Tolkien’s Theology of Beauty: Majesty, Splendor, and Transcendence in Middle-earth

by Lisa Coutras

In this book, Lisa Coutras explores the structure and complexity of J.R.R. Tolkien's narrative theology, synthesizing his Christian worldview with his creative imagination. She illustrates how, within the framework of a theological aesthetics, transcendental beauty is the unifying principle that integrates all aspects of Tolkien's writing, from pagan despair to Christian joy.
J.R.R. Tolkien's Christianity is often held in an unsteady tension with the pagan despair of his mythic world. Some critics portray these as incompatible, while Christian analysis tends to oversimplify the presence of religious symbolism. This polarity of opinion testifies to the need for a unifying interpretive lens. The fact that Tolkien saw his own writing as "religious" and "Catholic," yet was preoccupied with pagan mythology, nature, language, and evil, suggests that these areas were wholly integrated with his Christian worldview. Tolkien's Theology of Beauty examines six structural elements, demonstrating that the author's Christianity is deeply embedded in the narrative framework of his creative imagination.

Genres: Theology, Nonfiction, Literary Criticism, Religion, Christian, Christianity, Philosophy

296 pages, Hardcover

First published July 6, 2016

Reviews

[Salvatore · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book is very interesting and it give to the reader a peculiar point of view. I would had prefer a compare with the Fathers and Doctors of the Church like Saint Thomas Aquinas but the author decided to compare Tolkien's thought with Hans von Balthasar's theology.

I suggest to read this book to all the Tolkien's fan

[Sarah Yasin]

I don't quite see the connection to Balthazar who is cited throughout, but this is a serious and heavily researched book. The title underdelivers, and I wish more theologians were invoked alongside the heavyweight literary experts in the footnotes.

[Jared Cook · Rating 4 out of 5]

As an academic literary analysis, this suffers from the lack of clarity that is common to much academic writing, but aside from complaints about style, the analysis is novel, interesting, and at times insightful.

The connections to von Balthasar provide one of the more convincing exegesis of parts of the legendarium, drawing out a theology of beauty and transcendence expressed through the legendarium. Coutras takes Tolkien's Catholic faith and his theology more seriously than most commentators and that enables her to draw out insights that others have missed. Her exposition of his basically complementarian theology of gender reveals a gender framework that many contemporary readers will find unsatisfying as a normative matter, but that is nevertheless more complex and nuanced than many critics have given it credit for.

My only complaint, aside from my general complaint about academic style generally, is that at times Coutras seems to pull pieces of evidence from various parts of the legendarium or the letters without contextualizing them or fully explaining persuasively how they relate to the primary text she's interpreting, but this complaint is minor and doesn't detect much from the valuable insights that she draws out.

[Jennie Parrish · Rating 5 out of 5]

If I could give all the stars in the sky to this book. I would.

[Benjamin Linnabary · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anyone who wishes to more deeply understand Tolkien’s worldview and theology would do well to read this wonderful book by Lisa Coutras. In particular I gained insight into his view of the hierarchy of prose, poetry, and song, his view of being vs non-being, and his approach to the feminine. The analysis of Eowyn and Galadriel as being a Germanic valkryies after the Marian tradition was hugely insightful. I walked away with a much stronger understanding of the character of Eowyn, particularly as both one who transcends despair with love, and as one who confronts the evil of non-being (the Witch King) through the radiance of her own being.

I would highly recommend this book; it is fairly academic but very accessible, and reaches a broad range of sources and opinions, with a strong emphasis on Balthasar. Worth its weight in gold!

[Jonathan Josey · Rating 4 out of 5]

If half-stars existed, this would be a 3.5 star book. Above average, but not as enthralling as I was hoping and expecting. There were parts that were fascinating, but there were also redundancies galore. Nearly every chapter read like a research paper, so while the topic was beauty, it read and flowed in the opposite direction. I appreciate the thorough research (as each chapter had 40-150 citations each), but this made it quite dry and repetitive at times.

It did make me want to read some of the less-popular works of Tolkien.

[Meagan | The Chapter House · Rating 2 out of 5]

More academic/ivory-tower than I was hoping.

I was oddly aggravated by various book production elements I didn't understand/follow, notably the inclusion of copyright info on every. single. chapter., and grammatical decisions I disagreed with (like commas before titles or author names). So ... in short, the editor in me went a little crazy :), and rightthissecond, this isn't the book for me (or I am not the right reader).

[Nick Roark · Rating 5 out of 5]

Charming

[l · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some insights.

[Zach Hollifield · Rating 4 out of 5]

Heady but in the best way. Really makes me want to return to the trilogy soon and take up The Silmarillion.

[Michael Landsman · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic book. The final chapters on responding to feminist critiques of Tolkien’s portrayal of women were especially good.

[Eriksen Ravey · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was particularly interested in the section regarding women in Middle Earth. An interesting perspective on a controversial topic in fantasy.

[Jason Keel · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you’re into theology or Tolkien this is a must read.

[Brittany]

Interviewed author on Amon sul

[Elril YU · Rating 5 out of 5]

A well-researched and well- structured study of beauty in Tolkien’s works. It analyzed a considerable amount of examples of beauty from the Silmarillion, the Lord of the Rings and the History of Middle-Earth. It explains why these characters are able to engage us emotionally and really helps me to understand them.