Blurb for “Recognising Sauron’s Ring in our lives”
This episode will explore three ways Sauron’s Ring is particularly active in the world today. These will be (i) the influence of the media (ii) division within the church and (iii) hyper-individualism. Learn to recognise how we can all fall sway to the Ring, but more importantly, how to be free of its power!
Excerpt for “Recognising Sauron’s Ring in our lives.”
…In Catholic-Christian theology, evil is both an exterior reality and an interior reality, something both out there, and inside us. The genius of Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings is that he is able express evil in both these external and internal forms. For example, Sauron is clearly an evil that’s ‘out there’ in the world, raising up an army, seeking to dominate Middle Earth through Mordor, Isengard and beyond. On the other hand, Sauron’s Ring also seeks to bring about evil, but more from within the characters. Subtly and seductively, it corrupts it’s wearer’s noblest desires, while at the same time amplifying the evil that’s already within. It turns loyal human princes like Borimir into bickering traitors, and peace-loving hobbits like Smeagol into thieving murderers …
Here’s a link to that Brian Holdsworth video regarding the navigation of divisive church matters.