MOSAIC Issue 8 - StoneWorks: A Global Arts Initiative

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A God of Variety
Pastor Ed Lapiz founded Kaloob Philippine Music and Dance Ministry to research, teach, and
promote the use of indigenous arts in Christian worship. In this article, he describes Kaloob’s
mission to “redeem” the creative products of Philippine culture.
A Maranao royal dance of the prince and princess dancing among clashing bamboos. (Performed by the KALOOB Philippine Music and Dance Ministry)
Christianity came to the Philippines
together with colonization. Catholicism
came with the Spanish Conquest in the
16th century, and Protestantism came with
American occupation of the country in
1899. Successful evangelization was often
equated with or measured by the destruction of indigenous culture. The God of the
Bible was presented as a Western deity
who could only be pleased with Western
cultural expressions—in architecture, language, or music. Liturgy had to conform to
Western aesthetics. Indigenous culture was
judged and labeled as demonic. For
instance, in Philippine Catholicism images
of saints look like Europeans and representations of Satan look like the native.
Needless to say, that’s very culturally
oppressive.
Therefore many Christianized Filipinos
have regarded their own heritage as something that has to be forgotten and
destroyed, and they have to borrow all
kinds of artistic expressions from the
West—which of course do not sit perfectly
well in the local context and are not very
effective vehicles for the expression of
indigenous spirituality. Our people have
been led to believe that Western
Christianity is the only “correct” brand of
faith—a misguidance that has been culturally destructive as far as our identity and
heritage is concerned.
In light of that, Kaloob has begun a
work that we call “cultural redemption.”
For fifteen years now, we have been
researching Philippine arts, especially those
that could be used in Christian liturgy,
such as music, dance, and ritual.
Mining the cultural heritage
Filipino society is around 83% Roman
Catholic, with the rest belonging to
Protestantism, Islam, and indigenous religions. We do not have much pre-colonial
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preservation. We are glad to note that
among the secular members of our society
we are also known as an outstanding
dance company that performs Philippine
dances as faithfully as possible in their
original format. In this field, we dance on
par with the best dance companies in the
country.
Chants and dances
A Spanish-inspired dance of the principalia class. This jota version of Moncada, Tarlac, features Filipinized
movements and the use of the native bamboo kalaste instead of the Spanish castanets. (Performed by the
KALOOB Philippine Music and Dance Ministry)
Like Kaloob, I also straddle two worlds:
the pastoral and the artistic realms. So I
frame my cultural studies accordingly. As a
pastor steeped in a biblical education, I
almost always observe that in Philippine
indigenous religions there is a kind of
equivalent of the Trinity: God the creator,
God’s spirit who inspires, and God-manhero who is the savior.
So we go a little deeper and postulate
that God has revealed himself among
indigenous peoples, that the God of the
written history as indigenous culture is told
in lore, song, dance, and ritual. We therefore believe that the stories and the values
and the spirit of our people are enshrined
in the performing arts. When the march of
evangelization destroys such artistic
expressions in the name of God, a great
part of our soul gets sacrificed needlessly
on the altar of Christianization.
Those Filipinos who have been evangelized have to face a choice: to be “good”
Christians (which means Westernized) but
“bad” Filipinos as they abandon their cultural heritage, or to do what we at Kaloob
do and advocate—study elements of indigenous culture, filter them through
Scripture, salvage everything that does not
directly contradict the spirit of Scripture,
and then rededicate and reuse them in
Christian liturgy. So far we have collected
hundreds of indigenous songs and dances
and then have done a process we call
redemption—which is like filtration for
things that are offensive to biblical sensitivities. In our experience, 85-90% of indigenous artistic expression could be used in
Christian worship without offending
Christian theology. Filtration includes, for
example, foregoing the offering of blood or
the sacrificing of animals in our rituals
because we believe that Christ is the ulti-
Bible must have made visitations and revelations of himself to all the nations,
because if you were the God of the universe why would you reveal yourself to
only one race, one tribe in one corner of
the world? That is the big source of our
resolve to redeem culture—we believe that
many of those cultural artifacts enshrine
our ancestors’ pre-missions experience of
God. For instance, one of our most celebrated dance forms that surfaces in nearly
every tribal tradition features men and
A prayer-dance by the Manobo women of Western Bukidnon, Mindanao. (Performed by the KALOOB
Philippine Music and Dance Ministry)
mate sacrifice for all time.
