I couldn’t decide whether to title this post “The Philosophy of Tolkien” or “The Genius of Kreeft”. I refer to the sheer brilliance of Peter Kreeft’s Philosophy of Tolkien. Dipping into it the other night, I was simply astonished at how much of it is almost epigrammatic in its quotable, memorable and dazzling succinctness. It is Kreeftkraft at its sublimely accessible best. Here are but three examples:

Tolkien’s traditionalism, with all its dependence on the past, does not make the mistake of ignoring the future. In fact, the main reason for tradition is to guide the future. It is not even accurate to say that Tolkien’s heroes balance their tradition with a sense of responsibility for the future, as if the two things were opposite. For listening to the past and responsibility for the future are two sides of the same coin.

We all, like Frodo, carry a Quest, a Task: our daily duties. They come to us, not from us. We are free only to accept or refuse our task – and, implicitly, our Taskmaster.

Tolkien, like most Catholics, saw pagan myths not as wholly mistaken (as most Protestants do), but as confused precursors of Christianity. Man’s soul has three powers, and God left him prophets for all three: Jewish moralists for his will, Greek philosophers for his mind, and pagan mythmakers for his heart and imagination and feelings. Of course, the latter two are not infallible.