True Hero: Frodo or Samwise?

[William Cloud Hicklin]

Well, conservative Catholics like Tolkien, fortified by professional Medieval studies, would I think tend to have a rather pre-Renaissance, pre-humanist view of things: a belief that life in this world, with all its suffering, is only a preparation for the next; and that random death is 'cruel' perhaps from a human perspective, but from the divine is merely a transition into another phase of existence.

I think Tolkien would naturally endorse the view held from Aquinas (or before) on down: world without evil would be a world without free will, a deterministic dictatorship. If Men are to be free, they must be free to do evil.

Nor can the Creator make a personal appearance (except in disguise) without effectively destroying free will, at least the freedom to reject Belief. As Pratchett says of the Discworld: witches and wizards don't believe in the Gods, because it would be rather like believing in the postman.





(He does however point out that the DW Gods love atheists- they make great target practice).