Everything Kaloob does is founded on
solid anthropological research that gives
birth to two types of presentations. One
we call a “prayformance.” That is when
we use indigenous music and dance in the
context of Christian worship. They are no
longer the authentic original forms because
we refashion them for the needs of the
liturgy. That’s our main ministry.
And the other is a performance for the
sake of artistic expression and cultural
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women dancing with fire on their heads, in
the form of oil lamps, candles, or pieces of
burning wood on ceremonial receptacles.
We are led to read this as a commemoration of some form of “Pentecostal” experience in our people’s distant past and now
preserved in dance and ritual.
We study such artistic expressions, interview the informants about their symbolism, and then find parallel meanings in
Scripture. For example, we have picked up
one chant calling on a spirit. We use the
same tune, the same way of thinking, but
we use the name of Jesus instead of the
god they are calling on. Now if Jesus is the
same deity behind the indigenous song, so
be it. But if not, we are reclaiming it,
rededicating it to the God of Bible. Hence,
cultural redemption.
We’d like for the church to be the sanctuary, not the cemetery of indigenous
culture. And this can happen if the church
not only stops rejecting indigenous culture
but will actually use indigenous expressions in contemporary Christian worship.
On the other hand, we do not wish to
bring the church back to the cave. That is
why we contemporize, make songs and
rituals work within the context of the
church today. We are thus able to fashion
a Philippine Christianity that is firmly
rooted in our traditions, decidedly relevant
to our context, and steadfastly biblical.
For fifteen years now in our main
church, Philippine music and dance have
become part of the usual Sunday worship.
We have many satellite churches around
the country and some around the world
that in various degrees are also using
similar cultural expressions. But that
doesn’t mean we reject modern or Western
culture. We also like to make harmonious
fusions, where we as Filipinos are rooted
in our heritage but are also citizens of the
world and part of the global church.
We also envision contributing elements
of Philippine arts to the global church, so
that indigenous churches and peoples can
not only be on the receiving end of the
global Christian culture but can also contribute to the enrichment of the body of
Christ by bringing rituals, songs, and
dances that express faith and spirituality in
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An excerpt from the Kalinga epic “Ulallim” chanted during Kalinga festivities such as Vochong. (Performed by the
KALOOB Philippine Music and Dance Ministry)
Photo courtesy of KALOOB.
the context of our culture. Of course, we
like to see all the other nations of the
world do the same.
Pioneers and diplomats
In the past, conservative elements of the
church were suspicious of us and rejected
us. They thought we were being syncretistic, because they were conditioned to think
that anything indigenous could only be of
the devil, and that sacred culture and arts
could only come from the West.
Through steadfast commitment and hard
work in the last fifteen years, we have made
incursions into that monolithic point of
view. Major churches in the Philippines
have, to varying degrees, embraced our
approach. When our main church meets on
Sunday mornings, about 6,000 people
come. Many Christian missions based in the
Philippines bring visitors from abroad to
our church so they can see how Philippine
instruments and dances are used in worship.
Kaloob also gets invited to most major
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“Our God is not a God of sameness but
a God of variety,” Monte Ohia of the
World Christian Gathering of Indigenous
Poeples loved to emphasize. No two noses
are alike. No two skin tones are the same.
So why should the music of the church
only come from the organ? Why should
the dance of the church only come from
ballet? The human body is so beautifully
designed that there are infinite ways to
express feelings through movements, so
why not a Filipino movement? We want
to decolonize Christianity. We want to
welcome the Spirit of Christ to each
culture and allow all tribes and all nations
and all languages to be able to worship
God in variety.
The arts are very wonderful and powerful
tools to set the oppressed peoples of the
Photo courtesy of KALOOB.
“We’d like for the church to be the sanc­tuary,
not the cemetery of indigenous culture.”
Christian events. So some of the churches
that used to be suspicious and unkind to us
are actually now proud of us. There is only
a very tiny pocket of resistance left. Thank
God the climate has changed.
I cannot prescribe our technique or
method to anyone; we have just been
doing the best we could in our context and
within our limits. But here are few things
we have learned that may help others
avoid some unnecessary setbacks:
Don’t be overzealous. You always need
the support of the church leaders. Talk first
to the pastors, not to the music and dance
leaders, because there could be a wide
chasm between their theologies, and if the
pastor doesn’t like it, nothing will go.
Don’t try to make changes too fast,
because many conservative believers think
there is only one way to approach God.
