I thought that the Rings of Plato essay was pretty good, and that we can use this advise as Christians, except the one of the most important quotes of the essay. I think that if Tolkien was writing this for Christians as well as philosophers he was a little off on this one. The passage I am thinking about reads , "Why be moral? Plato asks. And Tolkien answers, 'to be yourself.' What kind of life should I choose? A life that is in accord with my abilities. If you need a Ring of Power to live your life, you have chosen the wrong life."
The Bible is bursting with stories about people that do things beyond their own ability. For example. I don't think that Moses could send the plagues of Egypt by himself, and I don't think that David could have killed Goliath without a little extra support, they needed God's help. God called them to do things that were way beyond their abilities, but they had faith in God and did as He said.
Maybe God is our "Ring of Power" that we actually need to live the life that He has called us to.
I'm pretty sure that the Bible actually tells us that we can not do things apart from God. So why would Tolkien, a Christian writer, say something like this. I could certainly be twisting his words into something that is completely incorrect. Someone else should tell me what they think about this.
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I think Tolkien kind of did...possible...there were 19 (I think) other "rings of power" and two of them were held by the elves and one by Gandalf and although we do not hear that much about them I always got the idea that they were very powerful and also could and were used in good ways...so maybe God is more like Galadriele's ring?
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