Episode 40—Tolkien and Aquinas—Jonathan S. McIntosh
By Thomas V. Mirus ( bio - articles - email ) | Jun 04, 2019 | In The Catholic Culture Podcast
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Tolkien is well known to have been concerned with the internal consistency of his fictional world, from geography to history to language. But he was also concerned with another sort of consistency: metaphysical consistency, not only within the work but between his work and reality (because he did not see the storyteller’s task as providing an alternative to reality but an extension of it). Scholars have debated the nature of Tolkien’s metaphysics, and Jonathan S. McIntosh contends that the thought of St. Thomas Aquinas provides the most fruitful metaphysical lens with which to examine Middle-Earth.
Links
The Flame Imperishable: Tolkien, St. Thomas, and the Metaphysics of Faërie https://angelicopress.org/product/the-flame-imperishable/
Jonathan’s Flame Imperishable blog https://jonathansmcintosh.wordpress.com/
Theme music: “Franciscan Eyes”, written and performed by Thomas Mirus. Download the Catholic Culture Podcast soundtrack.
Thomas V. Mirus is Director of Podcasts for CatholicCulture.org, hosts The Catholic Culture Podcast, and co-hosts Criteria: The Catholic Film Podcast. See full bio.
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