title: AN ENCOURAGING THOUGHT: The Christian Worldview in the Writings of J. R. R. Tolkien
author: Donald T. Williams
description: Donald T. Williams (BA, Taylor University; MDiv, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School; Ph.D., University of Georgia) is R. A. Forrest Scholar and Professor of English at Toccoa Falls College. An ordained minister in the Evangelical Free Church of America with many years of pastoral experience, he has spent several summers doing pastoral training in East Africa and India for Church Planting International. A past president of the International Society of Christian Apologetics and an internationally known Inklings scholar, he is the author of ten other books, most recently Deeper Magic: The Theology behind the Writings of C. S. Lewis (Baltimore: Square Halo Books, 2016), and of numerous articles, poems, and reviews in publications such as Christianity Today, National Review , Touchstone , Modern Reformation , Christian Research Journal , The Journal of the Evangelical Theological Societ y, Philosophia Christi , Christian Scholar's Review , SEVEN: An Anglo-American Review , etc.
zlib_text: J.R.R. TOLKIEN  
  Myth, Morality, and Religion
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  RICHARD L. PURTILL
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ## J.R.R. TOLKIEN
  
  
  ## Myth, Morality, and Religion
  
  
  IGNATIUS PRESS SAN FRANCISCO
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Original edition published in 1984 by  
  Harper & Row, Publishers, San Francisco  
  © 1984 by Richard L. Purtill  
  All rights reserved  
  New edition printed by permission of Richard L. Purtill
  
  
  Cover art:  
  The Doors of Durin  
  (based on a drawing by J. R.R. Tolkien)
  
  
  Cover design by Roxanne Mei Lum
  
  
  Published in 2003 by  
  Ignatius Press, San Francisco  
  ISBN 0-89870-948-2  
  Library of Congress Control Number 2002112867  
  Printed in the United States of America
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  This book is dedicated  
  to all those who love the work of  
  J.R.R. Tolkien  
  but especially to my friend and former student  
  Gord Wilson,  
  who urged me to have  
  this book republished
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  CONTENTS
  
  
  [Foreword by Joseph Pearce](index_split_006.html#filepos3566)
  
  
  [Preface](index_split_007.html#filepos9999)
  
  
  [1\. The Dimensions of My