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Old 01-30-2003, 12:03 AM   #23
Bill Ferny
Shade of Carn Dûm
 
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: Bree
Posts: 390
Bill Ferny has just left Hobbiton.
Pipe

Quote:
I think that Boromir definitely deserves to be redeemed. After all, ME is based on Catholic values, right? He repented and atoned for his sin by defending merry and pippin to the death.
His defending Merry and Pippin to the death may have won him redemption in Middle Earth, but this, however, is not a Catholic notion. For Catholics, no human action can achieve redemption; humans were redeemed only by God, Himself, with the suffering, death and resurrection of Christ. However, if Boromir was redeemed by his actions, then it is, on the other hand, a Pelagian notion.

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He does not repent, and so does not earn redemption from the reader in that way. He is nevertheless portrayed at times as a character deserving of our sympathy.
Deserving of sympathy is very different than deserving of redemption (or forgiveness, for that matter). It is perfectly fine to feel sympathy for an evil person, knowing that their actions do more harm to themselves than others, but that doesn’t mean that an evil person, if they persist in their vice, deserves anything more than their due in return. The mere fact that we feel sympathy for such people is knowing, or at least surmising, what their due in return will be.
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