We have to respect them also. We must not
carelessly alienate people. Build on it.
Don’t fashion yourself as the enemy of the
status quo.
Be diplomatic. Artists have to be diplomats, because you need lots of space and
support.
A Global Church
Everything in the earth is the Lord’s. Satan
doesn’t own music. Satan doesn’t own dance.
Satan doesn’t own art. So to reject the creative input and products of other cultures is
to reject the God of creation who made the
people of the world different.
world free—free to be themselves, free from
an inferiority complex. Jesus accepted those
who fell through the cracks, those who
were rejected by society. It’s time for the
church to embrace the cultures of the
world, to uphold a global Christian church,
where every nation has a contribution.
Photo courtesy of KALOOB.
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The Healing Power Of Art
God can speak into our pain—and use our pain—
in ways we could never imagine.
By Dr. Dianne B. Collard
I am not an artist, but in the dark days
of pain and despair following the murder
of our eldest son I found solace and peace
within the art museums of Vienna,
Austria, where my husband and I worked
as missionaries in 1992. I experienced
evidences of the Creator—his goodness,
beauty, and truth—demonstrated through
line, form, and color. I felt God’s love as I
gazed on depictions of Christ’s
redemption. I resonated with the pain
expressed in paintings depicting war,
plagues, and death. I reveled in the
splashes of color and geometric designs of
abstract and non-representational art. I
will never be the same, for God spoke to
me with “sensations too subtle for
words,” as artist Robert Henri expressed.
From this profound encounter, I know
art can reach into the deepest recesses of
the human soul—at times and in ways
that ordinary language cannot. I know
that God can use beauty and creativity to
speak to a suffering person and bring
healing. And since that time, I have
learned that He can also use someone
who has been deeply touched by art to
touch others. He can use my brokenness
and pain to His glory.
Alienated artists
My experience with art in Vienna was
so foreign to my background that I was
hesitant to share it with anyone. When I
even mentioned it, I was told that it
sounded unbiblical or “New Age”—
something to be feared.
I knew that I’d had a significant,
though unusual, encounter with God
through the medium of visual art. Because
of this, I was drawn toward artists of
faith. I did extensive research on the
biblical role of the artist and the power of
a multi-sensory worship experience. I
accepted my need of artists to lead me
into the presence of God in ways I could
not express for myself. I questioned the
dearth of the arts, especially the visual
arts, in our churches. Why was this
ignored, denied, or feared? Why did the
artists of faith that I met express feelings
of rejection and alienation from the
evangelical churches? (This concern
ultimately led to my doctoral dissertation
on the topic.)
Early in this journey, I attended the
Hope 21 Conference in Budapest,
Hungary, sponsored by the European
Evangelical Alliance. Because of my
growing passion for the arts and my
concern for the artists, I asked to sit in on
the Artists’ Track that met daily. Here I
repeatedly heard their pain over their
feelings of rejection by the church. My
heart was broken.
On the final day of the conference, I
asked to speak. I shared my story of
healing and worship through the arts.
“Please,” I concluded, “as a non-artist
believer, I beg you: Do not stop engaging
in your art. Don’t stop exercising your
creative gifts. Especially don’t abandon
the church—no matter how hard it might
be. The world needs your gift, the church
needs it, but most of all, I—a non-artist
sister in Christ—desperately need it.”
There was silence in the room. I
returned to my seat and internally wept.
Doubting a dream
In the years following this conference, my
passion for the arts and the artists continued
to grow. I received my doctoral degree in
2004, and we returned to live in the U.S. But
no one seemed to care about all my work
and fervor. I often asked God why He gave
me this burden yet did nothing with it. It was
as if my dream had died.
In 2006 I combined my roles as
speaker, writer, and intercultural trainer
and my passion for worship and the arts
into a ministry organization called
Montage International. The following
year, Montage became a department of
Dr. Dianne B. Collard
Artists in Christian Testimony
International (A.C.T.). I am an Arts
Advocate and trainer. Slowly God was
making clear how He would combine all
the disparate aspects of me into a tool for
His Kingdom.
In 2008, when I arrived in Nashville,
Tennessee, for A.C.T.’s Arts Alive
Conference, I was assailed with doubts
about my right to attend such a
conference. After all, I’m not an artist.
