* Newly available via Amazon in dead-tree and e-book formats, the book Tolkien Dogmatics: Theology through Mythology with the Maker of Middle-earth (November 2022). Weighing in at 432 pages, it is billed as…
“a comprehensive manual of Tolkien’s theological thought. […] Austin M. Freeman [who teaches Apologetics at university level] inspects Tolkien’s entire corpus — The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings and beyond — as a window into his theology”.
There’s no mention of use of the Letters here, which is slightly worrying. Though the book has an encouraging recommendation from Tolkien scholar Thomas Honegger…
“Tolkien Dogmatics is likely to become a standard text for interested laypeople and literary critics as well as professional theologians when discussing the theology of the maker of Middle-earth.”
The book is a self-described “manual”. In that regard I noted a short buyer-review, stating that… “the theology is nicely organised”. Another source admired the wealth of footnotes. But it’s probably not the A-Z cross-referenced encyclopedia that a non-theologian Tolkien scholar might hope for. I see the author is also editor of the recent Theology and H.P. Lovecraft, in which he had a chapter comparing the world-building approaches of Lovecraft and Tolkien.
If you can’t afford Tolkien Dogmatics yet, apparently the publisher Lexham Press is sending out review copies. As yet, Google Books knows nothing about it while Amazon’s “Look Inside” only offers the front cover.
There’s a podcast interview with the author, scheduled for 21st December 2022.
* The next volume of the Journal of Tolkien Research is now underway, the first two items having been posted. One is an article which takes a rather over-complicated dive into “The Enigma of Goldberry”, the River-woman’s daughter who becomes the beloved of Tom Bombadil. The author usefully suggests that Bombadil’s reluctance to stray too far from Goldberry may be because he must be always on hand and attentive, to prevent her being drawn back to the river and to her former life as a nixie. The author also notes a connection of water-lilies with nix… (“[of] water-lilies both yellow and white, Grimm [1883] remarks that in modern German they are called ‘nixblumen‘ which translates as ‘nixie-flowers'”). This is not a late confabulation arising from 1870s scholarly interest in nix, as I can find the word in a 1740 German dictionary.
* The Journal of Tolkien Research also now has Kristine Larsen’s 2019 conference paper ““I am Primarily a Scientific Philologist”: J.R.R. Tolkien and the Science/Technology Divide”.
* A very long new article in First Things offers an in-depth review of the recent essay “A Prophecy of Evil: Tolkien, Lewis, and Technocratic Nihilism”. I had previously noticed the essay in question, but had backed off within microseconds — because the pictures were so cringingly naff and because it was evidently mostly about C.S. Lewis. But apparently it is worth a read.
* And finally, new to me is the stage play Lewis & Tolkien, of Wardrobes and Rings, which my searches suggest first appeared under spotlights circa 2018. The play is said to be a “mature and insightful” two-hander which portrays the close friendship of Tolkien and C.S. Lewis. It was brought to my attention by a listing for a March 2023 performance in America, and at a guess it may have further U.S. dates in 2023. The play…
“is set in Oxford’s Eagle and Child pub, where British authors C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien meet for what turns out to be their final conversation.”
