Fred Hutchison
Tolkien, Islam, & Manicheism
By Fred Hutchison
We live in a society which is facing danger from two directions. Some do not believe that evil exists and would leave us unprotected against evil. Others have inflated conceptions of evil and think the forces of evil are as strong as the forces of good. The latter set of ideas are sometimes called "Manichean" (man - i - kee' - an) because of their similarity to the dualistic cosmology of the ancient heretical cult of "Manicheism." In this article, I describe the defacto Manicheism of Tolkien's Lord of the Rings and the revolutionary Manicheism of the Muslim militants. The polemical Manicheism of the angry Postmodern left in our present culture war will be considered another time.
Manicheism
Manicheism was a complex heresy which emerged in Persia in the third century and spread to the west. It was a muddled syncretism of many components but is often categorized as a form of Gnosticism (salvation through esoteric knowledge).
Our modern usage of the word Manicheism is keyed to the neo-Manichean heresies of the Middle Ages such as the Cathars (or Albigensians), the Paulicans, and the Bogomils. The neo-Manicheans believed that the material realm was created by Satan and that matter and the physical body are evil. They contrasted the evil material realm with the good spiritual realm which was created by God. The neo-Manicheans hated the body and practiced extreme forms of asceticism. They had an antisocial hostility towards the established institutions of church and state. The church declared neo-Manicheism to be a heresy, of course.
The neo-Manichean cults are chiefly of interest to us because of their belief in a straightforward dualism of good and evil which centers all of life around a continuous and desperate battle between good and evil. This kind of thinking may account for the dark obsessions of the Christians and Muslims who like to talk about the devil more than they like to talk about God.
The kind of neo-Manichean thought which chiefly concerns us in this essay is the presumption that the forces of evil are as strong as the forces of good. This leaves the final outcome of the cosmic battle uncertain.
Pagan Heroes
In The Lord of the Rings, the "Ents," which are tree-like creatures, have been battling the evil Sauron for ages. They presume that Sauron, and his agent Saruman, will eventually win. Nevertheless, the Ents propose to keep fighting until their inevitable destruction. This is similar to the semi-pagan and quasi-Christian tale of Beowulf (10th century), a legendary Anglo-Saxon warrior hero who fights the dragon Grendel — in spite of his presumption that he will be killed. The pagan hero of the Dark Ages goes down fighting in one last blaze of glory before the great darkness settles over the earth.
The hero of the last stand against evil is echoed in the old Welsh tale of Camelot about the rear guard battle of the quasi-Christian Celts against the invading Saxon pagans. The legendary King Arthur held the Saxons at bay for a period of years. At length, he was killed in a last great battle. The defeated Celtic forces retreated into the Welsh highlands. One of their mountain fortresses occupied a lofty rock by the sea which in later times bore the name of Harlech (meaning "above the boulders."). An early version of the soul-stirring song of Welsh patriotism, Men of Harlech, tells of the dreadful approach of Saxon warriors towards the fortress. The song defiantly proclaims, "death is glory now." The legendary siege of the fortress by the Saxons in the sixth century, was the romantic precursor of the historical incidents when Harlech Castle was a place of stubborn Welsh resistance to the English.
In South Africa during the Zulu war,145 British soldiers were surrounded by perhaps 4,000 Zulu warriors at Roark's Drift (1879). The Zulus were hailed as great warriors by other African tribes. The British troops assumed that they were doomed. As they waited to make their last stand they sang Men of Harlech. (32 of the men were Welsh and the company had been recently based in Wales.) Eleven of the survivors of that desperate ten hour battle were awarded the Victoria Cross (the rough equivalent of our Medal of Honor) by the British army. More Victoria Crosses were won at Roark's Drift than in any other battle in British history. Roark's Drift is to the Brits as the Alamo is to us.
Beowulf, Camelot, Harlech, and Roark's Drift are famous as heroic last stands. The Battle of Helm's Deep in The Lord of the Rings follows this pattern. (Was Tolkien thinking of Roark's Drift when he wrote about Helm's Deep?) A last glorious stand before the great darkness overwhelms us. The epic heroism still thrills our hearts. It is magnificent — but is it essentially Christian? No. Christ's death agony defeated the darkness. The last battle before the triumph of darkness is a pagan idea of the Dark Ages. Pagan pessimism is more negative than Manicheism because the latter gives the forces of good at least a chance of winning.
In contrast to the pessimistic Ents, Galadriel, an Elf queen in The Lord of the Rings sees the final outcome of the cosmic battle as indeterminate. She tells the fellowship of the Ring that their mission is on "the edge of a knife." Things can fall out either way. For all her Elvish magic in foretelling the future — she is candid about simply not knowing how things will be resolved in the future. It is interesting that Tolkien depicted the Elves as the wisest of all the Middle Earth races of sentient beings. Elves are wiser than the pessimistic Ents.
