Bradley J Birzer

At the heart of Tolkienian fantasy is "recovery," a "cleaning of the windows" of our perception that we may learn to see the world again in all its strange and bewildering beauty. And, for Tolkien, to recover the world anew is to recover a sense of the world as a meaningful act of creation by a living and loving Creator. How does Tolkien accomplish this? Through "sub-creation" or mythopoeia, the "fashioning of myth." For it is in creating an imaginary world ourselves through poetry, fairy-story and myth that we come to "see" our "primary world" as itself an act of creation. In short, mythopoetic creation, far from being "lies breathed through silver," uncovers for us the truth of our world as a story of creation.This book is the first sustained attempt to show not only the centrality of recovery to Tolkien's fantasy but the way in which his fantasy affects that primal recovery in every reader. In doing so, this book not only reveals the marvelous philosophical and theological riches that underlie Tolkien's fantasy but shows how his mythopoetic fiction allows the recovery and enactment of these riches in our own lives. In these pages we learn how Tolkien's fantasy addresses fundamental problems such as the relation of language to reality, the nature of evil, the distinction between time and eternity and its relation to death and immortality, the paradox of necessity and free will in human action and the grounds for providential hope in a "happy ending." Indeed, The Fantasy of J.R.R. Tolkien shows how for Tolkien fantasy has within itself a healing power through which intellectual, moral and existential paradoxes are resolved and our intellectual and perceptual faculties are made whole again so that they may participate with renewed vigour in the life-giving work of creation of every sort.

With a new introduction by the authorPeter Jackson's film version of J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy - and the accompanying Rings-related paraphernalia and publicity - has played a unique role in the disemmination of Tolkien's imaginative creation to the masses. Yet, for most readers and viewers, the underlying meaning of Middle-earth has remained obscure. Bradley Birzer has remedied that with this fresh study. In J.R.R. Tolkien's Sanctifying Myth: Understanding Middle-earth, Birzer reveals the surprisingly specific religious symbolism that permeates Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium. He also explores the social and political views that motivated the Oxford don, ultimately situating Tolkien within the Christian humanist tradition represented by Thomas More and T.S. Eliot, Dante and C.S. Lewis. Birzer argues that through the genre of myth Tolkien created a world that is essentially truer than the one we think we see around us everyday, a world that transcends the colorless disenchantment of our postmodern age.

A timely volume for America250 that illuminates what America means—and what it means to be an American. As Americans mark the semiquincentennial of their republic’s birth, they are deeply divided over the nature and meaning of the American Founding. Does the United States rest on an intrinsically racist basis, as is now so often claimed? Did the Declaration of Independence commit the United States to a perpetual revolution aimed at liberating the American people—and others—from all inherited constraints? If America’s framers were neither vile racists nor wild-eyed radicals, were they at least good liberals? They were in fact none of these things. In On America: How to Understand the Legacy of 1776, Russell Kirk, one of the most important and brilliant thinkers of the twentieth century, explains that America is not an “experiment,” but rather a particular expression of the entire Western heritage. The Founding of the United States should be understood as an essentially conservative act, writes Kirk, and is therefore an achievement in which sober-minded Americans ought to take pride. Besides fresh, accessible essays on the Declaration of Independence and the Founding period, On America includes Kirk’s insightful reflections on wise American statesmen from John Adams to Abraham Lincoln to (surprisingly) Eugene McCarthy, as well as his interpretations of great American writers from Nathaniel Hawthorne to Robert Frost to Flannery O’Connor.

