Description: "In Tolkien Dogmatics, Austin M. Freeman inspects Tolkien's entire corpus-The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and beyond-as a window into his theology. In his stories, lectures, and letters, Tolkien creatively and carefully engaged with his Christian faith. Tolkien Dogmatics is a comprehensive manual of Tolkien's theological thought arranged in traditional systematic theology categories, with sections on God, revelation, creation, evil, Christ and salvation, the church, and last things. Through Tolkien's imagination, we reencounter our faith"--
Brief description: Austin M. Freeman (PhD, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School) is the chair of apologetics at Houston Christian University. His previous books include Tolkien Dogmatics and Tolkien Among the Theologians. He is an international speaker on the Inklings and editor of Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal.
Review Quotes:
Austin Freeman has given a gift to Tolkien scholars and aficionados alike in a work I didn't think could be written. [...] Tolkien Dogmatics overflows with insights and is a must-read for serious students of Tolkien.
--The Gospel Coalition
The reader of [Tolkien] Dogmatics does truly gain a new grasp on the contours of Tolkien's Catholic faith, and especially how thoughtful and reflective he was as a devout member of the Catholic church, and how this formation shaped his output as a writer.
--Joel Wentz, Englewood Review of Books
This is a well-researched, one-of-a-kind work that will appeal especially to those who have gone out the front door to engage in the dangerous business of walking the Way of Christ, pursuing their own adventures as inhabitants of the twenty-first-century, demystified Middle-West.
--Kevin J. Vanhoozer, research professor of systematic theology, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School
Tolkien Dogmatics is likely to become a standard text for interested laypeople and literary critics as well as professional theologians when discussing the theology of the maker of Middle‐earth.
--Thomas Honegger, Friedrich‐Schiller‐University, Jena, Germany