My self-doubt screamed, “You are only
here because your son was murdered and
you had an experience with God through
art. You are only capitalizing on Tim’s
death.” Horrible accusations that I
thought were settled long ago returned. I
silently struggled through the entire
conference. Then came the last offering of
the final evening—an expressive dance
production by StillPoint Dance Theatre.
Ministering unaware
Before the final dance Sharon Perry, the
choreographer, began telling a story that
she prefaced with the statement, “I’ve told
this every time I’ve spoken to artists
around the world to encourage them to
keep going, even when it seems no one
cares.” She then described a woman who
had spoken on the last day of a
conference in Budapest six years ago. To
my amazement, she told my story and
quoted my words exactly. She ended by
saying that this anonymous woman’s plea
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had kept her serving God through her
creative gifts and that it had ministered to
scores of others as well.
A shock went through me. I recognized
my testimony immediately, and others
who knew me began to realize what was
happening. I knew beyond any doubt that
God was saying to me, “Dianne, this is
my message and my ministry. I’m using it
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to my glory. Just be faithful and leave the
results to me.” He had used my life story
to encourage artists around the world
when I thought the dream had died.
Amazing.
If you are an artist, be encouraged to
faithfully use the gifts God has given to
you—within and beyond the church
walls. Perhaps your dream has died and
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you believe that no one, not even God,
cares about your gifts, your art, your
ministry. I was in God’s “waiting room”
for over six years, and yet God was at
work in people’s lives through my
testimony. Art can bless and heal
someone, so that she in turn can bless
and heal others.
Stone by Stone
A New DVD Teaching Series on the Arts by
StoneWorks International Director Colin Harbinson
Looking for a unique gift? Colin Harbinson’s
nine-part DVD teaching series “Stone by Stone,” a
joint venture by StoneWorks and InterVarsity
2100 Productions, is an ideal choice to encourage
an artist or art student.
Harbinson explores some of the stones in the
church and in the life of the artist that have
prevented us from embracing God’s good gifts of
imagination and creativity, and stones that have
prevented us from bringing hope and restoration to
the brokenness of our surrounding culture. He
examines what it means to remove these stumbling
blocks and to participate as artists in God’s
restoration plan for His creation.
The accompanying Study Guide can be used for
both personal reflection and small group discussion,
and the DVD set includes bonus video material
showing Christians engaged in the arts in different
contexts, a Leader’s Guide in downloadable PDF
format, and a trailer that can be used for
promotional purposes.
To order the DVD Series and Study Guide, go to
www.stoneworks-arts.org/stonebystone.html
(international orders accepted) or
https://store.intervarsity.org/stone-by-stone-arts-curriculum-dvds-andstudy-guide.html (for U.S. orders only).
“Colin Harbinson has done all of us in the artistic world a great service by creating the ‘Stone by Stone’ series. He speaks with great authority for
two reasons. First, he knows what Scripture says about God’s intent for the arts better than anyone I know. Second, Colin has lived what he talks
about, as a creative artist and as a producer and as a teacher. He has seen God do for artists what the Bible says He wants to do! This discussion
series is truly unique and I expect to see the lives of many artists changed through experiencing ‘Stone by Stone.’ ”
—Dick Ryan, National Director for the Arts, InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA
“‘Stone by Stone’ provides an invaluable resource for my undergraduate visual arts majors, introducing them to questions of artistic practice
within a Christian worldview. The themes Colin Harbinson addresses in the DVDs and the questions in the Study Guide go right to the heart
of the key issues for any Christian student pursuing the arts: questions of identity, individual discipleship, relationship to the church and to the
culture, the language of the arts, and much more. ‘Stone by Stone’ is as rewarding in an academic context as it is in a professional, ministry, or
church-related setting.”
—Dr. Melissa Hause, Associate Professor of Art History, Belhaven University
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Introducing
International
Arts Movement
(IAM)
Photo courtesy of IAM.
StoneWorks is eager to support organizations or institutions that exemplify some
aspect of our vision to
(1) teach Christians to understand and
embrace the language of the arts in life
and faith,
(2) mentor and disciple emerging artists
within the Christian community, and
(3) restore the arts and renew culture
through the recovery of the imagination.
In each newsletter, one of these organizations will introduce itself to you. This
profile was provided by Christy Tennant,
IAM Director of Public Relations.
Mission: The world is not as it
ought to be. We long for meaningful
existence and involvement in our culture—to make our world a better
place and to be part of a story
greater than ourselves. But too often
our reality is a broken and fragmented story in which value and dignity
are stripped from humanity. Art, as a
universal language, can begin to
address this dehumanization. The
world needs artists and visionaries to
lead the way in seeing beyond the
trivial to the transcendent, bringing
synthesis from fragmentation and
hope from despair.
