Tirned, You state,
Quote:
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To understand it as a whole, one must take into account that there will be discrepancies.
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This statement neglects one of the central doctrines of mainline Christain churches (and I believe Jewish theology as well) which is that God's Spirit orchestated, unified, and directed all of those separate writers, and therefore anything that looks like a discrepancy would be clearly resolved if the unified whole could be seen from God's point of view.
This is of course a central catholic doctrine, which Tolkien would have held. And on this pivotal issue rests much of the rest of the arguement. Those who hold this stance may not be able to dispute a particular logic, but their belief in God's ability to orchestrate the scriptures as inerrant would override that. As a solid Catholic, Tolkien would have staunchly defended the inerrancy of the scriptures. And he certainly would not have held the viewpoint that all belief systems are equally valid.
For instance, (and I say this ONLY to illustrate the importance of Tolkien's belief system to him, and his non-relativistic outlook) his biggest dispute, as I understand it, with C. S. Lewis was that C. S. Lewis got a divorce. Tolkien believed that divorce was wrong-- not wrong for some, not wrong depending on your viewpoint; he held, as Catholics did and do, that the scriptures firmly stated that divorce is just plain wrong. And that drove a permanent and lasting wedge into the middle of a wonderful, fulfilling, friendly, prosperous and helpful relationship.
I say this **NOT** to bring up a debate about divorce-- let me repeat, I do ***NOT*** intend nor wish for a debate about divorce-- and if anybody does bring up a debate about divorce, I'll point to these sentences! I say this only (only!!!) to illustrate that Tolkien did not hold a relativistic point of view, but held that there were right views and wrong views, right beliefs and wrong beliefs, good doctrines and bad doctrines, good texts and bad texts. And he felt strongly enough about that to lose a friendship over it. This was not something Tolkien held lightly.
Neither is he alone in believing that some texts and belief systems hold more credibility than others. I do not intend to start a debate on this, and I suspect that it is extensively covered elsewhere; but in response to the statement quoted above, I do feel that a reply was needed. As a staunch catholic, Tolkien would have disagreed with it. Other texts may be interesting, entertaining, enjoyable, challenging, or what-not, but one should not assume that all readers will-- or should-- find all texts equally valid and truthful; they will not.
Tolkien himself would not have.
Tolkien himself is frequently quoted as saying that the Gospel was the only completely true myth. He enjoyed and used and wrote many others, but to none of these others did he ever give the distinctive that they were "completely true."
[ September 23, 2002: Message edited by: mark12_30 ]