The Lord of the Rings

work · 8 episodes

174In the Beginning... Again 4 Jan 2024 32:27¶ 114 “Right, and this does not make us robots or puppets. Say you’re reading Tolkien, then Aragorn is doing what Aragorn wants to do. We…” 29:55¶ 103 “Christians over the last generation or so have taken the word ‘history’ and proudly said, “Yes, it’s his-story.” Yes, good, but now you have…” 32:55¶ 115 “And thus he does choose, however reluctantly, to bear the ring to Mordor.”

165Esther 19 Jun 2023 49:47¶ 165 “Relatedly, I don’t remember if you said it before we started the episode or if you said it in the beginning, but there is…” 50:35¶ 166 “If you read Lord of the Rings you get a couple of scant references to Eru, and maybe a dozen references to the Valar,…” 51:26¶ 170 “I’m glad you brought in Lord of the Rings. There is one of the almost but not quite explicit references to God. Gandalf is…”

92An Unlikely Hero - Fantasy 15 Nov 2021 45:54¶ 146 “You go into Narnia or you go into Middle Earth and you’re in a world you know because God is God, right is right,…” 46:45¶ 147 “Maybe Tolkien was being a little preachy there, but it is certainly to the point because on this Middle Earth stands or falls. If…” 47:41¶ 152 “The choice of the word wizard is questionable, although the English word comes from a word that means wise, but the biblical word has…”

69Should Christians Read Fiction? 9 May 2021 7:11¶ 22 “Then you come to something like Lord of the Rings, and again most certainly there’s a team here, with all you’ve described. You’re not…” 31:11¶ 86 “Arguably, the denouement in Lord of the Rings begins right after the rescue of Frodo and Sam on the Field of Cormallen, but it…” 27:59¶ 78 “The way we look at other people and situations and places and conditions. You go to Middle Earth and you come back and see…”

68The Ark and the Angels 25 Apr 2021 27:07¶ 113 “I’d probably lean that way more than anything, but you could also just think in terms of broad cultural appeal. There are things we…” 28:37¶ 117 “It’s Catholic. It’s Roman Catholicism, a nice version as things go, but it’s a medieval sort of Catholicism that Tolkien is reflecting, but there…” 29:25¶ 119 “Yes, but in Middle Earth I get the full experience of what God’s world is like and how godly people behave in a variety…”

32Identity Crisis: Passover, Community, and Freedom 9 Aug 2020 25:13¶ 74 “The first place where the questions “Who are you? Whom do you serve?” are actually from The Lord of the Rings. Aragorn and his…” 25:56¶ 75 “They first ask Aragorn, “Who are you?” and Aragorn says, “First you tell me who you are. Who do you serve?” Tolkien understood this…” 26:22¶ 76 “Aragorn wants to know, “Do you serve the dark power of Mordor? That would be kind of important to know right now. I don’t…”

31Chronology, Community, and Freedom 3 Aug 2020 12:38¶ 37 “To go back to a metaphor that we both love a lot – story. Stories have a beginning, they have a progression, and they…” 13:16¶ 38 “I think it’s interesting that he doesn’t – to lend an air of realism – just leave gaps to say, “Well, clearly it’s a…” 13:36¶ 39 “Because he was open, at the very least, to theistic evolution, there are a few places where he says, “And unmeasured ages past,” because…”

14Noah, the Culture Bearer 5 Apr 2020 30:38¶ 106 “I would be hard-pressed to think of another storybook that was written with such a care for internal consistency and theme and the beauty…” 31:33¶ 112 “But Tolkien, in addition to the strong cultural influences that he took and sanctifying them from ancient Europe – for instance, the Rohirrim are…” 32:10¶ 113 “It feels like Tolkien kind of understood something about creation and its inherent order and beauty that a lot of others in today’s age…”