Mead Spiritual Formation Endowment - Book Launch events for "Tolkien's Faith: A Spiritual Biography" with Holly Ordway

"A Hard-Won Faith: Tolkien's Spiritual Journey"

Monday, September 25 @ 7pm CT in Bakke Auditorium
Tolkien is well known as a Christian, but what is less well known is that the story of his spiritual development reveals a dramatic tale of a hard-won faith, involving sorrow and suffering as well as joys and consolations. A devout Catholic, Tolkien also had a deep spiritual friendship with the Anglican C.S. Lewis. Both of these aspects of Tolkien’s faith provide insight into how Christians today can grow in their own spiritual lives.

• Watch the September 25 Lecture

 

 

"Tolkien's Faith and the Formation of Middle-earth"

Tuesday, September 26 @ 4pm CT in Bakke Auditorium
Tolkien declared, “I am a Christian (which can be deduced from my stories).” His writings were not allegories, so how, then, were his faith and his fiction related? Ordway explores this question biographically, looking at some of the ways that Tolkien’s dramatic life story, including his being raised by a Catholic priest at the Birmingham Oratory, and his experiences in the Great War, shaped his faith and found their way – in a subtle and complex manner – into his writings. Co-sponsored by the Marion E. Wade Center and Wheaton College Tolkien Society.

• Watch the September 26 Lecture

Holly Ordway is the Cardinal Francis George Professor of Faith and Culture at the Word on Fire Institute and Visiting Professor of Apologetics at Houston Christian University. She holds a PhD in English from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and is a Subject Editor for the Journal of Inklings Studies. Her book Tolkien’s Modern Reading: Middle-earth Beyond the Middle Ages (Word on Fire Academic, 2021) received the 2022 Mythopoeic Society Scholarship Award in Inklings Studies. Her book on Tolkien’s Faith: A Spiritual Biography was published in 2023.