Welcome to the Reading Journal! These posts are short, weekly entries in which I process some of the reading I’ve done over the last week or so.
This week, I finished Douglas Wilson’s, Rules for Reformers, and continued reading J.R.R. Tolkien’s, The Fellowship of the Ring. As mentioned last week, I am discontinuing the Reading Journal after these books, so entry #70 will be the final entry in this form. The Reading Journal may come back in the future, but probably in a different form than it is currently.
All of that said, let’s jump into this week’s entry!
The Fellowship of the Ring
I covered a lot of ground in this book this week. The group of hobbits and Strider made it to the ford they needed to cross just before Rivendell. However, they were pursued the last stretch by the Black Riders, who nearly caught Frodo, and probably would have were it not for the horse Frodo was riding. The company met an elf on the road and he’d insisted that Frodo ride his horse. This also freed up their pony to carry more baggage and allowed them to move a little more quickly. Frodo nearly fades into a wraith as a result of the wound inflicted by the Black Rider at Weathertop. However, they make it to Rivendell just in time for Elrond, the ruler of the elves in Rivendell, to tend to his wound and oversee his recovery.
Shortly after they arrive, a council is held in which dwarves, men, hobbits, and elves are all represented. The council wasn’t planned but people from each group had come right around the time Frodo and his company arrived, so Elrond decided to inform everyone of the situation regarding the ring and have the council decide on a course of action. It’s decided that they must take it to Mount Doom to destroy it, and Frodo volunteers. Elrond assembles a group to go with him, although they all go willingly and are free to leave at any time.
The fellowship leaves after scouts have determined the Black Riders are no longer near Rivendell. They first travel through rough terrain and try to get to a pass over a mountain range, but are stopped by a fierce and out-of-place blizzard. They’re forced to turn around and make for another way. Wolves attack them, indicating constant impending danger, so they make for Moria, an abandoned dwarf realm.
The legends surrounding Moria are dark but the company has no other road available to take. The first part of their journey goes well; however, they’re later confronted with orcs and, eventually, a balrog: a dark creature, akin to what we might call a fire demon. Gandalf is their only hope against this creature and he dies facing it, falling to his death to make a way for the others to escape Moria. They make it out of the mines and can only stop to grieve for a short time before they have to move. They travel as quickly as they can toward the forest of Lothlorien, which is inhabited by reclusive elves. They make their way into the forest to take refuge and, eventually, encounter the elves who agree to let them through their forest. As far as I’ve read to this point, they are about to enter the main city of these elves and meet Galadriel, the lady of Lothlorien.
This time reading through the Lord of the Rings has made me grow in my appreciation for how great of a storyteller Tolkien was. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the perspective necessary to appreciate it when I was younger, but this time the books have made me appreciate the influence Tolkien has had on literature. He really was a master storyteller.
Rules for Reformers
As I mentioned above, I finished this book this week, and it continued to be helpful to the end. In one section, he discussed children and how reformers should think about them. He pointed out that they’re a blessing, but we often miss what that blessing is in Scripture. We tend to either just hold the truth that they’re a blessing tightly and not think about the specifics, or we confuse the actual blessing with other nice things about having kids. He gives the example of thinking cuteness is the blessing that Scripture is talking about when it comes to children. It’s easy to think that when we have young children but we can’t let that get in the way of keeping the perspective that the blessing Scripture speaks about is that of having godly children continue on in our legacy.
Godly children stand with you at the city gate, in the town hall, if you will. They see the world the same way you do and fight for similar causes as you do. That’s why they can be such a blessing or such a curse. If a selfish man has many children, he’ll simply end up with a bunch of selfish people who look like him. But if he’s on a mission, working to bless his community and family in a specific way, his children will pick that up, even if their mission looks a little different or is focused in a different location. Godly children really are such a blessing because they carry on your work and vision into further generations.
In the final section of this book, Wilson covers what he sees as five strategic points at which Christian reformers should be aiming their efforts (these are my paraphrases): right worship of God, specifically on Sundays; biblical marriage and sexuality; Christian education, specifically a classical one; free economies; and being able to appreciate and produce good art, including movies, music, etc., essentially regaining a good, true, and beautiful aesthetic. I agree with him that these are strategic points that must be fought for, especially if you lump in a right view of the household under biblical marriage and sexuality. He concludes the book with an explanation of why the gospel is at the center of all of the efforts of a Christian reformer and that it should fuel everything we do. We can do all of this work, regardless of the outcomes we get to see, because all of our condemnation has been nailed to the cross; there is no more condemnation for us. So we can walk and work boldly before God to see His kingdom advance on the earth, free from any guilt or shame.
That wraps it up for this week! Feel free to share your thoughts and what you’re reading in the comments. If you know someone who might benefit from or enjoy this content, please share it with them!
As always, thank you for reading the Reading Journal!
In Him and for His Glory