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The tragedy of Gollum

  The tragedy of Gollum In a previous post, I discussed the case of a successful case of repentance in fiction [1] . However, this is not always the case and I’ll now discuss the case of another tragic figure that appears in the Lord of the Rings, the famous fantasy series authored by J.R.R. Tolkien. Of course, this post will contain spoilers for the story of the Lord of the Rings. Anyway, the character I’m considering is Gollum, a ‘fallen hobby’ who ended up living an ‘unnatural long life’ and became obsessed with the ‘Ring’. At one point, Gandalf the Grey says to Frodo, the ringbearer this beautiful quote when the latter wished that his uncle Bilbo killed Gollum: “Pity? It was Pity that stayed his hand. Pity, and Mercy: not to strike without need. And he has been well rewarded, Frodo. Be sure that he took so little hurt from the evil, and escaped in the end, because he began his ownership of the Ring so. With Pity ” In the story (I only watched the Peter Jackson’s movies, to be h...
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St. Maximus the Confessor, Fr. Kimel and Jordan Daniel Wood on the activity of the soul after death

St. Maximus the Confessor, Fr. Kimel and Jordan Daniel Wood on the activity of the soul after death   I wanted to share this post by Father Kimel about a letter (Epistle 7) by St. Maximus the confessor ( translated  by Jordan Daniel Wood):  https://afkimel.wordpress.com/2026/01/25/st-maximus-the-confessor-on-the-immortality-of-the-soul/ In it, as I understand it, St. Maximus argues that the soul's activity doesn't cease its natural rational activity because, if it did, it would either mean that intellectual activity is a property of the body or that intellectual activity isn't an essential property of the soul. Father Kimel asks: " Readers will not be surprised that I have raised this question. Maximus’s argument in Epistle 7 for the soul’s ontological integrity and continued intellectual activity after death might appear to support the possibility of post-mortem repentance and moral reorientation toward the Good. How could repentance be impossible if the soul remains ...
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On the presence of 'universalism' in the East-Syrian Christian tradition

On the presence of universalism [1] in East-Syrian Christian tradition The purpose of this text is to discuss the presence of universalist and ‘quasi-universalist’ views in the East-Syrian Christian tradition (i.e. the ‘Church of the East’) in the Middle Ages.   East Syrian theologians were influenced by Diodore of Tarsus (fl. 4 th century), his disciple Theodore of Mopsuestia (fl. 4-5 th century) who is called the ‘Interpreter/Exegete/Expositor’ in the East Syrian church (also called ‘Church of the East’), and Evagrius Ponticus (fl. 4 th century) [2] .  The point of this text is to show that there a was significant prevalence of the idea in this tradition (this doesn’t necessarily mean that it was a majority view). As it will be apparent, the so-called ‘doctrine of reserve’, i.e. a tendency to not divulge ‘universalist’ views to those who aren’t spiritually trained, was practised as also suggested by Origen of Alexandria [3] and in a text that is preserved in Ethiopi...
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