The Lord of the Rings and Free Will
J.R.R. Tolkien’s literary masterpiece, The Lord of the Rings, is a series of three novels which tell the tale of a group of people who fight against the forces of evil in the effort of destroying a dark artifact. Free Will is a major theme in LotR; each person is given the freedom by the God of the universe, Eru Iluvatar, to do what they think is most right and good, should that be their chosen path. This seems to be an effort by Tolkien to project his view of the true God onto his own stories. This is something every author does.
Eru Iluvatar rarely intervenes, and when he does so, it is through people he has dispensed to do his will. What kind of God is this? It seems that he is a creator yet he does not wish to interact with his own creation. It is similar to the Jeffersonian view of God which is Deism. This God seems to care about his creation, but he also seems to want to watch them make up their own minds about things, even if it should lead the entire creation into doom such as what happens with the Ring. Was it his will for Frodo to take the Ring to Mordor? Or did it happen by Frodo’s own goodness? Was Gandalf, who is a being sent from God, responsible for guiding Frodo in as much as he could, or did he turn Frodo’s mind to give him the courage to travel with the Ring? Gandalf does say to Frodo that Bilbo was meant to find the Ring. This could be an allusion to Iluvatar's divine intervention. This is similar to the discussions about the influence of God in our Universe. How much does he interact?
Ultimately, this is a behind the scenes question which is currently only for God to know. Who can know the secret things of God except God himself?
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