Summer Program for Young Orthodox Scholars

St. Basil Center for Orthodox Thought and Culture at Eastern University invites juniors and seniors in high school to apply for The Summer Program for Young Orthodox Scholars (SPYOS). SPYOS provides promising high school and transfer students the opportunity to earn college credit while challenging themselves intellectually and spiritually. Program dates are July 6-14, 2018. For more information or to apply visit the website.

Confronting Dragons: Christian Hope in Tolkien and Fantasy Literature

J. R. R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth appears at once breathtakingly beautiful yet violently marred. The sublime emerges from Tolkien’s world having been created by a beauty-loving God; the scar from the rebellion of the angelic ranks against God. This rebellion is played out among the peoples of Middle-earth—Elves, Dwarves, and Men—who languish in a twilight world enduring, in Tolkien’s words, “a long defeat.” Despite this, Tolkien did not create a world destined for a tragic end, but rather one filled with hope. Christians likewise confront dragons in many forms and at many turns. What do the elves, dwarves, and men and women of Middle-earth teach us about the life of faith and virtue? How can we as Christians profit from reading fantastic and mythic literature? And should Christians mimic Tolkien by creating their own worlds that are both unreal but also thoroughly Christian? These questions (and many more) will be the focus of "Confronting Dragons: Christian Hope in Tolkien and Fantasy Literature.”