Very pertinent post, Bill.
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Nothing was created inherently evil, and nothing was ever meant to be evil according to God’s, or for that matter Eru’s, plan. Evil in our world is caused by the misuse of freewill. Evil in Arda is caused by the misuse of freewill.
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I agree with you that the popular notion of 'necessary evil' is misplaced in application to a Christian worldview. I think this attempt to overlay a psuedo-Yin-Yang sensibility to works like LotR is at least partly down to what I call the 'Star Wars syndrome'. Star Wars is a prime example of the facile and shallow moral mysticism that, unfortunately, has actually become common currency. A genuine application of Buddhism (in any of its proper forms), with all its subtleties, is far more profound than this.
So the acceptance of free will, and therefore full responsibility, is naturally a little worrying to us all [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]. Perhaps it wouold be nicer to excuse our own sins by saying "I know I did wrong, but it was meant to be". I'm sure it would be. The act of passing on responsibility (or blame) for our actions is arguably particularly modern, given how generally empowered we all are today by comparison with history.
Given the above, we have already discussed here and elsewhere the metaphysical issue of Evil arising of Good. But I am wondering about your closing paragraph -
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(endless pain and suffering) ... is the just reward for sin. Redemption wrought in Christ, like creation, is a free gift.
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Are you making a theological point, or offering a personal view (or both?). I wonder whether the 'just reward' is in fact arguable, especially in the context of a literal interpretation of Old Testament Original Sin. In Tolkien's mythos, Melkor's punishment does seem to bear a relation to the amount of destruction he himself was directly responsible for. It is not so obvious (to me, at least), the the "sins of the fathers" are visited upon
all the children of Middle Earth in an act of Divine retribution, and as we have discussed there is no clear redemptive parallel, either through individual repentance or the appearance of a New Testament-style Saviour.
Peace [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]
Kalessin
[ January 12, 2003: Message edited by: Kalessin ]