|
No.
Eru Ilúvatar is not the God of the Christian Bible (nor the Jewish Yahwe of the Old Testament).
Yes, both create the worlds in which their creatures live, including the sentient creatures. Yes, both are good. There are quite a few other comparisons as well.
However, the most important, decisive difference is this: The God of the Bible seeks a personal relationship with his created people. From the very beginning, he establishes contact and reveals himself to them (walking with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden). He continues to reveal himself to individuals and then chooses a people to be his representative in the world - the people of Israel. He reveals himself in the word, spoken and later written, given to humans but intended for transmission as the revelation of his will. Finally, he reveals himself in his incarnation as a man.
Nowhere in Tolkien's works (with the exception of the possible look ahead in the "Athrabeth") do we see Eru attempt to contact his "children". The only ones of his creation whom he speaks with are the Ainur - mostly the Valar, but we do not know what was involved in the return of Gandalf, so that is still a possibility. Eru keeps his distance - he does not enter Arda. From what we see, at least, there is little or no knowledge of him among Men. And even the Elves, who are apparently more "religious" than the other races, do not address him directly. They pray to the Valar.
Eru is not God. And quite frankly, I wouldn't trade creators with the people of Middle-earth!
[edit: Cross-posted with Folwren. Obviously, the first word of my post is in answer to Fordim's question, not hers.]
__________________
'Mercy!' cried Gandalf. 'If the giving of information is to be the cure of your inquisitiveness, I shall spend all the rest of my days in answering you. What more do you want to know?' 'The whole history of Middle-earth.. .'
|