (“the pity of Bilbo”) and the refusal of power.
Why he matters: The most widely read Catholic author of the century, whose imaginative world has carried a sacramental and providential vision into secular culture; his daily Mass and devotion to the Eucharist were the root of his art.
Reading
-
On Fairy-StoriesJ. R. R. Tolkien · Sub-creation and eucatastrophe: his theory of art and the Gospel.
-
The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkiened. Humphrey Carpenter · Especially letters 43, 89, 142 and 250 on faith, the Eucharist and the Rings.
-
Tolkien: Man and MythJoseph Pearce · A Catholic reading of his life and work.
Documented positions
Where this thinker stands on each dispute the test covers.
Settled teaching
Its center
Open question
Beyond teaching, not condemned
Condemned error
I
God and Being · What is, and whence it is.
Can reason know that God exists?
Natural theology
Fideism or agnosticism
Natural theology
How is God related to the world?
Creation from nothing
Pantheism or emanation
Creation from nothing
Is the world governed by purpose?
Providence and final causes
Chance and mechanism
Providence and final causes
Do natures and essences really exist?
Realism
Nominalism
Realism
How does creation speak of God?
A book of signs and vestiges
Natures studied in their own right
A book of signs and vestiges
II
Faith, Reason and Truth · How we know, and whom we trust.
Faith and reason: who has the last word?
Fideism
Rationalism
Fideism
Is truth objective?
Objective truth
Relativism and pragmatism
Objective truth
Who interprets revelation?
Living Tradition and Magisterium
Private judgment
Living Tradition and Magisterium
Does doctrine develop?
Always the same, in the same words
Always the same, in the same words
A living development
Are the world's learning and arts a danger or a gift?
A gift to be baptized
A danger: Athens has nothing to do with Jerusalem
A gift to be baptized
III
The Human Person · Soul, body, freedom and the Fall.
Is there a spiritual soul?
Immortal spiritual soul
Mind is brain
Immortal spiritual soul
Is the body really you?
Body–soul unity
Dualism
Body–soul unity
Are you free?
Free will
Determinism
Free will
How fallen is human nature?
Totally depraved
Totally depraved
Basically good
The body and its desires
Between
Contempt for the flesh
Desire as its own law
Person and community
Individualism
Individualism
Collectivism
Marriage, sex and the body's meaning
Given by nature and grace
Given by nature and grace
Defined by consent and identity
What is suffering for?
A share in the Cross
An evil to be relieved
A share in the Cross
IV
The Moral Life · Law, virtue, conscience and the good.
Is morality objective and knowable?
Natural law
Relativism
Natural law
Are some acts always wrong?
Intrinsically evil acts
Consequentialism
Intrinsically evil acts
Rules or character?
Morality of virtue and beatitude
Morality of obligation
Morality of virtue and beatitude
What is happiness?
Beatitude in God
Earthly flourishing
Beatitude in God
V
Grace and Salvation · How God saves, and whom.
How are we made right with God?
Infused, transforming grace
Forensic imputation
Infused, transforming grace
Hell and hope
The many are lost
The many are lost
All will be saved
Where does your eye rest in Christ: His divinity or His humanity?
The eternal Word made flesh
The eternal Word made flesh
The man Jesus of Nazareth
VI
Church and Society · Authority, the state, wealth and the nation.
The economic order
Laissez-faire capitalism
Socialism
Laissez-faire capitalism
Where does authority come from?
Authority from God
Social contract
Authority from God
Reform or tradition?
Guided by tradition
Remake by reason
Guided by tradition
The nation and the Church
Between
Nation or race first
Nation does not matter
May the state restrain false religion?
Between
The confessional state: error has no rights
Civil liberty for every religion
Which form of government best suits a Christian people?
Monarchy and hierarchy
Monarchy and hierarchy
Democracy and participation
May a Christian take up the sword?
Yes: war can be just and sometimes a duty
Never: the way of the Cross is nonviolence
Yes: war can be just and sometimes a duty
VII
Worship, Prayer and the Two Lungs · Liturgy, icons, the Spirit, and the See of Peter.
Liturgical development
Receive and develop organically
Reconstruct and innovate
Receive and develop organically
Icons and images
Veneration of images
Iconoclasm
Veneration of images
The office of Peter
Universal and immediate primacy
Conciliarism
Universal and immediate primacy
What do the sacraments do?
Efficacious ex opere operato
Signs only
Efficacious ex opere operato
The Second Vatican Council
Reject the Council
Reject the Council
A new beginning
When the Pope speaks
Every word binds
Resist and judge
Every word binds
Holy Orders and the Church's constitution
A clerical Church
A clerical Church
Reformable by the people
Should the faith take the forms of each culture it enters?
The Gospel in each people's own forms
One form everywhere
The Gospel in each people's own forms
Contemplation or action?
Contemplation: the one thing needful
Action: the apostolate and the works of mercy
Contemplation: the one thing needful
Where does the Roman liturgy stand at its fullest: the old rite, the reformed, or both?
The old rite alone
The old rite alone
The reformed rite alone