While Tolkien adopts and adapts the good Creator of Genesis, one way he diverges is to invent an intermediary “angelic” class of creatures that help out with creation. All begins with Ilúvatar, but creation does not happen alone. It happens in community, with the Ainur, …
Read MoreWhat questions does an origin story try to answer?
How did all this stuff come to be? What is my place in what is? How does the world we inhabit contain such exquisitely creative beauty right alongside such horrific savagery and brokenness? These questions and more drive us to understand our beginnings in ways …
Read MoreFiction can be true
Why spend time blogging about a fictional origin story? Shouldn’t a pastor use the bible? 🙂 While it wasn’t at all the reason I fell in love with Tolkien’s work, his writings are steeped in his Roman Catholic theological framework. So many (rightly) appreciate his …
Read MoreOrigin stories
Whether it’s literature or holy texts, one way humans try to make sense of the world we live in is to tell the story of how the world began. These stories bleed with meaning, and affect so much of how we process what happens to …
Read MoreInternal Conflict
(Message given 1/6/13 at Newberg Friends, from Mark 10:17-31) Read Mark 10:17-31 Just to reassure you, we aren’t talking about money today. We’re talking about something harder to find, peace. 🙂 This man-whom Jesus loved, it says-speaks what ought to be the universal question: how …
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