The Road Goes Ever On
Released February 17, 2011
In “The Road Goes Ever On”, A K Frailey’s quest for meaning in Tolkien’s story “The Lord of the Rings” is a quest for both the meaning in the lives of the various characters of his work and the meaning of our own lives as we face numberous “rings of power” that pull at us through life. Frailey reminds us that “everything we do has meaning, the Lord tends to be surprising, and He can offer us a wide variety of way to pick up our crosses.”
The author uses the virtues and vices of Tolkiens’s creations to remind us that those same virtues and vices are present in modern days. “The Road Goes Ever On” challenges us to consider whether we are willing to throw the secular ring of power away if we find that it is drawing us away from life’s true and good meaning. Are we strong enough to be like Frodo and embrace the ability to see the truth in a situation? It is well worth the time to read this thought provoking book and take a Christian journey through the “Lord of the Rings”.
Excerpt from review by Fr. Daren Zehnle:
The primary tools employed in her mining are the three theological virtues (faith, hope and charity) the four cardinal virtues (prudence, justice, fortitude and temperance) and the seven gifts of the Spirit (wisdom, understanding, council, fortitude, knowledge, piety and fear of the Lord). These virtues and gifts have, sadly, been much neglected in recent decades and her reflections serve as a clarion call to take them up again, to grow them and to use them each day of our lives.
Frailey sees each of these virtues reflected in the various characters of The Lord of the Rings and likewise finds their opposites, the seven capital sins (pride, covetousness, lust, anger, gluttony, envy and sloth) in these characters. Her considerations of these virtues and vices present in the heroes and villains of Middle-earth can help us increase these same virtues and decrease these same vices within us because as she says, “In each character of The Lord of the Rings it is as if we can see the various struggles each person on this earth must grapple with in order to advance to that state of perfection which our Lord calls us to be as his sons and daughters.”
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The Road Goes Ever On – $15.95
ISBN 978-1-4502-8810-1
