The flame imperishable : Tolkien, St. Thomas, and the metaphysics of Faërie

Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Table of Contents Acknowledgments Abbreviations Introduction J.R.R. Tolkien, Metaphysician Approaches to Tolkien: Christian, Catholic, Medieval, Philosophical, and Thomistic Tolkien’s Thomism Tolkien’s Thomistic Sources Method and Outline ONE The Metaphysics of Eru Faith and Reason in St. Thomas Faith and Reason in Middle-earth The Existence of God in St. Thomas and Tolkien Eru: Plotinian One or Thomistic Esse? Divine Presence in St. Thomas and Tolkien The Metaphysics of Eucatastrophe St. Thomas on the Trinity Trinity in Middle-earth Conclusion TWO The Metaphysics of the Ainur St. Thomas on the Divine Ideas Tolkien and the Divine Ideas Divine Freedom in St. Thomas and Tolkien St. Thomas on Divine Possibility Ockham on Divine Possibility Tolkien on Sub-Creative Possibility Conclusion THREE The Metaphysics of the Music and Vision Ainulindalë and the Musica Universalis St. Thomas’s Metaphysics of Beauty Metaphysics of the Music Metaphysics of the Vision Tolkien’s Metaphysics of Eucatastrophe Conclusion FOUR The Metaphysics of the Valar Introduction Thomas and the Question of Angelic Creation Tolkien and the Question of Angelic Creation Tolkien’s Valar and Plato’s Demiurge Sub-Creation, Con-Creation, and Free Will The Thomistic Philosophy of the Angels Tolkien’s Philosophy of the Angels Conclusion FIVE The Metaphysics of Melkor Introduction Tolkienian Evil: Neoplatonic, Manichaean, or Augustinian? St. Thomas, Evil, and Creation Tolkien’s Hierarchy of Evil Evil and Creation Evil and Sub-creation Evil and Preservation Evil and Domination Evil and the Objectification of the Self Evil and Annihilation Conclusion FINAL THEME Of Metaphysics and Myth Bibliography 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.--Back cover