The Oxford Tolkien Conference 2006 at Exeter College

Merry · Post by **Merry** » Sat Mar 08, 2008 5:06 am

A story from today: the wife of one of my colleagues attended a talk yesterday by Timothy Radcliffe, OP, a British Domincan priest who used to be the superior general of the order. He is a theologian, too, I think, and an author and popular speaker. So my colleague was prompted by his wife to ask me why some of Tolkien's characters bore stars on their brows. He he! He was SHOCKED when I answered that Tolkien was influenced by the statue of St. Dominic at Blackfriars in Oxford. Talk about your bit of arcane knowledge!

Philipa · Post by **Philipa** » Sat Mar 08, 2008 7:35 pm

Ha, she's not just a pretty face after all.

Good for you Miss Merry.

Iolanthe · Post by **Iolanthe** » Sat Mar 08, 2008 7:49 pm

It's so cool to know something so obscure

. I still wish I'd plucked up the courage to take a photo!

Merry · Post by **Merry** » Sun Mar 09, 2008 2:32 am

Yep, Philipa, I'm pretty much of a smarty pants!

Yes, a picture of St. Dominic would have been a treat for everybody to see, Iolanthe. I wonder if it's anywhere on the web?

Iolanthe · Post by **Iolanthe** » Sun Mar 09, 2008 7:38 pm

I looked for it after we got back and I couldn't find one anywhere

. Because it was a monastery chapel I didn't feel I could really take a photo, especially as Father Periera was with us. If we could have sneaked in on our own I might have given it a shot!

Merry · Post by **Merry** » Tue Mar 18, 2008 3:26 am

Looks like Alison Milbank, one of the presenters at the Oxford conference, has published a book:

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Cheste ... 947/?itm=6

A little pricey!

Iolanthe · Post by **Iolanthe** » Tue Mar 18, 2008 11:40 am

It certainly is! I suppose that it's of such narrow interest that it has a small, expensive print run. She must have been building up to this when she delivered her paper.

Merry · Post by **Merry** » Wed Mar 02, 2011 5:13 am

Another little connection with the Oxford conference: our old friend Stratford Caldecott gave a lecture at Notre Dame in November at the University's Center for Liturgy. The title of the conference was 'Beauty for Truth's Sake' and Stratford talked about the need to return to the transcendentals (unity, truth, goodness, and beauty) as the foundation for education at all levels.

This is from a report about the talk in one of ND's publications:

In the writings of C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien, joy is conveyed as having a sense of a transcendent home to which we are always striving to return. Although not explicitly Christian, Tolkien's tales of Middle Earth are suffused with the light of the glory of God and inspire a longing for heaven. Both Tolkien and Lewis loved language, especially poetry, and they often used poetry to try to convey this joy and longing for God. "Poetry is the purest form of speech because it is the most pregnant with meaning, and song or music is perhaps purer than speech," Caldecott explained. Reading literature like Tolkien and Lewis wrote forms the imagination and capacitates us for metaphysical reflection.

Iolanthe · Post by **Iolanthe** » Wed Mar 02, 2011 8:26 pm

I really liked Stratford and enjoyed his talk at Exeter. Good to know he is speaking in other places and giving his thoughts on Tolkien

.

I've actually been reading about the meaning of poetry over this last week - the fact that (unlike prose which is purely the written word) it is really speech, coming as it does from an oral tradition, and that poetry in its truest, most original form tries to capture the transcendent and express ideas beyond ordinary language. Quite a coincidence.

Philipa · Post by **Philipa** » Thu Mar 03, 2011 1:11 pm

Interesting thought Merry thanks for sharing.