Sunday, May 22, 2011

We Are an Indissoluble Union of the Two

“Here Tolkien enables Andreth to remain profoundly faithful to both the Bible and Christian tradition. Genesis’s second creation account envisions our humanity as an inseparable unity of body and soul, with death coming as an utterly unnatural intrusion into God’s good creation, once Adam and Eve eat the forbidden fruit. So in the New Testament as well is death explicitly called “the last enemy to be destroyed” (1 Cor. 15:26). The all-important Christian doctrine of the resurrection of the body also confirms Andreth’s case that we have no souls that exist apart from our bodies, but that we are an indissoluble union of the two. Neither is meant to tyrannize the other; rather are both to be joined in joy and peace.”

—Ralph C. Wood, The Gospel According to Tolkien, pp. 159–160.

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