I’d like to briefly introduce who I am and what I research, write, and teach on at Saint Petersburg College (Gibbs campus). I am Michael Jahosky, and I have two bachelor’s degrees (History and Humanities) plus one master’s degree in Humanities from UCF and USF, respectively, and currently teach Western Humanities from Ancient to Renaissance (HUM 2210) and East/West Synthesis (HUM 2270) at the Gibbs campus. I’ve been teaching collectively at SPC for nearly 5 years and specialize in Greco-Roman and Biblical studies and the Italian Renaissance, though my interests and research is more far-reaching than just that. I’m a voracious reader and avid writer and am also a lifelong J.R.R. Tolkien book fan (although I do love the movies, too)! You could say I “minored” in Tolkien Studies in college–and still do! I possess a working knowledge of ancient Greek and Latin and am well-traveled. I recently created and led SPC’s first trip to Israel this past June to great success. I think that does it! Read on for my first post, and welcome to Saint Petersburg College!
It’s that time of year again! The Holiday season always seems conducive for reflection and has always been a special time of year when many of us settle down with a great book. For me, since I was little, it is always Tolkien’s books The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. In this inaugural post, I’d like to share some of my writing project with fellow faculty and students. Next April, I will be presenting a version of this at the Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association Conference in New Orleans, and I know that many of my students have been interested in what I’m writing. I also have plans to publish this material. I hope that both faculty and students will take an interest in the applicability of Biblical themes to Tolkien’s novels and that the “veil of familiarity,” as C.S. Lewis wrote in the “Dethronement of Power” will be pulled back from this subject. Fans of the upcoming Hobbit film will also be interested.
“The King beneath the Mountains, the King of carven stone, the lord of silver fountains shall come into his own!” “Renewed shall be blade that was broken, the crownless again shall be king!” Tolkien’s poems about the return of the exiled kings Thorin Oakenshield and Aragorn resembles God’s promise to his servant Israel to always put a king on the throne of David in Psalm 89:3-4: “I have sworn to David my servant, I will establish your line forever and make your throne firm through all generations.” However, God states that if David’s “sons forsake my law and do not follow my statutes,” that He will “punish their sin with the rod, their iniquity with flogging” (Psalm 89:31-32).
As Christians will testify, much of the Old Testament tells of the faithfulness of God in one day becoming king again through his Son in the appearance of the Davidic messiah. In the New Testament, however, Jesus makes clear in Matthew 12:42 that “Something greater than Solomon is here.” The origin of God’s faithfulness is the great covenant that He made with David in 2 Samuel 7:16: “Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me; your throne will be established forever.” But this is a theme that many Christians (and others), however, have forgotten or simply overlooked. According to N.T. Wright, the true story of the Gospels is the story of “how God became King,” but this usually causes most to scratch their heads! Furthermore, Wright and others have pointed out that we have asked questions of the Gospels that they were not, and are not, equipped to answer. What if we could, as C.S. Lewis states, understand “the value of myth” which is that “it takes all the things we know and restores them to rich significance” and apply it to our understanding of the Bible? Behind the “veil of familiarity” that Lewis talks about, lay a wonderful revelation: like the Bible, Tolkien’s books are telling the story of the return of the king!
(Attentive viewers and readers will notice the presence of Biblical themes, but not necessarily allegories in Tolkien’s material, for he himself “cordially disliked allegory.” For those who do not know, Tolkien was Catholic and was deeply devoted to God as many, if not all, of his letters will attest to)
Over the next few weeks, I will post excerpts from my writing project. To be continued!