Pagan Saints in Middle-earth

Pagan Saints in Middle-earth
Author	Claudio A. Testi
Foreword by	Verlyn Flieger
Publisher	Walking Tree Publishers
Released	22 March 2018
Format	Paperback
Pages	196
ISBN	978-3-905703-38-2
Series	Cormarë Series
Preceded by	Binding Them All
Followed by	Music in Tolkien's Work and Beyond

Pagan Saints in Middle-earth is an academic book by Claudio A. Testi on the Pagan and Christian sources of J.R.R. Tolkien's legendarium. It was published as No. 37 in the Cormarë Series.

Contents

• Part I: Analysis of the Different Perspectives
  • Tolkien's Work is Christian
    • It Contradicts "Tolkien's Razor"
    • It Confuses Allegory and Application with Exemplification and Interpretation
    • It Confuses a Source with a Representation
    • It Derives a Total Correspondence from a Partial Similarity by Ignoring the Differences
    • It Diminishes the Vastness of the Tolkienian Perspective
  • Tolkien's Work is Pagan
    • It Diminshes the Importance of those Texts where the Connection between the Legendarium and Christianity is More Evident
    • It Erroneously Considers Some Elements of the Legendarium to Be in Opposition to Christianity
    • It Confuses Historical Paganism with "Tolkienian" Paganism
    • It Applies a Symbolic Reading to Tolkien's Work to the Detriment of its Comprehension
    • It Diminishes the Scope of Tolkien's Perspective
  • Tolkien's Work is Pagan and Christian
    • Points of View and Contradictions
    • Dialectics and the Legendarium
• Part II: The Synthetic Approach
  • Synthesis: Tolkien's Work is Pagan and in Harmony with Christianity
    • Principles
    • Definition and Use of the Term "Pagan"
    • Enunciation of the Proposed Synthesis
  • Paganism in Tolkien's World and Its Harmony with Christianity
    • Poetic and Hermeneutic Principles
    • Paganism in Harmony with Christianity in Tolkien's Universe
  • Catholicism and the Works of Tolkien
    • Clarification of the Term "Catholic"
    • Why Tolkien's Work is "Fundamentally Catholic"
• Conclusion

From the publisher

Is Tolkien's work Christian or pagan? This question has intrigued readers and scholars ever since The Lord of the Rings has been published. Even today this important problem has not been given the full critical attention it deserves, and the present volume is an attempt to provide an answer. The volume contains a comprehensive bibliography on the subject, detailed indices, a foreword by Verlyn Flieger, and an afterword by Tom Shippey.

External links

• Official product page