From the Director

This issue of Beyond the Test is dedicated to literature, in particular to the work of J.R.R. Tolkien. The twentieth century produced many great Catholic novelists, such as Chesterton, O’Connor, Waugh. But Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings and other works stand out for their power and for the way in which a Catholic understanding and sensibility pervades the whole work.

Hillsdale College Professor, Brad Birzer, has written a wonderful book on this subject entitled J.R.R. Tolkien's Sanctifying Myth: Understanding Middle Earth. In our excerpt from his introduction, Dr. Birzer explains the need we have for fairy stories and mythology in our contemporary world dominated by scientific facts. Tolkien, himself classically educated, sheds light on the classical approach to education in The Lord of the Rings.

Looking more generally at literature, this month’s Focus On covers one teacher’s successful approach to teaching the great works of literature and drama. Finally, you will find testimonials from participants in our Academic Retreat for Teachers as our Featured Resource.

I am pleased to offer this edition. Native speakers of English have been blessed with some of the greatest works of literature of all time. The Lord of the Rings, voted the Greatest Book of the Century by British readers, is another reason for us to rejoice. His works exercised a powerful formative influence on me as a young man. I believe that the more Catholic youth (and adults) experience the enchantment of his works, the more quickly we will recover a Catholic imagination.

In Christ,

Andrew Seeley, Ph.D.
Director, The Institute for Catholic Liberal Education