The Inklings were, to be sure, the most important literary group of the twentieth-century, rivaling and surpassing the much touted Bloomsbury Group.They influenced not just the direction of literature-especially through fantasy, science fiction, and biography-but the very direction of western civilization itself.It would not be too much of an exaggeration to note that former Communist countries rebelled using the language of the Inklings, but that the free west-from the United Kingdom to Italy to the United States-has been deeply influenced by the group as well. Though much has been written about the Inklings, almost all Inklings scholarship has revolved around the truly brilliant figure of C.S. Lewis.While Lewis was critical to the formation and maintenance of the group, he was not alone.In particular, J.R.R. Tolkien's larger mythology, out of which The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion arose, informed the group, as did Owen Barfield's path-breaking senior thesis at Oxford, Poetic Diction. As such, this book focuses on the Inklings from Tolkien's point of view.As with Lewis, Barfield, Charles Williams, and Lord David Cecil, Tolkien wanted the group to serve as a bardic defense of western civilization, Socrates through Dante.Having fought in the trenches of World War I, the Inklings were more than aware of the fragility of civilization.They witnessed not just the first world war, but the rise of fascism, national socialism, and communism, as well as sent their sons off to fight World War II.Perhaps, just perhaps, myth and legend might reawaken the West to what it could be and to what it once aspired.The Inklings were, to be sure, the most important literary group of the twentieth-century, rivaling and surpassing the much touted Bloomsbury Group.They influenced not just the direction of literature-especially through fantasy, science fiction, and biography-but the very direction of western civilization itself.It would not be too much of an exaggeration to note that former Communist countries rebelled using the language of the Inklings, but that the free west-from the United Kingdom to Italy to the United States-has been deeply influenced by the group as well. Though much has been written about the Inklings, almost all Inklings scholarship has revolved around the truly brilliant figure of C.S. Lewis.While Lewis was critical to the formation and maintenance of the group, he was not alone.In particular, J.R.R. Tolkien's larger mythology, out of which The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion arose, informed the group, as did Owen Barfield's path-breaking senior thesis at Oxford, Poetic Diction. As such, this book focuses on the Inklings from Tolkien's point of view.As with Lewis, Barfield, Charles Williams, and Lord David Cecil, Tolkien wanted the group to serve as a bardic defense of western civilization, Socrates through Dante.Having fought in the trenches of World War I, the Inklings were more than aware of the fragility of civilization.They witnessed not just the first world war, but the rise of fascism, national socialism, and communism, as well as sent their sons off to fight World War II.Perhaps, just perhaps, myth and legend might reawaken the West to what it could be and to what it once aspired.

A sequel of sorts to Bradley Birzer's Beyond Tenebrae (Angelico Press, 2019), Mythic Realms seeks to pursue excellences in the last hundred years of literature and film. Still rooted in Christian Humanism and Burke's moral imagination, Birzer offers here a series of autobiographical vignettes, following which he analyzes fiction from Willa Cather to J.R.R. Tolkien to Stephen King to Frank Miller, and considers everything from the novel to the graphic novel. From the world of film he explores the works of John Ford, Alfred Hitchcock, Roland Joff , and Christopher Nolan, while not neglecting popular TV series such as Star Trek, X-Files, Daredevil, and Stranger Things. In the end, though, after these many thought-provoking investigations, Birzer concludes that all things come down to reverence-both mythic and real-for the Blessed Mother and, especially, for her son, Jesus Christ.

A sequel of sorts to Bradley Birzer's Beyond Tenebrae (Angelico Press, 2019), Mythic Realms seeks to pursue excellences in the last hundred years of literature and film. Still rooted in Christian Humanism and Burke's moral imagination, Birzer offers here a series of autobiographical vignettes, following which he analyzes fiction from Willa Cather to J.R.R. Tolkien to Stephen King to Frank Miller, and considers everything from the novel to the graphic novel. From the world of film he explores the works of John Ford, Alfred Hitchcock, Roland Joff , and Christopher Nolan, while not neglecting popular TV series such as Star Trek, X-Files, Daredevil, and Stranger Things. In the end, though, after these many thought-provoking investigations, Birzer concludes that all things come down to reverence-both mythic and real-for the Blessed Mother and, especially, for her son, Jesus Christ.

