Saving Grace in JRRT (was Re: JKR, JRRT, & JC)

[David]

> Naama wrote:
> 
> > Isn't the 
> > whole point of grace that it is undeserved?
> 
Amy:

> Not for Jesus.  Jesus is God.  That's why I imagined that 
Christians 
> would not be much reassured by being told that Frodo is Christ.
> 
> If the story is instead interpreted as a tale of human temptation, 
> suffering, sacrifice, etc., then sure, that would be a good way to 
> resolve the problem.

Sure - I liked Naama's interpretation.  IMO it is hard to identify a 
Christ figure in LOTR, though Frodo, Gandalf and Aragorn all share 
elements.  Applicability, not allegory.  In the cycle as a whole 
Earendil fits much better, especially as he is in part of Valinorean 
descent.

IMO the troubling thing from the POV of many Christians would be the 
sense of progressive disengagement by God through time (or, 
alternatively, progressive realisation by his emissaries that they 
ought not to have engaged).

The Valar made a doubtful (IIRC) choice to enter the world, they made 
a later-regretted choice to call the elves to Valinor, they later 
broke away in the bending of the world.  The Istari are given far 
fewer powers, but still have an 80% failure rate.  The Eldar, who 
represent primordial divinity, are leaving and the world is being 
given over to men.  It's a wonder really that any sort of happy 
ending at all can happen, so determined is Tolkien that the the 
future is all downhill and, if things are good, they are so because 
at times they remind you a bit of the past.

One can speculate that Tolkien's 'ideal' god is Bombadil, who has 
apparently limitless power, but has restricted himself to a small 
garden where he does little but allow nature to take its course: 
Tolkien inventing the nature reserve some decades before its time.

Against this backdrop the way that the end of LOTR is troubling is 
that Gollum's intervention is so accidental, so chancy.  It may be 
divine intervention but it is by pool table bounces, not 
incarnation.  (That Gollum is evil is pure Tolkien - remember how in 
the Ainulindale the most sterile notes of the competitive playing of 
Melkor's followers are taken up to add to the glory of the music as a 
whole - and is IMO not un-Christian at all.)

David