Amid Weeping There is Joy: Orthodox Perspectives on Tolkien’s Fantastic Realm

J. R. R. Tolkien’s vision has stirred the imaginations and hearts of countless readers across the globe to surprises and joys that seem new with each reading. In a world bereft of moral imagination, a disenchanted regime that robs the mind of how to understand and love reality, the authors in this volume approach Tolkien from the Tradition of the Eastern Orthodox Church with new insights that challenge the modern moral and imaginative poverty. The authors begin the cartographical task not only of mapping Tolkien’s brilliant worlds through the lens of the Orthodox Church’s life, but also detail how Tolkien can aid us in rescuing our own sight to see the lay of the land as it truly is: not a desiccated multiverse bereft of unity, but a cosmos filled with wonder and enchantment.Essays treat the historical background of Tolkien’s world, the mysteries of divine Providence in a Tolkien’s Middle-Earth, Tolkien’s embrace of the goodness of reality (his anti-Gnosticism), his love of friendship in opposition to modern notions of alienation, Tolkien and medieval English poetry, Orthodoxy and imaginative literature, why fantasy helps our rectify our perspective on the world, marriage in Tolkien’s legendarium, and Tolkien on the world to come.