IAM gathers aspiring, emerging, and
established artists of all disciplines and
creative catalysts to wrestle with the deep
questions of art, faith, and humanity. We
gather locally in many cities throughout
the world, as well as virtually through our
website. Our hope is that through our
lectures, workshops, discussion groups,
film screenings, creative collaborations,
global community connections, podcasts,
fellows program, online magazine, and
creative resources, we will inspire the
global creative community both to engage
with the culture that is and to create the
world that ought to be. Our work will
serve individuals in both philosophical
and pragmatic ways.
We welcome all people to join us as we
wrestle with these questions. Our
approach to this discussion is influenced
by 19th-, 20th- and 21st-century artists
and thinkers like Leo Tolstoy, Francis
Schaeffer, Hans Rookmaaker, Flannery
O’Connor, C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien,
and N. T. Wright. Recent works such as
Daniel Seidell’s God in the Gallery and
Makoto Fujimura’s Refractions: A Journey
of Faith, Art and Culture offer language
that is helpful in understanding the
importance of the arts for all of humanity
to flourish, and we draw heavily from
books by all of the above and many
others as we create resources to serve our
community.
In the sea of art, film, television, music,
theater, dance, and other creative endeav-
Photo courtesy of IAM.
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transform the culture that is and create
the world that ought to be.
Activities, resources, and events:
Photo courtesy of IAM.
ors, the good, true, and beautiful work
can often be overshadowed by works that
are dehumanizing and do not serve
humanity at large. We encourage and
equip artists to be aspirational, embodying a healthy sense of ambition to help
their excellent, rehumanizing work find
an audience.
While we do not have a formal mentoring program, the IAM community is comprised of aspiring, emerging, and established artists of all disciplines, and we frequently help aspiring artists to connect
with established artists for mentoring and
professional guidance on varying levels.
We have relationships with many churches around the world to which we frequently refer people seeking spiritual
direction and input.
As Lewis Hyde points out so beautifully in
his book The Gift, art is a gift, not merely a
commodity. IAM encourages artists and creative catalysts to view their work as such. We
encourage the IAM community to look for
ways to be radically generous. To that end, we
make most of our resources available free of
charge, asking only that those who are able to
give support the movement through donations. We believe that generosity begets generosity, and our store’s suggested donation
policy reflects that ethos.
We also foster entrepreneurship within
the IAM community. With ongoing
advancements in media and distribution
opportunities via the Internet, there is
more new art available than ever before.
It takes an entrepreneurial spirit to think
inventively, not only in order to create
original work that is excellent, but to get
it into the public sphere where it will help
How to Get Involved:
1) Join the Movement: Join our mailing list, connect
locally where possible, and utilize our free online
resources. Our global office is in New York City, but we
have groups in over 13 cities
(see http://www.internationalartsmovement.org/groups).
2) Support the Movement: Give financially.
All donations are tax-deductible. IAM is a 501(c)(3)
non-profit arts organization.
1) The Annual IAM Encounter. This
three-day event takes place in New York
City every year, usually at the end of
February or beginning of March.
Encounter 10, which takes place March
4-6, 2010, asks 10 questions that will
impact our movement and culture
throughout the coming decade.
2) IAM Local. Throughout the country,
local IAM groups host discussion groups,
film screenings, art exhibitions, small
works auctions, gallery tours, musical performances, and arts salons. Recently IAM
(Oklahoma City) hosted a CD release
party, and IAM (Denver) hosted an
evening of poetry, music, and lecture.
IAM (New York) holds monthly film
screenings, weekly discussion groups,
monthly Happy Hour, musical performances, lectures, workshops, and more.
3) IAM Live. Periodically, we hold
events which are live webcasts so people
around the world can participate. On
September 24, IAM Live featured a collaboration between Makoto Fujimura and
avant garde percussionist Susie Ibarra.
Viewers from all over the world watched
the performance together, and groups
gathered in Chicago and Denver to watch
and discuss the event.
4) IAM Global. We provide ways for
people to be connected and involved
through our online resources, Curator
Magazine, IAM Reader’s Guild, IAM
Conversations, and more.
Donations can be made online at our website
(http://internationalartsmovement.com/store/page9.html)
or by check to International Arts Movement, 38 W. 39th
Street, 3 FL, New York, NY 10018.
