Posted on 10/09/2019 6:22:13 AM PDT by Carpe Cerevisi
“Actually I am a Christian,” Tolkien wrote of himself, “and indeed a Roman Catholic, so that I do not expect ‘history’ to be anything but a ‘long defeat’— though it contains (and in legend may contain more clearly and movingly) some samples or glimpses of final victory” (Letters 255).
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History as a long defeat – I can think of nothing that is more anti-modern than this sentiment expressed by J.R.R. Tolkien. It is a thought perfectly in line with the fathers and the whole of Classical Christian teaching. And it’s anti-modernism reveals much about the dominant heresy of our time.
We believe in progress – it is written into the DNA of the modern world. If things are bad, they’ll get better. The “long defeat” would only be a description of the road traveled by racism, bigotry, and all that ignorance breeds.
And our philosophy of progress colors everything we consider. 19th century Darwinian theory wrote a scientific version of progress into his theory of evolution. Of course, using “survival” as the mechanism of change gave cover to a number of political projects who justified their brutality and callousness as an extension of the natural order.
The metaphor of improvement remains a dominant theme within our culture. A few years ago a survey of young Americans revealed the utterly shocking conclusion that for the first time in recorded history, the young did not expect to be as well off as their parents. It was a paradigm shift in American progressive thought. It remains to be seen how that will play out.
(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.ancientfaith.com ...
Odd, given that the entire message of the New Testament is a giant victory.
"...though it contains (and in legend may contain more clearly and movingly) some samples or glimpses of final victory.
Outstanding article. It highlights the significant differences that exist between physical living in this world and ‘progress’ made in that regard as compared to spiritual well-being and the slow steady decline of morals and virtues.
The final victory will be His despite our own failings upon this blue marble.
Remember it also says there will be a falling away before the final victory.
Tolkien’s version of how God created the universe is one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever read.
I think the idea is that we cannot immanentize the eschaton. We cannot create heaven on earth. All attempts at workers’ paradises or utopian solutions are doomed to failure.
God provides the giant victory for us. We can’t do it ourselves.
That’s certainly true. But we must view ourselves as victorious or there is no hope at all.
For there to be a falling away, that must mean some who remain are quite victorious.
Glad to be among ‘em.
It ain’t legend.
I like Tolkien, but this is negative fluff.
If one lives in America today, and has lived here for at least 60 years, one cannot help but see for themselves “the long defeat”. You’d have to be vacant or willfully ignorant to miss it. Our very lives mirror it.
...Outstanding article. It highlights the significant differences that exist between physical living in this world and ‘progress’ made in that regard as compared to spiritual well-being and the slow steady decline of morals and virtues.
What is seen in society now is a catastrophic failure of primary Virtues,
Gratitude, Humility, Prudence, Fortitude, Courage, Justice, Honor
Temperance, Chastity, Charity, Patience, Kindness...
Replaced by the false gods of “Values” and “Money”
I want what I want when I want it...
When any Buddhist would tell you that
The root cause of all suffering is our desires
If he did nothing else, his bringing C.S. Lewis to Christ was enough....
True that.
Frankly, I’m a good consumer, and I certainly support a market economy that provides what people want. However, I look around and see a society in which almost everyone can have most of their desires fulfilled. It hasn’t made people happy. It hasn’t built a cohesive society. Our endless desires do cause us suffering.
If we went back to more primary virtues we would be better off.
The only cure for situation is tough times. How many want that?
For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. 1 Thessalonians 5:3
The Kingdom of God was transferred from apocalyptic hope (the end of the long defeat) to a material goal to be achieved in this world. This was a heresy, a radical revision of Christian thought. It became secularized and moderated into mere progress. It is worth doing a word study on the history of the word “progressive.”
No, not odd at all, when the Book of Revelation is not excluded. In it is clear that before Yeshua returns it will seem that the entire world is lost and all the institutional churches will become an apostasy.
Modernism will have been the culprit, because its emphasis is on not improving YOU but “improving” secular government, even though Yeshua said that no secular powers were part of His kingdom. His laws would not be found in secular law, but written on the hearts of His people.
“Progress” as deemed by the “Progressives” and the Marxists is progress in the increasing control over every moment of life by the government.
But Tolkien notes that within the long defeat, there are “glimpses of final victory.” I would go further and say that the final victory already “tabernacles” among us. It hovers within and over our world, shaping it and forming it, even within its defeat. For the nature of our salvation is a Defeat. Therefore the defeat within the world itself is not a tragic deviation from the end, but an End that was always foreseen and present within the Cross itself. And the Cross itself was present “from before the foundation of the world.”
“That’s certainly true. But we must view ourselves as victorious or there is no hope at all.”
NO. HE is victorious, the little we cannot be. The victory is His, not ours. Our hope is in His victory.
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