Finrod, Andreth, and the coming of Eru

[lindil]

davem posted:

I don't know if Satan is believed to have 'suffused' himself into the fabric of the world, so i can't say how much this idea of Eru & Morgoth is exactly like the Christian concept. In other words, is this Tolkien dressing orthodox Christian belief in ME clothes? Or is it qualitatively different ...

In Orthodox Christian [and I presume older Catholic] Theology, Man was understood to be the link for the vivifying Spirit between God and creation. A sort of energetic step down station, if you will. When Man fell [and failed to repent, but engaged in a blame game] this severed the link. So the loss of the Spirit in nature [though there are still echoes of it, as there are in Man] was due to Man, and only indirectly to the fallen Angels.

However the Story of the Flood indicates that Man's very presence [or at least an overwhelming number of 'bad guys'] also caused a pollution, in addtion to the havoc wreaked by the fall. The fallen Angels also played a part in this, but never as far as i have heard, tainting all of creation ditrectly as Morgoth did.

Finally, didn't Tolkien state that he felt the Arthurian legends 'failed' in some way, because they brought in the Christian religion too prominently, & so confused the Secondary world of Logres/Camelot with the primary world. It seems strange that Tolkien would attempt the same 'confusion'.

I recall the Arthurian quote, a quick peruse through Letters did not show any Arthurian/myth [just non-related references] entries after the Athrabeth, so I think, JRRT seemed either to have changed his mind somewhat on the subject, or felt that the Athrabeth was somehow not too intrusive.

To my mind, when I read the Athrabeth, I felt the Legendarium had finally received it's 'crowning gem' so to speak, but of course, I am a Christian, so that is hardly an un-biased opinion.

He may have come to see the need to tie his M-E theology more closely to the RW, just as
he wished to tie the science more closely and jettison [or ascribe it to the ignorance of Man] the idea of there being a Flat -Earth before the Fall of Numenor.

I will try and remember to update this thread if I come across anything more definitve.