Overview

This book hopes to invite readers into Tolkien's world through the lens of a variety of philosophers, of all of whom owe a rich debt to the Neoplatonic philosophical tradition. It places Tolkien's mythology against a wider backdrop of catholic philosophy and asks serious questions as to the nature of creation alongside the nature of God, what it means to be good, and concerning the problem of evil. This book attempts to set Tolkien alongside both his contemporaries and ancient authors, and how he used similar literary devices in order to express his desire to create a ""mythology for England.""

Full Product Details

Author:   Michael Halsall
Publisher:   James Clarke & Co Ltd
Imprint:   Lutterworth Press
ISBN:  

9780718895525

ISBN 10:   0718895525
Pages:   294
Publication Date:   24 September 2020
Audience:   General/trade ,  General
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
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Table of Contents

Foreword by Alison Milbank | xi Author's Preface | xv Acknowledgments | xvii List of Abbreviations | xix Chapter 1 Prolegomenon to the Sub-Creative Genius of Tolkien amongst His Contemporaries | 3 Chapter 2 Creation and the Metaphysics of Music: Tolkien's Philosophy Chapter 3 The Concept of Life as 'Being and Gift' in Tolkien's Literary Corpus | 105 Chapter 4 Tolkien, Eriugena, and the Conjoining of Borrowed Traditions | 167 Chapter 5 A Diversion towards Mutability and the Possibility of Evil | 213 Chapter 6 Concluding Comments: There and Back Again | 235 Appendix C: Three Crosses in the Churchyard of Whalley Abbey, Lancashire | 254 Appendix D: The Standard of the King of Gondor | 258 Appendix E: Iconography in the Book of Kells | 259 Bibliography | 263

Reviews

This is a rich engagement at all levels with Tolkien, full of suggestive comparisons with the tradition of the music of the spheres and with the modernist music of his own time. It is deeply scholarly but clear and accessible. And it is both Catholic in relating Tolkien to Catholic theology, including Maritain, and the Thomism of the early twentieth century, but also in its range of reference, which does full justice to Tolkien's intellectual background and his generosity of spirit, which had room for wild-men and oliphants, wereworms and Barliman's best bitter, all with the mark of createdness upon them, gifted to his readers. From the Foreword by Alison Milbank, University of Nottingham

""This is a rich engagement at all levels with Tolkien, full of suggestive comparisons with the tradition of the music of the spheres and with the modernist music of his own time. It is deeply scholarly but clear and accessible. And it is both Catholic in relating Tolkien to Catholic theology, including Maritain, and the Thomism of the early twentieth century, but also in its range of reference, which does full justice to Tolkien's intellectual background and his generosity of spirit, which had room for wild-men and oliphants, wereworms and Barliman's best bitter, all with the mark of createdness upon them, gifted to his readers."" -From the Foreword by Alison Milbank, University of Nottingham

Author Information

Michael Halsall is a Catholic priest and teaches philosophy at Allen Hall, London.

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