Tolkien among the Moderns

Erscheinungsjahr 2015
ISBN: 978-0-268-01973-0
Verlag: University of Notre Dame Press

Buch, Englisch, 272 Seiten, Paperback, Format (B × H): 152 mm x 229 mm, Gewicht: 506 g

It has long been recognized that J. R. R. Tolkien’s work is animated by a profound moral and religious vision. It is less clear that Tolkien’s vision confronts the leading philosophical and literary concerns addressed by modern writers and thinkers. This book seeks to resolve such uncertainty. It places modern writers and modern quandaries in lively engagement with the broad range of Tolkien’s work, while giving special attention to the textual particularities of his masterpiece, The Lord of the Rings.

In ways at once provocative and original, the contributors deal with major modern artists and philosophers, including Miguel de Cervantes, Friedrich Nietzsche, Emmanuel Levinas, Iris Murdoch, and James Joyce. The essays in Tolkien among the Moderns also point forward to postmodernism by examining its implications for Tolkien’s work. Looking backward, they show how Tolkien addresses two ancient questions: the problems of fate and freedom in a seemingly random universe, as well as Plato’s objection that art can neither depict truth nor underwrite morality. The volume is premised on the firm conviction that Tolkien is not a writer who will be soon surpassed and forgotten—exactly because he has a permanent dwelling place “among the moderns.”

Autoren/Hrsg.

Über Autor(innen)

Ralph C. Wood is University Professor of Theology and Literature at Baylor University. He is the author and editor of a number of books, including Chesterton: The Nightmare Goodness of God (Baylor University Press, 2011); Preaching and Professing: Sermons by a Teacher Seeking to Profess the Gospel (Eerdmans, 2009); Literature and Theology (Abingdon, 2008); Flannery O'Connor and the Christ-Haunted South (Eerdmans, 2004); Contending for the Faith: Essays in the Church's Engagement with Culture (Baylor University Press, 2003); The Gospel According to Tolkien: Visions of the Kingdom in Middle-earth (Westminster John Knox Press, 2003); The Comedy of Redemption: Christian Faith and Comic Vision in Four American Novelists (UNDP, 1988).