How to Contact:
Christy Tennant, Director of Public Relations
Email: christy@internationalartsmovement.org
Phone: (212) 944-0944
Address: 38 W. 39th Street, 3 FL, New York, NY 10018
Website: http://www.internationalartsmovement.org
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Have you read “Leaf By Niggle,”
by J. R. R. Tolkien?
Recommended by Christopher Mitchell
In September 1944, J. R. R. Tolkien
received a request from The Dublin
Review for a story that would be “an
effective expression of Catholic humanity.” In response, he sent “Leaf By
Niggle,” a short story he had written a
year or two earlier. Its publication, in
January of the following year, went
almost unnoticed. Today, relatively few
are aware of its existence, and fewer still
have actually read it. This is extremely
unfortunate, for in this story Tolkien
brings together his sense of art and theology with a beauty and economy found
nowhere else in his writing.
Less than 7500 words from beginning
to end, “Leaf By Niggle” exemplifies
Tolkien’s ideas of subcreation and eucatastrophe as explained in his essay “On
Fairy-Stories.” (Tolkien arranged with his
publisher Allen & Unwin to have the
story and the essay printed together in
one volume in 1964 and suggested the
title Tree and Leaf.) In brief, subcreation
refers to the art of creating another
world with such a degree of “inner consistency of reality” that it creates in the
reader the kind of belief we give to the
real world. This creative impulse, Tolkien
believed, was the mark of the image of
God in humanity. “I tried to show allegorically how that might come to be
taken up into Creation in some plane in
my ‘purgatorial’ story Leaf By Niggle . . .
to make visible and physical the effects of
Sin or misused Free Will by men.”
Eucatastrophe is a moment of deep and
abiding grace, or “gift” as the character
Niggle calls it. It is the “good catastrophe,” and in its fairy-tale setting, says
Tolkien, it is “a sudden and miraculous
grace” that in the midst of much sorrow
and failure denies “universal final
defeat.” As such, it provides an example
of evangelium, that is, “a fleeting glimpse
of Joy, Joy beyond the walls of the world,
poignant as grief.” By referring to this
“fleeting glimpse of Joy” as evangelium
(the Latin word for gospel), Tolkien
would have us understand that the true
significance of eucatastrophe is ultimately
not to be found in its fairy-tale setting but
in our world. In the epilogue of “On
Fairy-Stories,” Tolkien shared his belief
that this idea was at the heart of the
Christian gospel:
“I would venture to say that
approaching the Christian Story from
this direction, it has long been my
feeling . . . that God redeemed the
corrupt making-creatures, men, in a
way fitting to this aspect . . . The
Gospels contain a fairy-story, or a story
of a larger kind which embraces all the
essence of fairy-stories. They contain
many marvels—peculiarly artistic,
beautiful, and moving: “mythical” in
their perfect, self-contained significance; and among the marvels is the
greatest and most complete conceivable
eucatastrophe. But this story has
entered History and the primary world;
the desire and aspiration of sub-creation has been raised to the fulfillment
of Creation. The birth of Christ is the
eucatastrophe of Man’s history. The
Resurrection is the eucatastrophe of the
story of the Incarnation. This story
begins and ends in joy.”
In “Leaf By Niggle,” Niggle is a painter—not a very successful one, the story
tells us—who has a long journey to make.
Niggle makes no preparations for it, and
when the time comes for him to go, he is
Image courtesy of The Marion E. Wade Center
bustled off in a carriage to a train without
a thing for the journey and without
having finished his picture. What happens
next I leave you to discover. But I will say
that the journey leads from sorrow and
failure to joy and to a redemption that
involves far more than Niggle alone—and
it is all “gift.” Oh, and I ought to add
that Tolkien presents us with two endings:
one from the world Niggle leaves behind
and the other from the world to which he
is taken. And the
difference between
the two endings
also has much to
do with theology
and the arts.
*You can find “Leaf by
Niggle” in the new collection of Tolkien’s
stories, Tales From The
Perilous Realm, published by Houghton
Mifflin Harcourt in 2008.
Christopher W. Mitchell is the director of the Marion E.
Wade Center, a major research collection of materials
by and about seven British authors: Owen Barfield,
G.K. Chesterton, C.S. Lewis, George MacDonald,
Dorothy L. Sayers, J.R.R. Tolkien, and Charles Williams.
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