Amid Weeping There is Joy: Orthodox Perspectives on Tolkien's Fantastic Realm

From the Foreword: What awaits the reader... is a pile of gold whose dragon has run away, a collection of essays treating various aspects of Tolkien's life and legacy, awaiting to be plundered by thieves small and large. These are not breezy pop-essays, but the labors of scholars who have thought long and hard about their subjects, and thereby hope to give you a very different understanding of Tolkien.... These are ones instead that give a peculiarly Orthodox take on the matter, and walk into the perilous realm, knowing that there one finds beauty, truth, and goodness, things necessary for every Orthodox to long for in our quest for God."

"One of the surprising confluences found in American Orthodox Christianity is a deep love amongst clergy and laypeople for the work of J.R.R. Tolkien. It seems that the longing of Tolkien's enchanted world--a world of magic, presence, peril and ultimately transcendence--is still possible today in the embodied practices, stories, and communion of the Orthodox Church. This volume is the first published attempt to explore how the Christian pattern of Being embodied in Orthodoxy finds resonance in the fiction and theory of J.R.R. Tolkien." --Jonathan Pageau, author, speaker, liturgical icon carver, regular contributor to Orthodox Arts Journal and The Symbolic World

Featuring contributions from:
V. Rev. Andrew Stephen Damick
Michael Haldas
Cyril Gary Jenkins, PhD (editor)
Fr. Deacon Nicholas Kotar
Rev. Frederic C. Putman, PhD
Richard Seraphim Rohlin
Fr. Deacon Paul (Alf Kentigern) Siewers, PhD
William J. Tighe, PhD