Journal: Westminster Theological Journal
Volume: WTJ 76:1 (Spring 2014)
Article: Covenantal Faërie: A Reformed Evaluation Of Tolkien’s Theory Of Fantasy
Author: Yannick F. Imbert

---

WTJ 76:1 (Spring 2014) p. 119

Covenantal Faërie:
A Reformed Evaluation Of Tolkien’s
Theory Of Fantasy

Yannick F. Imbert

Yannick F. Imbert is Professor of Apologetics at the Faculté Jean Calvin, Aix-en-Provence, France.

Without much debate, J. R. R. Tolkien can be ranked among the most important fantasy writers. In 1939, Tolkien was invited to give the Andrew Lang Lecture at the University of St. Andrews, for which he chose the topic of “fairies,”1 a surprising one for this highly academic milieu.2 Tolkien’s lecture, “On Fairy Stories,” along with Chesterton’s chapter “The Ethics of Elfland” in his Orthodoxy, represents one of the most highly articulated theories of Faërie.3 In his essay, Tolkien addresses questions of the nature, origin, and function of fairy stories, thus giving the essay a significantly scholarly and theological content. Section 1 of the present article will introduce one of the two basic components necessary to a proper consideration of fantasy, or more properly “Faërie,” and explore the construction of what Tolkien called humankind’s sub-creative capacity. The relationship between God’s creative act and humankind’s creativity will be discussed through the contrasted use of Thomas’s concept of analogy and a Reformed understanding of covenantal analogy as presented by Cornelius Van Til. Section 2 will explore the purpose and nature of the imagination before concluding in Section 3 with founding a Reformed understanding of Faërie as a covenantal-ethical creative activity.

The discussion and evaluation of Tolkien’s theory of Faërie must thus take place in the context of his theological tradition, that is, Thomism. At this point, the association of Tolkien with the Thomist tradition might seem rather arbitrary. However, there are good indications that we should read Tolkien against a

WTJ 76:1 (Spring 2014) p. 120

Thomist theological background. To begin with, Tolkien can be seen as a successor to the Catholic literary revival of the first half of the twentieth century, along with such names as G. K. Chesterton, Maurice Baring, and Hilaire Belloc.4 This Catholic revival was for an important part the outcome of the Papal encyclical Pascendi dominici gregis (“Feeding the Lord’s Flock”), promulgated by Pope Pius X on September 8, 1907, and condemning modernist and evolutionist positions regarding Catholic faith and dogma.5 In the wake of the anti-modernist controversy and in the midst of ...

visitor : : uid: ()