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Good, Evil and the Ring of Power
- 12/30/09
- 17
If you’ve read this blog for a while, I guess you know that I’m a fan of The Lord of the Rings. I’m not one of those Tolkien fanboys who is going to react with offense when you get a fact wrong. Rather, I’m a fan of a good story and it’s beyond dispute, I think, that in The Lord of the Rings Tolkien has crafted an epic story. I mentioned recently that I’ve been reading the book with my family and that as I’ve been doing so, certain components of the story have been jumping out at me. Today I want to point to one more of these.
One thing that sets The Lord of the Rings apart from just about every other fantasy series I’ve ever tried reading is that it does not confuse good with evil. It never glamorizes evil. Tolkien carefully separates the good from the evil and avoids blurring distinctions between the two. It is always fascinating to keep an eye on Tolkien’s portrayal of these the two opposing forces.
One aspect of this that has stood out to me recently is the inability of evil to understand good and, conversely, good’s ability to understand evil. Here Tolkien has tapped into a crucial reality about good and evil.
As I’m sure you know, the whole book is based on a long and dangerous quest to destroy the Ring of Power. Many years before the commencement of the story, Sauron had created a ring and into this ring he had invested much of his strength and will. This ring was his greatest strength and potentially his greatest weakness. With it he was nearly unapproachable in his power; without it he was weakened; if it were to be destroyed, he too would be destroyed. Through a series of unlikely events the ring has ended up in the hands of Frodo Baggins, a hobbit, who has now been given the task of venturing to Mount Doom to destroy this ring. All the forces of evil are arrayed against him as he does this. And yet, somehow, he succeeds (sorry to give away the ending, but I’m sure you already know all of this). How then does Frodo succeed in so unlikely a quest?
He succeeds because Sauron, powerful though he may be, never understands what Frodo plans to do. Sauron sees good through the lens of evil. He cannot conceive of anyone actually destroying something as powerful as his ring. He assumes that everyone would do what he would do—use the ring to rule over others. Had he understood good, he would have known that the forces of good would destroy the ring and, in so doing, destroy him. He could simply then have surrounded Mount Doom with his armies and intercepted anyone who approached. But instead he projected his evil thoughts onto the forces of good and determined that they must be doing what he would do—using the ring as a means of power. And thus his actions, his attempts to find and retrieve the ring, were all wrong. In his evil he completely misunderstood good. And really, this is the way it had to be. How can evil understand good?
Here Tolkien has displayed in fictional form an important reality. Evil cannot understand good. When I communicate with an unbeliever, as I’ve been doing in my letters to Luke (another of which is coming soon) I can have confidence that I understand him better than he understands me. Why? Because I have been brought from darkness into light, from evil into good. I’ve known evil and now know good. Through the Bible I am given God’s eyes to see evil as he sees it and to understand it as he understands it. This gives me a whole new clarity. But one who has never turned to Christ has known only evil. He can see what is good but can understand it only through that lens of evil. I know what it is to be lost in a way that he cannot know what it is to be saved. Tolkien got this one right.
I am a follower of Jesus Christ, a husband to Aileen and a father to three young children. I worship and serve as a pastor at 
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Comments (17)
Good post, Tim.
Two thoughts: First, I am reminded of how grateful I am that our omnipotent God is supremely loving, kind, gracious, merciful and sacrificial; for Evil is a cruel master. Second, although a repentant sinner certainly has a shamefully intimate knowledge of sin that he may contrast with the righteousness of God, God is without sin and understands it perfectly in its perversion of all that is good. His Word and His Spirit do, indeed, expose the darkness by their very light. May we all more fully understand sin by His light and not by our painful participation in it.
Something that the world simply cannot grasp is that we do have a vast understanding of this world — far richer and deeper than they can imagine. Simply because we have seen both sides — we know evil and righteousness, darkness and light, good and bad.
They only know their one dark perspective — and they do not understand the light. Thus, the gospel, its riches, and those who follow it are a ‘mystery’ to them.
Davidwww.redletterbelievers.com”Salt and Light”
Not being much of a fantasy (or film) guru, I’ve only seen part of the first Lord of the Rings movie. But this post made me want to try to finish watching them. It also gave me some food for thought - very interesting point; it reminds me of my husband’s approach to apologetics.
Hi Tim. What scriptures support this viewpoint? It seems attractive to me as a believer, but that makes me all the more wary!
We know Good in that God’s holy spirit is working regeneration in us and will carry that work on into completion. But placing it in as stark terms as you have done, might serve to fuel the pride of Christians and the ire of unbelievers… We must remember that there is plenty that we don’t understand about our atheist interlocutors. We can know that it is sin, pride, selfishness and rebellion that is at the root of their position, but the way that is worked out is not automatically visible to us. People are sophisticated sinners! In a person’s actions and words, there are surely some things rooted in evil, and some which are rooted in the work of God’s spirit (as a result of common grace).
Is it not our job to help expose these things and bring them into sharp contrast, in order to help the person decide to choose the good over the evil, and to turn to Christ?
