Ben Domenech

Let me just make my heroic last stand.

Oh, wait a minute.

I mean, he throws his sword up in the air.

He's so filled with joy.

The eucatastrophe.

And for Tolkien, this is a theological thing.

This is the operation of providence in the world.

And so in that sense, reading fantasy for Tolkien is kind of a devotional act.

Certainly writing fantasy for Tolkien was a devotional act.

Very much so.

In fact, I'm...

This quote that I'm going to read sort of obliquely references that.

It doesn't make it direct.

It doesn't make it obvious.

But I think it's clear here, especially once you know Tolkien a little bit, talking about eucatastrophe, it does not deny the existence of discatastrophe, of sorrow and failure.

The possibility of these is necessary to the joy of deliverance.

It denies, in the face of much evidence, if you will, universal final defeat.

And insofar is Evangelium, which is simply good news.

And he's, I think, right there, very directly referencing the gospel.

He says that it gives a fleeting glimpse, there's that word, of joy.