XPost: rec.arts.books.tolkien, alt.christian.religion, alt.relig   
   on.christian.catholic   
   XPost: alt.christnet.christianlife, alt.religion.christian   
   From: hayesstw@telkomsa.net   
      
   JRR Tolkien’s private views on sex   
      
   (Albert Mohler) - The astounding popularity of J.R.R. Tolkien and his   
   writings–magnified many times over by the success of the “Lord of the   
   Rings” films–has ensured that Tolkien’s fantasy world of moral meaning   
   stands as one of the great literary achievements of our times.   
      
   In some sense, Tolkien was a man born out of time. A philologist at   
   heart, Tolkien was most at home in the world of ancient ages, even as   
   he witnessed the barbarism and horrors of the 20th century. Celebrated   
   as a popular author, he was an eloquent witness to permanent truths.   
   His popularity on university campuses, extending from his own day   
   right up to the present, is a powerful indication of the fact that   
   Tolkien’s writings reach the hearts of the young, and those looking   
   for answers.   
      
   Even as Tolkien is celebrated as an author and literary figure, some   
   of his most important messages were communicated by means of letters,   
   and some of the most important letters were written to his sons.   
      
   Tolkien married his wife Edith in 1916, and the marriage was blessed   
   with four children. Of the four, three were boys. John was born in   
   1917, Michael in 1920, and Christopher in 1924. Priscilla, the   
   Tolkiens’ only daughter, was born in 1929.   
      
   Tolkien dearly loved his children, and he left a literary legacy in   
   the form of letters. Many of these letters were written to his sons,   
   and these letters represent, not only a hallmark of literary quality,   
   but a treasure of Christian teaching on matters of manhood, marriage,   
   and sex. Taken together, these letters constitute a priceless legacy,   
   not only to the Tolkien boys, but to all those with whom the letters   
   have been shared.   
      
   In 1941, Tolkien wrote a masterful letter to his son Michael, dealing   
   with marriage and the realities of human sexuality. The letter   
   reflects Tolkien’s Christian worldview and his deep love for his sons,   
   and at the same time, also acknowledges the powerful dangers inherent   
   in unbridled sexuality.   
      
   “This is a fallen world,” Tolkien chided. “The dislocation of   
   sex-instinct is one of the chief symptoms of the Fall. The world has   
   been ‘going to the bad’ all down the ages. The various social forms   
   shift, and each new mode has its special dangers: but the ‘hard spirit   
   of concupiscence’ has walked down every street, and sat leering in   
   every house, since Adam fell.” This acknowledgement of human sin and   
   the inevitable results of the Fall stands in stark contrast to the   
   humanistic optimism that was shared by so many throughout the 20th   
   century. Even when the horrors of two world wars, the Holocaust, and   
   various other evils chastened the century’s dawning optimism of human   
   progress, the 20th century gave evidence of an unshakable faith in sex   
   and its liberating power. Tolkien would have none of this.   
      
   “The devil is endlessly ingenious, and sex is his favorite subject,”   
   Tolkien insisted. “He is as good every bit at catching you through   
   generous romantic or tender motives, as through baser or more animal   
   ones.” Thus, Tolkien advised his young son, then 21, that the sexual   
   fantasies of the 20th century were demonic lies, intended to ensnare   
   human beings. Sex was a trap, Tolkien warned, because human beings are   
   capable of almost infinite rationalization in terms of sexual motives.   
   Romantic love is not sufficient as a justification for sex, Tolkien   
   understood.   
      
   Taking the point further, Tolkien warned his son that “friendship”   
   between a young man and a young woman, supposedly free from sexual   
   desire, would not remain untroubled by sexual attraction for long. At   
   least one of the partners is almost certain to be inflamed with sexual   
   passion, Tolkien advised. This is especially true among the young, for   
   Tolkien believed that such friendships might be possible later in   
   life, “when sex cools down.”   
      
   As any reader of Tolkien’s works understands, Tolkien was a romantic   
   at heart. He celebrated the fact that “in our Western culture the   
   romantic chivalric tradition [is] still strong,” though he recognized   
   that “the times are inimical to it.” Even so, as a concerned father,   
   Tolkien warned Michael to avoid allowing his romantic instinct to lead   
   him astray, fooled by “the flattery of sympathy nicely seasoned with a   
   titillation of sex.”   
      
   Beyond this, Tolkien demonstrated a profound understanding of male   
   sexuality and the need for boundaries and restraint. Even as he was   
   often criticized for having an overly negative understanding of male   
   sexuality, Tolkien presented an honest assessment of the sex drive in   
   a fallen world. He argued that men are not naturally monogamous.   
   “Monogamy (although it has long been fundamental to our inherited   
   ideas) is for us men a piece of ‘revealed’ ethic, according to faith   
   and not to the flesh.” In his own times, Tolkien had seen the binding   
   power of cultural custom and moral tradition recede into the   
   historical memory. With the “sexual revolution” already visible on the   
   horizon, Tolkien believed that Christianity’s revealed sex ethic would   
   be the only force adequate to restrain the unbridled sexuality of   
   fallen man. “Each of us could healthfully beget, in our 30 odd years   
   of full manhood, a few hundred children, and enjoy the process,”   
   Tolkien admonished his son. Nevertheless, the joys and satisfactions   
   of monogamous marriage provide the only true context for sexuality   
   without shame. Furthermore, Tolkien was confident that Christianity’s   
   understanding of sex and marriage pointed to eternal, as well as   
   temporal pleasures.   
      
   Even as he celebrated the integrity of Christian marriage, Tolkien   
   advised Michael that true faithfulness in marriage would require a   
   continual exercise of the will. Even in marriage, there remains a   
   demand for denial, he insisted. “Faithfulness in Christian marriage   
   entails that: great mortification. For a Christian man there is no   
   escape. Marriage may help to sanctify and direct to its proper object   
   his sexual desires; its grace may help him in the struggle; but the   
   struggle remains. It will not satisfy him–as hunger may be kept off by   
   regular meals. It will offer as many difficulties to the purity proper   
   to that state, as it provides easements. No man, however truly he   
   loved his betrothed and bride as a young man, has lived faithful to   
   her as a wife in mind and body without deliberate conscious exercise   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)