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Religion What does it mean to be a Christian?

DrZoidberg

DrZoidberg

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Here's a nerd rage video against the TV-series Rings of Power. But what makes it interesting is that it's the best video I have ever seen on Christian philosophy. Ie, what does it all mean. And, what is it that the Bible wants me to do with my life? The video is interesting because the Rings of Power is post-modern, ie post-Christian. Which is true for most works of popular fiction since the 1950's and which today totally dominates the media landscape. I found this video contrasting a Christian work with a post-modern work extremely illuminating.

J.R.R. Tolkien was very Christian and very conservative. He shared an office with, the just as Christian, C.S. Lewis and they were simultaneously writing educational Christian fables for Children. Narnia is more on the nose than LOTR. But they're both deeply Christian, reactionary and conservative.

 
On a recent trip to England, I gained an appreciation for the conservative reactionary Christianity in the culture. It was at Westminster Abbey. There, I saw the deep respect for individual leaders: warriors, kings, poets, even socialists. I saw the healing power of the gothic order with its soaring vaults, its soothing passageways, its play of light and shadow. And then, at the heart, there is a garden, with a giant oak, tended grass, herbs and vegetables. And in the furthest corner is a bower with a statue of the crucifixion. And I realized that this is the beating heart of England, a lion heart.

crucifixion.jpg
 
Most English people rarely visit London, which is highly atypical of England as a nation. Westminster Abbey is strictly for tourists and the establishment anyway; Most English people go to church services only for weddings and funerals, and the eye watering cost of visiting any of the major CoE cathedrals, even those outside London, is enough to ensure that those are largely reserved for foreigners.

If you want to see the beating heart of England, go to a football match, ideally a League 1, League 2, or non-league fixture.
 
Heh. Go ahead, throw your treasures away, and allow others to take them. Turn the world into a lager lout heaven. Why, there was even an NFL game in London when I was there to go along with the Lagunitas IPA in the pubs.
 
No Robots said:
Heh. Go ahead, throw your treasures away, and allow others to take them. Turn the world into a lager lout heaven. Why, there was even an NFL game in London when I was there to go along with the Lagunitas IPA in the pubs.
Click to expand...
Don't get me wrong; Westminster Abbey is a beautiful building and a trove of history. But the National History Museum in South Kensington is both things too, and it's also educational, and free to visit.

Westminster Abbey is not the beating heart of anything, and its religious significance to the vast majority of English people ended many decades ago.

England is a secular nation; Religion is very much a minority pursuit, and Anglicanism is probably not even the most popular religion, if you measure it by the number of people who attend a religious service more than four times per annum.

Of course, the establishment are very careful to avoid recognising these facts, and tend to denigrate the actual culture that has overwhelmed their 1950s memories, for example by describing participants as "Lager Louts", and failing to notice that they are the overwhelming majority.

The actual culture of a democratic nation isn't defined by the elites. It's defined by the majority.
 
Puhleeeze. The common man is a selfish prick. The only reason to be a Christian is so the common man will leave you alone. The only reason to be a socialist is so that you can join with a thousand common men against the common man who makes himself into a common enemy.
 
The irony is some of the secular critics of religion can be ones who could benefit from religion.

he common thread among Christians appears to be believing in the resurection of Jesus. Without that there is no Christianity, no etenal glorious afterlife.
 
I have now watched the video. Lots to think about. Thanks for posting. One hot take: it is remarkable how it has escaped almost everyone's notice, be they Christian, atheist, even Nietzsche himself, that Jesus is the very essence of the Übermensch.
 
I managed to drag myself through thirteen minutes and twenty-nine seconds of the video. So far I can sum up it's claims:

Christianity is a traditional "epic fantasy" where evil and temptation are necessary to discover that sacrificial love conquers all and where saviors are not necessary.

God is the ultimate hero who designs evil and delivers the final blow to evil, acting through providence and acting through love.

So why does this video bore me to death?
 
Of course it is an epic adventure.

For the Christian believer it is all real, it is like they are living LOT. Epic struggles. Supernatural powers.

Jesus, god, the devil are all very real. It is not just words to believe in.

Jesus is a Greek demigod. To the literate of the times the symbolism in the gospels would have been obvious.
 
It seems that the new series found Tolkien's philosophy too boring, and decided to spice it up with some moral complexity. Nothing wrong with that in itself. I haven't seen the series, so I can't reall comment on the actual execution.
 
The content of the video is excellent. I find myself agreeing more with Tolkein than with either Nietzsche or [post-]modernity. The video's diagnosis of modernity as Saruman-like is correct. What Saruman did to the region he lived in is a good analogy to what moderns do to the earth.

I agree with the ecocentric view that underlies the more-or-less christian-esque worldview Tolkein infused his books with. Seems to have a good dose of animism in it, which is the appeal to me more-so than the Christian hierarchical/feudal system.

Thank you, DrZoidberg, for linking the video. I might buy the books on Tolkein's philosophy that are mentioned in it now.
 
I read Tolkien's biography.

He was an ivory tower Oxford Don. It was bad from for an Oxford resident to make a lot of money and took criticism for his making money on his books.

As a kid he made u in part becuase of environmental iaaues.

H e did serve in WWI and was gassed in the trenches, and lost friends. Some speculate the ghastly battle scenes were inspired by his war experience Some think in the Hobbit the river was the English channel and Orcs metaphor for the Germans.A looming threat across re water to peaceful Hobbits, aka British country people.

War Without Allegory: WWI, Tolkien, and The Lord of the Rings - World War I Centennial

Site of the United States WWI Centennial Commission, and the Doughboy Foundation, building the National WWI Memorial in Washington, D.C.
www.worldwar1centennial.org www.worldwar1centennial.org


He was steeped in myth and legend. He lied drinking and smoking with locals in taverns listening to stories. He was a story teller.

LOTR was the usual plot. Good versus evil. A wandering loaner who reluctantly turns hero getting the girl in the end.

Hans Solo in Star Wars. Many of the old cowboy movies.

I never saw any profound morality in LOTR, just good story telling.
 
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