Thursday, August 19, 2010

Lord of the Rings vs. Lord of the Cross

I recently was introduced to a blog by Tony Reinke entitled Miscellanies: A Cross-centered blog. I've greatly enjoyed it, including today as he posted the following snippet from Peter Kreeft's The Philosophy of Tolkien: The Worldview Behind The Lord of the Rings:
“The most fundamental Christian symbol is the Cross. This also is perfectly opposite to the Ring, The Cross gives life; the Ring takes it. The Cross gives you death, not power; the Ring gives you power even over death. The Ring squeezes everything into its inner emptiness; the Cross expands in all four directions, gives itself to the emptiness, filling it with its blood, its life. The Ring is Dracula’s tooth. The Cross is God’s sword, held at the hilt by the hand of Heaven and plunged into the world not to take our blood but to give us His. The Cross is Christ’s hypodermic; the Ring is Dracula’s bite. The Cross saves other wills; the Ring dominates other wills. The Cross liberates; the Ring enslaves.”

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