tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1692793350977058371.post3572952696935443199..comments2023-04-09T05:18:06.643-05:00Comments on Into the Expectation: Immortality or Eternal Life?Matt Gunterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11230570081324464033noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1692793350977058371.post-85118948339962373942009-11-04T13:19:56.757-06:002009-11-04T13:19:56.757-06:00Tony,
I was thinking exactly this as I reflecting...Tony,<br /><br />I was thinking exactly this as I reflecting more on this earlier this morning. I read or heard somewhere that Tolkien thought of the elves as what humans might be like without the Fall. <br /><br />I wonder if the category "human" is, after the fall, a fundamentally unstable category. We are now balanced between being either transhumanized <br />or dehumanized. The path of the one leads toward something like the elves. The path of the other leads toward something like Gollum.Matt Gunterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11230570081324464033noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1692793350977058371.post-6541902779192583372009-11-04T11:24:37.858-06:002009-11-04T11:24:37.858-06:00I wonder if perhaps an allusion to the Elves in To...I wonder if perhaps an allusion to the Elves in Tolkien might be in order. Often in Scripture - I'm thinking particularly of the end of Revelation or some of the OT visions of a restored Jerusalem in which lives YHWH - we hear of Israel or the Church as "ruling" or "judging" and bringing "healing to the nations" or whatever.<br /><br />Not wanting to be crudely literalistic I wouldn't imply that our resurrected lives will be the same as our mortal lives only going on for a much longer time, but since it is after all our bodies which are raised, transformed yes but bodies nonetheless, it seems a possible vision of resurrected life might be something along the lines of the Elves. Their extended existence gives them a somber wisdom with which they "rule" or perhaps "guide" Middle Earth. They are deeply spiritual, they posses incredibly craft skills, etc...<br /><br />All I'm saying I guess is that perhaps Tokien had a bit more of an imagination than Tod May as to what immortality might look like.adhunthttp://www.theophiliacs.comnoreply@blogger.com