Tolkien, Lewis, and the Realities of War with Joe Loconte

Learning in Wartime with Lewis and Tolkien and Joe LaconteTrinity Forum Senior Fellow Joe Loconte joins our podcast to discuss the friendship and legacy of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien. He highlights how their wartime experiences, and their subsequent refusal to become disillusioned and disenchanted in the aftermath of World War I allowed for some of the greatest works of literature in modern history.In the moral and cultural tumult of the inter-war years, their example of resilience and imagination is inspiring. As Joe Loconte shared, they were using their art to actively resist the totalizing and dehumanizing ideologies that were ascendent in their day:And it's just no coincidence. They are deliberately pushing back, I think, in a way that, that some biographers have not maybe fully appreciated. They are pushing back in their writings against the totalitarian impulse and trying to defend the role of the individual, the choices that individuals have to make.Joe Loconte reminds us of the surprising return of hope for those who look up—as Samwise Gamgee says in the Lord of the Rings,” In the end the shadow was only a small and passing thing. There was light and high beauty forever beyond its reach.”This podcast is an edited version of an online conversation recorded in 2020. Watch the full video of the conversation here, and learn more about Joe Loconte here.Authors and books mentioned in the conversation:C.S. LewisJ.R.R. TolkienThe Searchers: A Quest for Faith in the Valley of Doubt, by Joe LoconteThe End of Illusions: Religious Leaders Confront Hitler's Gathering Storm, by Joe LoconteGod, Locke, and Liberty: The Struggle for Religious Freedom in the West, by Joe LoconteA Hobbit, A Wardrobe, and A Great War, by Joe LoconteMere Christianity, by C.S. LewisJohn LockeLord of the Rings, by J.R.R. TolkienF. Scott FitzgeraldErnest HemingwayErich Maria RemarqueThe Wasteland, by T. S. EliotThe Inner Ring, by C.S. LewisOwen BarfieldHugo DysonPhantastes, by George MacDonaldThe Four Loves, by C.S. LewisRelated Trinity Forum Readings:A Time to Stand, by Helmuth James von MoltkeBrave New World, by Aldous HuxleyChildren of Light and Children of Darkness, by Reinhold NiebuhrThe Golden Key, by George MacDonaldRelated Conversations:Rebuilding our Common Life with Yuval LevinThe Challenge of Christian Nationalism with Mark Noll and Vincent BacoteThe Decadent Society with Ross DouthatScience, Faith, Trust and Truth with Francis CollinsBeyond Ideology with Peter Kreeft and Eugene RiversJustice, Mercy, and Overcoming Racial Division with Claude Alexander and Mac PierHealing a Divided Culture with Arthur BrooksAfter Babel with Andy Crouch and Johnathan HaidtTrust, Truth, and The Knowledge Crisis with Bonnie KristianHope in an Age of Anxiety with Curtis Chang & Curt ThompsonAdvent: the Season of Hope with Tish Harrison WarrenCaroling Christmas and Christian Formation with Keith GettyTo listen to this or any of our episodes in full, visit ttf.org/podcast and to join the Trinity Forum Society and help make content like this possible, join the Trinity Forum SocietySpecial thanks to Ned Bustard for our podcast artwork.