Welcome back to the Reading Journal! Thank you for joining me here again. These posts are short entries where I can process the reading I’ve done in a couple of books throughout the week.
This week, as mentioned last time, I began The Fellowship of the Ring, by J.R.R. Tolkien, and continued my reading in Rules for Reformers, by Douglas Wilson. They’ve both been great to read this week but for different reasons, of course. Let’s go ahead and dive in.
The Fellowship of the Ring
I read this series of books back in middle school but lacked the literary chops to understand much of the story beyond the events. I’ve read The Hobbit multiple times but not the whole series since that first time. I’d been trying to read my physical copy of the first book but that hadn’t been working. A friend recommended the Andy Serkis narration, so that’s what I’ve been listening to, and it’s been excellent. Serkis does such an amazing job of bringing the books to life.
I have a much deeper appreciation for these stories now than I did in middle school, as I’d hoped. Then, it was primarily the sword fights, elves, and magic that kept me interested. Bilbo’s party is always a great series of scenes to read and Tolkien’s descriptions are, of course, amazing. I’ve found myself resonating more with the hobbits than I did in previous readings of those sections before Frodo and his friends leave the Shire. Their love for good food, good drink, and good conversation is something I understand better than I did before.
The thing that’s struck me this time around is how true the stories are. These stories resonate with me as communicating deep truths to which we can relate. Not that Tolkien intended any kind of allegory (he explicitly did not) but that any good story communicates things that are true. The heroes of this story are defined in the same ways that are true in reality. This time around I’m also seeing how Tolkien, through his development of the extensive lore of Middle Earth, has opened my eyes to the wonder of the real world. Our world, like Middle Earth, has legends and historical events that have affected the world we live in today. There are grand stories to be told from the past, even if they are fictional legends, that inspire us to strive to live up to our principles. It’s been a joy to revisit Middle Earth and get to know the characters all over again, with more perspective this time.
I’m going to summarize a lot here in a relatively short couple of paragraphs because I am having to move quickly through this book due to the length of the loan from the library. As far as I’ve read, Bilbo has left Frodo the ring, along with Bag End. Gandalf has discovered that Bilbo’s (now Frodo’s) ring is, in fact, the ring; the ring forged by the Dark Lord Sauron to rule all of the other rings of power. Frodo leaves the Shire as quietly as possible, and he and his companions (Merry, Pippin, and Sam) set off from Buckland in the Shire into the Old Forest. They try to avoid the road because, between Hobbiton and Buckland, the Black Riders are tracking them. The Old Forest, however, turns out to have been nearly as perilous.
An ancient willow tree nearly swallows Merry and Pippin alive, while attempting to drown Frodo. Tom Bombadil comes to their rescue and brings them to his home for several days. Afterward, the hobbits are sent off into the Barrow Downs, where they encounter a mysterious, wraith-like creature called a barrow-wight that traps them in its lair. Tom comes to their rescue again and, this time, walks with them to the road. They make it to the village of Bree, where they receive a letter from Gandalf, left by him at the Prancing Pony, an inn. They meet Strider (Aragorn) and find that he is a friend of Gandalf’s. The Black Riders chase them into the village and someone ransacks their rooms in the inn. Thankfully, at the instruction of Strider, they slept in the inn’s parlor. The morning after this, they leave with Strider and, after several days, reach the first place they hoped they might meet Gandalf: Weathertop. While they don’t meet Gandalf, they do meet the Black Riders, one of whom wounds Frodo. As far as I’ve read, Frodo is wounded, and the company is traveling as quickly as they can to Rivendell while also avoiding the road as much as they can.
Rules for Reformers
This book has continued on from principles of war to bits of wisdom on how to apply those principles.
For example, Wilson discusses satire in an early chapter. He explains his defense of its use and then proceeds to caution against its incorrect use. Satire is sharp he says, and should be used with the expectation that it will be used right back at you. He cautions against the overuse of satire or the zealous use of it without wisdom.
There have been several chapters that have been very helpful to me in this section. One chapter, in particular, was one in which he discussed natural law. He quickly explains the distinctions between the covenant of creation and the covenant of grace, then describes the ramifications of the covenant of creation. If Adam is the father of all mankind and the federal head in whom all mankind was represented (and he is), then all mankind receives their covenant status before God, from birth, as a result of Adam’s breaking of the covenant. Everyone is born into the covenantal status of having broken the covenant of creation with God. However, because this covenant was entered into by the federal head of all mankind, all mankind is obligated to keep the covenant. Wilson also briefly discusses the fact that Paul writes in Romans that creation itself is enough of a witness against anyone who rejects God.
Wilson reasons that these two facts are the basis Christians have for enacting biblical laws. If the covenant of creation is binding, and it is, then there are certain standards to which every person is held accountable. These are typically called natural law, although Wilson is careful to point out that he is not espousing a certain systematic theology of natural law, as some have done. He is simply arguing for a robust understanding of natural revelation and the responsibility of all people to obey God, whether in the Church or not.
That wraps up this week’s Reading Journal entry. With that, I have a bittersweet announcement: I plan to discontinue the Reading Journal as it is currently. I need to focus more energy on building the kind of household that I’m aiming to build. If, in writing about my ideas and experiences, I end up losing focus on the goal, then I’ll have defeated the whole point. To avoid this, I need to refocus for a time. I may bring the Reading Journal back in a paid form sometime in the future, although I expect that it will look a little different then. I plan to finish these two current books, then retire the Reading Journal for now. All of that is the bitter part of the news.
The (hopefully) sweet part is that I’ll be reforming the monthly Notes From the Fray posts to have a little more content and to be a little more like a newsletter. I’ll include some of the books I read that month, with short blurbs on them. I hope to share some quotes from books, lectures, etc. that I listened to that month, along with a short section that will serve as an update for a project I’ve been working on, whether it’s something my family has been doing or I’ve been working on personally. There may be more, but the monthly posts will still include the same type of essay they have been, these other things will simply be in addition to that essay.
My hope is that this will allow me to get back a little time and provide a higher-quality publication that is more enjoyable for you to read. Even if I offer paid options on this Substack, I plan to keep that long-form newsletter free for the foreseeable future.
Well, all that out of the way, let’s get on to the usual closing notes. If you know someone who might enjoy or benefit from my content here, please share it with them. Even though it’ll be changing in form, I hope the content will only improve. Let me know your thoughts in the comments and if you have any comments on my retiring the Reading Journal or any suggestions for the reformatting of Notes From the Fray.
As always, thank you for reading the Reading Journal.
In Him and For His Glory