Quote:
Originally Posted by TheLostPilgrim
I 5) Of the Ainur in general--the Ainur are said to be the offspring of Eru's thought; Essentially, almost sort of parts of Eru. Would Eru's power or force or whatever you'd want to call it be reduced when say, the spirits of Morgoth or Sauron or Saruman are extinguished? Would those parts of Eru simply cease to exist, or is Eru unchanging and would retain the fullness of his spirit?
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I think, I've got nothing to add to
jallanite's answers to questions 3 and 4, so let me deal with this one. According to the view I tend to share, Eru is a transcendent creator, similar to the Christian, Muslim or Jewish God in that respect. Transcendent means existing beyond the universe. This 'beyond' means not larger or older. Eru, in fact, cannot be measured with the units of space and time, because space and time are also created by Eru and exist inside his mind.
In my humble opinion, the best way to approach the relationships between Eru and the created universe is to think about an author and a story (novel, script, poem etc.) A storyline and characters exist in an author's mind. Let's take Tolkien himself as an example. His ideas on Boromir's character and destiny, for instance, are parts of his vision of his legendary universe. However, the death of Boromir doesn't mean that some part of Tolkien's mind had also got lost. Boromir dies but he still exists in the author's mind, virtually every moment of Boromir's life remains existing in the story. I dare say that in the similar way every thing, every moment and every being of Ea, including Melkor, Sauron and Saruman, Boromir, Frodo and Gollum, remains preserved in Eru's thought.
No doubt, there is some difference between Tolkien and Eru
Tolkien's mind works according to the time pattern, paying more attention to one or the other thing at a particular moment. Eru's ideal almighty mind is unable to forget and is beyond time which means, that he 'sees' everything 'simultaneously', as 'one shiny moment of clarity'. Honestly, we have no words to express an un-timed perception of Being. If you'd like to find out more, please check the 'Confession' by St Augustin, he dedicates some chapters closer to the end to the analysis of 'inner' time.
Another feature of Eru's mind is that it doesn't make mistakes. That means everything that is in Eru's mind goes real. That's how pain, trouble, suffering, discord and evil exist - while Eru is aware of such things, they are real and he cannot unmake them. It's not his choice how to wright the story, Eru's mind contains all of them
I hope, all this would make an answer to your question. I don't pretend my point of view is true, so please correct me wherever you feel it makes sense.