Thou shalt not kill?
08 May '07 04:10Originally posted by rwingettImagine a scenario like the following—
The difference is that while we may enjoy the Iliad as a piece of literature, we do not hold it up as either an exemplary moral code, or as the source of all morality. The bible, because it makes pretensions on those areas, must be held to a higher standard.
A few thousand years or so from now, someone discovers some lost and unremembered writings: The Silmarillion, The Hobbit, and The Lord of the Rings—the last being identified as a trilogy. Based on these wonderful texts, a new religion arises, called RingTrue.* The author of these texts, someone called Tolkein, is recognized as a great prophet inspired by Eru, the One True god (also called Illuvatar). Liturgies and prayers to Eru (and sometimes to Manwe, although some of the BookRingers [see below] view this as heresy) develop, as well as various hermeneutical schools of thought for delving into what has come to be called The Book—meaning all the volumes taken as one; some Ringers include the newly-discovered “letters of Tolkein” in their canon; there is dispute about a fragment from a work called Morgoth’s Ring.
Bumper stickers declaring “Frodo lives!” abound.
There are disagreements, quarrels, internecine warfare, and schisms over the centuries as the religion grows—we won’t go into that long (future) history here.
One of the main denominations that develops is the BookRingers, who believe that The Book is divine revelation, the inerrant source of all truth and the only true guide for daily living, divinely inspired by Eru in every word, and self-interpreting. Although most BookRingers acknowledge that there is poetry, metaphor, parables—even a bit of fable—embedded in the texts, they hold largely to a literal and historical reading: for example, of the creation story in Ainulindale. BookRingers call The Book “The Word of Eru”—and they mean it. Some think that the Music of the Ainur is held in the text itself, and that only a strict and true adherence to The Book allows the Music into one’s soul.
Other Ringers hold more diverse views, such that the stories in the books are by-and-large mythological. They tend to apply such hermeneutical tools as literary criticism, and also rely on ancient commentaries that have been unearthed (such as The Road to Middle Earth: How J.R.R. Tolkein Created a New Mythology by someone called Tom Shippey—which book is viewed by all BookRingers as a deceit of Melkor, and is banned from their schools and temples). Among the Ringers are high-liturgy groups (called High-Ringers), such as the Orthodox-Catholic Ringbearers (OCR); and plain-liturgy denominations (called Low-Ringers), such as the Protestant-Hobbits; and a variety of Middle-Ringer groups in between. There are doctrinal divisions among them as well, such as whether or not all of the stuff in the books is mythological, and exactly what that means.
There are constant arguments between Ringers and BookRingers, which no one ever wins. BookRingers accuse Ringers of pridefully putting reason above faith, diluting the message of The Word of Eru, and endangering the salvation of countless unwitting souls. Ringers accuse BookRingers of rigid, unreasonable thinking; degrading beautiful cultural mythology into childish fantasy by insisting on reading it literally; ignoring science (such as the Internal Quantacause Cosmological Theory); and holding unfounded beliefs (such as the actual existence of Elves). Ringers tend to mount more arguments about the texts; BookRingers argue almost exclusively from the texts. BookRingers call Ringers “liberals” and heretics and slaves to Melkor. Ringers call BookRingers “fundamentalists” and heretics and idolaters of the book. Both sides employ other, less kind, epithets as well.
There are, of course, many non-Ringers too. A curious thing is that many non-Ringers seem to have accepted the BookRingers’ assertions about the (intended) facticity and historicity of the texts—as well as it’s divine source—which they find appallingly silly, and dismiss the whole thing as superstition. They sometimes dismiss the mythological Ringers also, charging that they are apologists who twist the texts to try to save the religion from clear reason. The mythologists find this tragic, and wonder why so many of these non-Ringers are able to read and enjoy other mythological works—such as The Star Genocides or the Elven River Sagas or the rather violent Chronicles of the Dwarf Kings—simply accepting them for what they are, but have difficulty with the Tolkein myths. Mythological Ringers mostly blame the BookRingers for this state of affairs.
All three groups vigorously debate such questions as the Problem of Evil; body/spirit issues; empiricism, reason and revelation; and, of course, morality—perhaps especially morality, which seems strange because, although there are issues of profound and sharp disagreement, it is also the area where there seems to be the broadest general agreement when it comes to moral/ethical behavior. The endless battles seem to be mostly about theory: whether any one group is justified in behaving—well, as well as they generally do.
Salvation, of course, is a big issue among the religious Ringers—and a hotly debated one. The question is who will enjoy the Second Music of Ainur, and who will be condemned to the abyss of Mount Doom. There is also the question of the exact nature of the abyss, and whether a fall into the abyss is eternal.
BookRingers take the severest positions on these questions: (1) only those who accept Eru and follow the True Music, which can only be done by a diligent adherence to The Word of Eru, are saved; (2) some believe (a) that the abyss is a fiery torment, while others believe (b) that it is a dark nothingness in which the fallen are abysmally aware of their separation from the Music of Eru (some believe that the darkness is deadly silent, others that it resounds with discordant Melkorian noise); (3) the fall is eternal. There are a few “predestinationists” who believe that the identities of both the saved and the fallen were inexorably woven into the Original Music.
Ringers have diverse opinions, including the strictly allegorical. Some Ringers (of the allegorical school) believe that hroa and the fea** both are subject to death, and that’s it. (Physicalist non-Ringers do not accept the notion of fea, except as an unfortunate name for certain bio-chemical activities of the hroa, and for them, as well, death is the end.) Others believe that both hroa and fea simply disperse and return to the fabric of the Music, with no continuation of an individual fea; others that the individual fea continues, but in some mysterious manner; still others that the individual fea will be reincarnated as a new melody in the universal symphony.
BookRingers believe in the eternal life of the individual fea; some also believe in the resurrection of the hroa at the time of the Second Music.
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* Some have thought it curious that the religion took it’s name from the Ring, and that the Ring became its most prominent symbol.
** Roughly, body and spirit.
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All this came to me in a prophetic vision of Gandalf the White, but I don’t know—maybe it was just a dream... I’m not a BookRinger.
Call me Gimli (the Tall)—
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