Why the Scouring of the Shire?

by | Featured, J.R.R. Tolkien

The Scouring of the Shire, the penultimate chapter of The Lord of the Rings, is often ignored. Peter Jackson left it out of the films, and readers often treat it as an afterthought to the War of the Ring and the events on Mount Doom. But Tolkien himself suggests otherwise. It may be that this chapter dealing with the final battle of the war, is the one that has the most immediate relevance to us. After all, none of us are called to save the world, but we may have to save our corner of it. This article explores some of the lessons of the Scouring of the Shire.

0 Comments

Similar Articles…

The Gift of the Holy Spirit

The Gift of the Holy Spirit

This is a sermon I gave last night at Michiana Covenant Presbyterian Church in Granger, Indiana. It was Pentecost, and although the Presbyterians generally don't pay a lot of attention to the church year, I thought it would be appropriate to preach on Jesus' promise...

read more
Magic and the Rise of Science

Magic and the Rise of Science

I think it’s fair to say that most people think that science banished magic as an explanation for how the world works. But what if they aren’t so very different from each other? It turns out that there's a category in medieval and Renaissance magic that is remarkably...

read more
Another Look at the Nephilim

Another Look at the Nephilim

Last Fall, I wrote an article on the Nephilim in which I argued that exegetically, Genesis presents them as angelic-human hybrids. There are some obvious issues with this interpretation, but in the article I showed that they were not insurmountable. Recently, I found...

read more