The flame imperishable : Tolkien, St. Thomas, and the metaphysics of Faërie /
J. R. R. Tolkien was a profoundly metaphysical thinker, and one of the most formative influences on his imagination, according to this new study of his works, was the great thirteenth-century theologian, St. Thomas Aquinas. Structured around Tolkien's Middle-earth creation myth, the Ainulindale...
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Book |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Kettering, Ohio :
Angelico Press,
[2017].
|
| Subjects: |
| Summary: | J. R. R. Tolkien was a profoundly metaphysical thinker, and one of the most formative influences on his imagination, according to this new study of his works, was the great thirteenth-century theologian, St. Thomas Aquinas. Structured around Tolkien's Middle-earth creation myth, the Ainulindale, The Flame Imperishable follows the thought of Aquinas as a guide in laying bare the deeper foundations of many of the more familiar themes from Tolkien's legendarium, including such notions as sub-creation, free will, evil and eucatastrophe. More than merely using Aquinas to illuminate Tolkien, however, this study concludes that, through its appropriation of many of the philosophical and theological insights of Aquinas, what Tolkien's literary opus achieves is an important and unique landmark in the history of Thomism itself, offering an imaginative and powerful contemporary retrieval, interpretation and application of Thomistic metaphysics for the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. |
|---|---|
| Item Description: | Originally presented as the author's thesis (doctoral)--University of Dallas, 2009. |
| Physical Description: | xv, 289 pages ; 23 cm. |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references (pages [267]-282) and index. |
| ISBN: | 9781621383154 1621383156 9781621383161 1621383164 |