A Thesis Theater by Fr. Andrew Damick
This Thesis Theater has passed; enjoy the recording here:
ABSTRACT: In J. R. R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth legendarium, particularly in The Silmarillion and related material, the reader encounters divine beings, including the Valar, who are called gods in the text and by Tolkien himself in his commentary. Multiple divine beings in addition the creator god Eru Ilúvatar – the Ainur – inhabit Tolkien’s world, both good and evil, and their presence is the primary reason that many scholars and readers have asked: Is Tolkien’s work Christian or pagan? Modern understandings of the divine in religion (both academic and popular) tend to divide religious traditions into monotheism and polytheism, and so Tolkien’s pantheon of gods might seem pagan. What such a reading of Tolkien usually fails to consider is the divine plurality present in the Christian tradition that does not conform to common conceptions of monotheism.
In Biblical scholarship, the divine plurality in both the Bible and other Christian texts, emblematic in the Biblical phrase God of gods (Deut. 10:17; Ps. 136:2; Dan. 2:47, 11:36), may be understood through the lens of divine council theology. Further, a consideration of the Christian tradition broadly (not limiting examination only to the canonical Scriptures) shows divine plurality firmly entrenched. This thesis uses divine council theology in considering both the Bible and other major historical Christian texts to interpret Tolkien’s Valar and Maiar – both fallen and unfallen – as more consistent with a premodern Christian framework, in which there is both a single creator God and many other gods.
BIO: The Very Rev. Andrew Stephen Damick is an archpriest of the Antiochian Orthodox Church, Chief Content Officer of Ancient Faith Ministries, author of five books (with a sixth forthcoming in 2025), and host or co-host of nine podcasts. His work has been translated into Romanian, Spanish, Russian, Lithuanian, Mandarin Chinese, and Vietnamese. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Language and Literature with minors in Religion, Ancient Greek, and Classical Studies from North Carolina State University, and a Master of Divinity degree from St. Tikhon’s Orthodox Theological Seminary with Honors in the field of Church History. He served in parish ministry for thirteen years and has worked in Orthodox Christian media since 2020. He is married with four children and resides in Emmaus, Pennsylvania. He believes in both dragons and giants.
