Following Gandalf

"For countless people, 'The Lord of the Rings' has provided splendid refreshment.  For that, the author would be glad.  But his deeper desire is that for some it would be an introduction to the mountains."
- Following Gandalf

I've had people tell me that the books I read are too serious.  That may be true.  I read more than just books about books though!

But, nevertheless, you've caught me red-handed.  This is a book about a book.  Actually, about all of Tolkien's books.

'Following Gandalf' by Matthew Dickerson is study of several aspects of Tolkien's philosophy and theology that can be deduced from his writings.  Mr. Dickerson begins his book by debunking the view that the Lord of the Rings glorifies war.  While I agree with his conclusions drawn from LotR and Tolkien's own letters that the Lord of the Rings does NOT glorify war, I wish he had also written a little about how while Tolkien doesn't glorify war, he does show how one's part in war can be noble, as Peter Kreeft does in 'The Philosophy of J.R.R. Tolkien'.  I'm not going to get into that here though.  The book also touches on the deeper war in Tolkien's Middle Earth books, namely, the spiritual war. 

Dickerson also writes about Freedom (or free-doom as he calls it sometimes), the true power of the Ring (being the domination of wills), stewardship, hope and despair, salvation in its manifestations in LotR, and 'fate' vs. the guiding purpose of an all-powerful being, in the case of Middle Earth, Iluvatar.

Dickerson ends by asking and answering the question, "Is The Lord of the Rings a Christian Myth?" with an ambiguous 'yes and no'.  I'm not going to give the reasons here though, this is a review of the book, not a lecture on it.

The book was very well written and clear, and easy to understand.  I really liked how Mr. Dickerson had a quote from Tolkien's letters or books to support everything he said.
I really enjoyed reading this book, and I gained a deeper insight into LotR and the rest of Tolkien's writings by reading it.

Now, there are books about books that are fun (like this one) and books about books that are not (I here must mention 'The Philosophy of J.R.R. Tolkien', which while an interesting read, wasn't 'fun' in the common sense of the word).  I definitely recommend this book to any Tolkien fan, even if they don't like philosophy or books about books ;)

Oh, and by the way, the quote at the beginning of this post contains the last words of the book.  I thought it was a neat reference to 'A Leaf by Niggle', and a fitting way to end the book.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Here I must attempt to apologize again.  I missed yet another week of Stocking Update :P  I make a solemn promise to post one on Saturday, even at the cost of my life and/or sanity.  And possibly my Chemistry test score.  Do I really have to memorize half the periodic table for a good grade?