To the extent that Tolkien's fantasy meets his own criteria for faL. ie as the "eucatastrophic " tale which points toward "Evangelium," the eschaton when God's plan in creation will be fulfilled and the effects of the fall overcome, Tolkien may be described as a gospel writer. That he intended his work to be read as "gospel," "the good news of the Kingdom of God," is suggested by its allusions to biblical and classical mythology, its linear view of history, its presentation as a compilation of received tradition. collected and translated by many hands from a wide variety of sources, by the location of Middle Earth in the distant past of our own world and by the author's attempt to create a world which comforms to familiar patterns of evolution. Less successful is his effort to provide his tale with a consistent Christian point of view. / Dans la mesure, cette oeuvre d'imagination repond aux crit6res de f6erie de Tolkien en tant que conte "eucatastrophic" qui montre le chemin vers "I'Evangelium", cette eschatalogie qui se situe au moment o0 la volontê de Dieu est accomplie et les effets de la chute sont surmontes, Tolkien peut etre. considers comme un auteur biblique. Le fait qu'il est voulu que son oeuvre soit lue en tant qu'"&angile", "la bonne nouvelle du Royaunie de Dieu" est suggêre par diffèrentes choses: les allusions faites a la mythologie biblique et classique, la vision linêaire de l'histoire, la presentation du texte en tant que compilation d'une tradition provenant de sources diverses, transmise, recueillie et traduite par diffèrentes personnes, la situation geographique dans "Middle earth"(l'empire du Milieu) dans un passé lointain, le fait que l'auteur ait essay6 de crêer un monde conforme au processus connu de l'êvolution. 10anmoins l'auteur n'a pas rêussi dans ce conte a maintenir un point de vue chrêtien. fr

In his Dialogue on the State of a Christian Man (1597), William Perkins articulated the popular early-modern understanding that the individual is a "double person" organised under "spiritual" and "temporal" regiments. In the one, he is a person "under Christ" and must endeavour to become Christ-like; in the other, he is a person "in respect of" others and bound to fulfil his duties towards them. This early-modern self, governed by relationships and the obligations they entail, was profoundly vulnerable to the formative influence of speech, for relationships themselves were in part created and sustained through social dialogue. Similarly, the individual could hope to become "a person...under Christ" only by hearing spiritual speech - Scripture preached or read, or the "secret soule-whisperings" of the Spirit. The capacity of speech to effect real and lasting change in the auditor was a commonplace in seventeenth-century England: the conscious crafting of identity, dramatised by Stephen Greenblatt in Renaissance Self-Fashioning, occurred daily in domestic and social transactions, in the exchange of civilities, the use of apostrophe, and strategies of praise. It happened when friends or strangers met, when host greeted guest, or the signatory to a letter penned vocatives that defined his addressee. It lacked a sense of high drama but was nonetheless calculated and effective. Speaking Selves proposes that examining the impact of speech upon the "double person" not only contributes to our understanding of selfhood in the seventeenth century, but also, and more importantly, leads to new insights into some of that century�s greatest literary artefacts: Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained, and Samson Agonistes. The first chapter turns to conduct manuals and conversion narratives, to speech-act theory and discourse analysis, and draws out those verbal strategies that contributed to the organisation of social and spiritual selves. Chapter 2 turns to Paradise Lost and traces the Father�s gradual revelation to the Son, through apostrophe, how he is to reflect, how enact the divine being whose visible and verbal expression he is. Chapter 3 discusses advice on address behaviour in seventeenth-century marriage treatises; it reveals the positive contribution of generous apostrophe and verbal mirroring to Adam and Eve�s Edenic marriage. The conversational dyads in heaven and prelapsarian Eden enact positive identities for their collocutors. Satan, however, begetting himself by diabolical speech-act, discovers the ability of words to dismantle the identity of others. Chapter 4 traces the development of his deceptive strategies, drawing attention to his wilful misrepresentation of social identity as a means to pervert the spiritual identity of his collocutor. The final chapter explores the reorganisation of the complex social-spiritual person in the postlapsarian world. We watch the protagonist of Samson discriminate between the many voices that attempt to impose upon him their own understanding of selfhood. Drawing on spiritual autobiographies as structurally and thematically analogous to Milton�s drama, this final chapter traces the inward plot of Samson as its fallen hero redefines identity and rediscovers the "intimate impulse" of the Spirit that alone can complete the reorganisation of the spiritual self.

Thesis (M.A.)--State University of New York at Binghamton, Department of English, General Literature, and Rhetoric, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Catholic University of America. / At head of title: The Catholic university of America. Appendix: p. 183-186; Bibliography: p. 187-192.

Thesis (doctoral)--Rijksuniversiteit, Leiden, 1981. / Includes index; corrected index inserted. Includes bibliographical references (p. [167]-174).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Open University. BLDSC no. DX219170.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Texas Christian University, 2009. / Title from dissertation title page (viewed June 15, 2009). Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Catholic University of America. / At head of title: The Catholic university of America. Appendix: p. 183-186; Bibliography: p. 187-192.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Catholic University of America, 1934. / At head of title: The Catholic University of America. Bibliography: p. 84-92.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, 1919. / At head of title: The University of Chicago. Bibliography: p. 150-151.