In January 2020, the world lost not only one of the greatest drummers, but also one of the most insightful lyricists. And a brilliant writer.Though Neil Peart was universally lauded as drummer for legendary rock band Rush, few studies have been devoted to his writings. Yet, Peart was very much a man of his words. He wrote lyrics, travelogues, essays, cultural criticism, short stories, and fantasy novels. The themes in his writings are timeless: personal journeys, exploration, excellence, growth, philosophy, art, satisfaction and happiness, religion, politics, individualism, natural history, life, love, loss, redemption, and beauty. Peart wanted every person to persevere through individual trials, find unique gifts and abilities and, ultimately, true happiness. He did not just profess such things; he lived them. Never satisfied with second best or any form of defeat, Peart challenged himself to live up to his own philosophy. And he always succeeded with grace, which earned him even more fervent admirers.Since his death in 2020, Neil Peart has continued to inspire thousands through his music, his words, and his example. This book-revised and expanded to incorporate Peart's final years-carefully examines the influence that his life, his witness, and his words have had on others. Neil Peart lived life to the fullest, and he made us each better for it."includes some of the strongest analysis of Peart's lyrics that you'll find, and does a rigorous job of nailing down the tenets of Peart's ever-evolving philosophy."-PROG Magazine

In January 2020, the world lost not only one of the greatest drummers, but also one of the most insightful lyricists. And a brilliant writer.Though Neil Peart was universally lauded as drummer for legendary rock band Rush, few studies have been devoted to his writings. Yet, Peart was very much a man of his words. He wrote lyrics, travelogues, essays, cultural criticism, short stories, and fantasy novels. The themes in his writings are timeless: personal journeys, exploration, excellence, growth, philosophy, art, satisfaction and happiness, religion, politics, individualism, natural history, life, love, loss, redemption, and beauty. Peart wanted every person to persevere through individual trials, find unique gifts and abilities and, ultimately, true happiness. He did not just profess such things; he lived them. Never satisfied with second best or any form of defeat, Peart challenged himself to live up to his own philosophy. And he always succeeded with grace, which earned him even more fervent admirers.Since his death in 2020, Neil Peart has continued to inspire thousands through his music, his words, and his example. This book-revised and expanded to incorporate Peart's final years-carefully examines the influence that his life, his witness, and his words have had on others. Neil Peart lived life to the fullest, and he made us each better for it."includes some of the strongest analysis of Peart's lyrics that you'll find, and does a rigorous job of nailing down the tenets of Peart's ever-evolving philosophy."-PROG Magazine

First published in 1931, Christianity and the New Age offered a hard and inspired look at a world being torn apart by fascisms, communisms, materialisms, and the Great Depression. Since the Renaissance, Dawson feared, western culture and society had embraced an arrogant form of humanism, one that place too much emphasis on the goodness of the human person without recognizing his innate failings or his dependence upon God. With the loss of the Medieval beliefs in the Economy of Grace and the Great Chain of Being (each of which placed man higher than the animals but lower than the angels), culture had adopted two radically dangerous institutions: 1) the machine; and 2) bureaucracy. If, however, Dawson could convince the world to reshape and hone its understanding of humanism, it would have to become a Christian humanism, a humanism that recognized the dignity of the human person, made in the Image of God, born unique in time and space, and armed with the freely-given grace of the Holy Spirit. As Dawson wrote: "Every Christian mind is a seed of change so long as it is a living mind, not enervated by custom or ossified by prejudice. A Christian has only to be in order to change the world, for in that act of being there is contained all the mystery of supernatural life. It is the function of the Church to sow the divine seed, to produce not merely good men, but spiritual men-that is, to say, supermen." (from the Foreword)

First published in 1931, Christianity and the New Age offered a hard and inspired look at a world being torn apart by fascisms, communisms, materialisms, and the Great Depression. Since the Renaissance, Dawson feared, western culture and society had embraced an arrogant form of humanism, one that place too much emphasis on the goodness of the human person without recognizing his innate failings or his dependence upon God. With the loss of the Medieval beliefs in the Economy of Grace and the Great Chain of Being (each of which placed man higher than the animals but lower than the angels), culture had adopted two radically dangerous institutions: 1) the machine; and 2) bureaucracy. If, however, Dawson could convince the world to reshape and hone its understanding of humanism, it would have to become a Christian humanism, a humanism that recognized the dignity of the human person, made in the Image of God, born unique in time and space, and armed with the freely-given grace of the Holy Spirit. As Dawson wrote: "Every Christian mind is a seed of change so long as it is a living mind, not enervated by custom or ossified by prejudice. A Christian has only to be in order to change the world, for in that act of being there is contained all the mystery of supernatural life. It is the function of the Church to sow the divine seed, to produce not merely good men, but spiritual men-that is, to say, supermen." (from the Foreword)