If you've read my blog or we've talked much, you may recall some of my theological speculations (sample 1, sample 2, sample 3). There's lots of areas for wondering in Scripture, many things that are hinted at, but not detailed. It is along these lines that J. R. R. Tolkien's first chapter in The Silmarillion is so gripping.
Middle Earth is neither a Christian allegory nor even a theologically correct construct of 'the real world'. There are elements in it that differ from what we might call a 'biblical' worldview; however, it seems to me to be a thoroughly Christian worldview. Middle Earth is a place where the creative mind that has been saturated with the possibilities latent within the world we see and the revelation that has been given to us can run free.
Thus it is that in the first lines describing the dawning of the reality in which Middle Earth will later occur, we find Eru, the One. Then, follows a chapter filled with what the imagination can suggest happened before the Beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth. It is a consideration of what might have been when 'the morning stars sang together... for joy' or when a son of Dawn said, "I will make myself like the Most High" (Job 38:7; Isaiah 14:12-14). It is in no way an exposition or interpretation of those passages, simply a fantasy of what might have been before our own dawning. It considers how the One knew that a darker theme would enter the Story through pride and increase the majesty within the music, never denying the Composer one iota of the glory of His composition. Instead, setting theme against theme, the Subverter would amplify the Creator's own harmonies.
I'd highly recommend these 10 pages of a novel as a meditation for the Christian mind. Imagination is a gift from the Creator, and Tolkien was a gifted imaginer.
