Holly Ordway, Tolkien’s Faith: A Spiritual Biography (Elk Grove Village, IL: Word on Fire Academic, 2023). 480pp. ISBN 9781685789916 Reviewed by Dr Rod Benson There is a scene in J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings where Frodo and Sam, hobbits from the Shire, are about to enter the evil land of Mordor …
Gandalf, Galadriel and God
Isaiah 40:1-31 One of the sermons of Jonathan Edwards that God used to kindle the Great Awakening in New England in 1734-1735 was titled “The Excellency of Christ.” In it Edwards unfolds the glory of God’s Son by describing the “admirable conjunction of diverse excellencies in Christ.” His text is Rev 5:5-6, and he …
A biblical view of death
A sermon by Rod Benson Writing on mortality in the journal First Things, graduate philosophy student Anna Mathie relates what she describes as “the most exquisitely sorrowful moment in a book filled with exquisitely beautiful sorrow” (the book is J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings). In the story, Aragorn is at death’s door, and …
iDigress 