“Tolkien, Technology and Magic” Is Theme of March 11 Lecture
The Saint Benedict Institute will host speaker Dr. Bradley Birzer, professor in history at Hillsdale College and fellow of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, to speak on technological themes in the work of J.R.R. Tolkien.
The Saint Benedict Institute will host speaker Dr. Bradley Birzer, professor in history at Hillsdale College and fellow of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, to speak on technological themes
in the work of J.R.R. Tolkien. The talk will take place on Wed., March 11 at 7 p.m.
at Graves Hall (Winants Auditorium) at Hope College. The public is invited and admission
is free.
In all his writings as well as in his personal life, J.R.R. Tolkien held a deep antipathy toward modernity and especially what he termed, “The Machine.” In his fiction, magic served as a form of machine—some of it humane, some of it inhumane. In the end, Tolkien remained an “Old Western Man” horrified by the direction of modern civilization. This talk will explore Tolkien’s thoughts on modernity, war and ideology.
Bradley J. Birzer is the Russell Amos Kirk Chair of American Studies and Professor of History at Hillsdale College, where he has taught for 27 years. He has authored several books, including “J.R.R. Tolkien’s Sanctifying Myth and Tolkien and the Inklings: Men of the West.”
The talk is supported by a grant from the Lumen Christi Institute with funding from the John Templeton Foundation and is co-sponsored by Hope College’s Markets and Morality, and the English and the Religion departments.
Winants Auditorium in Graves Hall is located at 263 College Avenue, between 10th and 13th Streets.
For inquiries, please contact the Saint Benedict Institute at info@saintbenedictinstitute.org.