We are different not because we are now good (in the temporal, worldly sense) but because we have accepted Christ and God therefore has sealed us with the spirit. The more transformed we are, the better we will be at discerning good from evil, but being a member of the body of Christ is not the same as being wise.
I’m struggling to think this one through…I hope it doesn’t seem too confrontational as I give my thoughts. Can I still call myself a Calvinist? If I’m missing the point, feel free to smack me down… Any responses greatly appreciated!
As I read this post I couldn’t help thinking of Romans 12:21 “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”
Dear Tim,LOVE this post! Once again you so eloquently stated exactly why our family loves this story so much. People who know us for any amount of time soon learn how my husband, more often than not, will work in an LOTR illustration at some point in a conversation. It’s a favorite family tradition that when we get a really big snow fall we order our favorite chinese food, snuggle up in jammies and watch one of the movies together…very sweet times indeed!But as great as the movies are (well the extended versions anyway!) they don’t even hold a candle to the books. We watched the movies first and then read the books a few years later and it was truly like a whole new story. There is sooooo much in the books that is absent from the films because even though the film-makers loved the books and knew then backwards and forwards, because they are not believers they’ve admittedly said there were many things they just couldn’t believe the characters would do or say so they made changes to make things “more believable”….which further proves Tim’s point, I think.Thanks again for your great post!
I’ve really enjoyed these insights into the books and the lessons they teach. As I’ve said before, I’ve not read them so learning about them from someone who has is fascinating to me.
Who knows - if it piles up too much more, I might have to break down and read them.
-Marshall Jones Jr.
Tim, great post!
I think Tim is right in calling good good and evil evil; although I can see why that might be dangerous if taken out of the context of the Gospel which tells us that we are good only because of the Goodness of Christ, without which we too would be pure evil. It may sound prideful, but it’s the truth. Surely, we still see the world partly through our evil-colored glasses (until our perfection is completed in us), so we are not completely good, but certainly we are more good than our unbelieving counterparts simply because good has been placed in us.
I’ll end with a quote underscoring Tim’s point:
“Nothing more completely baffles one who is full of tricks and duplicity than straightforward and simple integrity in another.” - Charles Caleb Colton
It’s all in Van Til, man! (Good post!)
Great thoughts Tim. I think you are right and this post made me think of several scriptures. The first being when Paul is urging the Corinthians to forgive each other and says “lest Satan should take advantage of us; for we are not ignorant of his devices.” 2 Cor. 2:11 and the second, speaking of the gospel being veiled to those who are perishing “whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe…” 2 Cor. 4:3
It is God who gives understanding and the ability to know what is good. Men cannot know or understand good apart from God for He is good (and ‘goodness’).
Don’t know if you’re aware of it or not, but I have a blog that was dedicated to all things Tolkien, and especially The Lord of the Rings.
You can find a few that touch upon evil here:
Evill and the Back Door
Evil Times and the Choices of God
Peter Kreeft on Tolkien
I just started reading C.S. Lewis’ “Mere Christianity”. This seems to go along with the first book as it moves to the second (this is as far as I have gotten). Lewis basically says that in order for good and bad to exist they must both be measured to a higher standard (otherwise how would we know which was which). He goes on to wonder how anyone would know what darkness is unless they had light to compare it to. I wonder if Lewis and Tolkien ever (or, how often they) talked about this very subject. I will be reading these books to my son in a couple of years too.
“wickedness can never know either itself or excellence, but excellence when education is added to natural endowment, can in course of time acquire knowledge of wickedness as well as of itself.”
-Plato
Tim
I’m glad you made this statement, and it makes total sense. As I have read Luke’s posts and all the subsequent comments, all i can really think is, “They simply don’t get it.”
I think what you wrote in this post explains why. I will have to do some research to ensure that it’s founded in scripture, but at least from your explanation, it makes total sense.
As I read the comments under Luke’s post, most of which appear to be from a community of unbelievers with a few scattered believers, it seems it’s merely an exercise in futility, with everybody there trying to show how smart they are….like “look at me, look at all the big words I can use, look at all the different theories of logic I can quote, and look at all the disjointed, convoluted sentences I can create. Aren’t I so smart!!!”
When, in reality, none of them get the simple truth…God IS love and because of this love, He sent His Son to die for us.
It’s amazing just how smart they are, and yet all it takes is that one simple truth and everything would be different for them.
So, again, thank you for this post.
God bless!!
Terrific insight. That evil cannot understand good is a terrific insight. One that can serve us as we interact with the the world around us.
Dave
One thing that sets The Lord of the Rings apart from just about every other fantasy series I’ve ever tried reading is that it does not confuse good with evil.
I guess the fantasy classification could be up for debate, but have you ever read any Stephen Lawhead ( http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/l/stephen-lawhead/ )? I know you have the “10 Googleplex Words” project for 2010, but he might be a consideration for 2011, if the Lord tarries (which I hope He doesn’t).
I get lots of good reading ideas here. Thought I’d try to return the favor. ;-)
This short little article explains why 30 years ago I was kept alive and did not take my own life in the despair of relativism. Tolkien’s epic tale give me hope, hope that good will ultimately win out over evil.