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Document Type

Paper

Abstract

“Sub-creation” within Tolkien’s narrative and extra-narrative works is routinely exhibited not as monolithic but rather as (literally and figuratively) polyphonic. In this joint paper Bourquein proposes that the Legendarium can be read through the lens of “con-creation” (total, continuous, collective, creative activity) both internally (as events in the Secondary World) and externally (as both a text and a pseudohistory in the Primary World). This approach levels the playing field between all actors in—and readers of—“The Drama,” providing a queer approach to interpretive-creative activity when compared to “orthodox” doctrines of creation. Polk further argues that con-creation resonates with process theologies of creation, particularly Jacob J. Erickson’s Irreverent Theology and Catherine Keller’s creatio ex profundis, which both emphasize the participation of a multiplicity of creatures in divine creativity, shaking off a monolithic determination of creation.

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