The uncertainty of the fate of Middle Earth intensifies the dramatic suspense we feel as we sit at the feet of Tolkien, a master story teller. But it falls short of the triumphant faith of Christianity. It is a Manichean tale.
The Staying Power of Christianity
Manicheism is incompatible with Monotheism. If one believes that God has infinite power, is absolutely good, is the Creator of all that exists, and that He will triumph over His enemies in the end, Mancheism is impossible because it places good and evil at equal strength. God, the Creator, must be vastly more powerful than the devil. The principalities of the evil forces are merely created beings who are in a pathetic and wicked revolt against their Creator. This is the orthodox doctrine of Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. Manicheism is a denial of Monotheism.
The orthodox Christian warrior against evil foes often has more staying power than the Manichean warrior. Manicheism works well for dramatic last stands, and for kamikaze or terrorist attacks. In a long war, a Manichean is prone to despair because of the haunting fear that his great enemy might actually win. In his darkened imagination, he is apt to magnify a small defeat into an apocalyptic catastrophe. The Christian is confident that Almighty God will win in the end, even though the enemy may win a round here and there in these small parochial struggles.
Christianity defeated Manicheism, which was a very powerful rival in the third, fourth, and fifth centuries. The victory was due in part because Christianity is a more patient faith and has more staying power. Instead of the heroic defiance of the Manicheans, or the passive resignation of the Stoics, the Christians martyrs often faced the end with a radiant calm.
Fighting the Orcs
Muslim militants sometimes seem filled with fierce demonic energy in their rage and hatred of their putative enemies. The militants resemble Manichean warriors fighting wholly evil enemies. Such was Tolkien's Fellowship of the Ring when they fought the Orcs (zombie warriors) who served an evil wizard. The Orcs were evil and dangerous — and they were hideous.
Some Muslim militants talk as though Americans and Jews are the moral equivalent of Orcs. This kind of talk is not entirely hyperbole. The hatred, execration, and poisoned imagination behind the polemical words are real enough. The trick for us is going to be to fight and defeat the militants with no illusions about their evil or how dangerous they are, but never giving in to the Manichean impulse to regard them as Orcs. We must defeat them and we must not become like them.
Some pagans have resisted the Manichean temptation. After perhaps half of the army of Zulu warriors were killed at Roark's Drift, they lifted their spears and chanted the praises of their enemy. They bestowed honor upon the brave little band of British defenders and recognized them as fellow warriors and worthy opponents. Then they peacefully returned home. They did not regard the British as Orcs. The Zulus were a splendid model of manly courage, elan de corps, and magnanimity towards their enemies. These ignorant, semi-naked pagans were an outstanding example to the Christian warrior. Be courageous and spirited in the fight but do not demonize your human enemies.
Muslims did not behave like Manicheans during the historical era when they led the world in wealth, power, knowledge and prestige. But now that the Islamic world has fallen to a low estate and is in a time of crisis, a certain number of demoralized Muslims have fallen into the temptation of Manicheism.
When Alan Keyes confronted the Arab spokesmen of the PLO on TV with the moral outrage of terrorism he exposed the moral bankruptcy of Manicheism. The Arab spokesmen were unwilling or unable to think of terrorism in moral terms unless it is was tightly wound in a demonized conception of Israel. It was like trying to make the Fellowship of the Ring feel guilty for slaughtering Orcs. "We are talking about Orcs — don't you know what an Orc is?" The PLO spokesmen tried to say, "Mr. Keyes, we are talking about Israel! Don't you understand about the immorality — the abomination of Israel!" Keyes' response was, "No, we are talking about the random murder of innocent human beings living peacefully in civilian life!" (They are not Orcs. They are people.) One must pretend that someone is less than a human being before he can take pride and pleasure in killing them.
Apocalyptic Thinking
Galadriel the Elf queen placed an extremely heavy burden on Frodo, the Hobbit, who was the ring bearer. She showed him visions of the conquest of Middle Earth if he failed in his mission. It was an extremely difficult and dangerous mission. This is the kind of crushing burden which Manicheism places upon its votaries.
Why did Tolkien, a devout Christian, lapse into Manicheism when describing epic battles? Tolkien's circle of fiends of King Edwards School and Oxford was bonded together by the love of ancient languages and Anglo-Saxon and Norse mythology. All went to fight in World War I. All but Tolkien died. When he was in the trenches during the mass bloodletting of the battle of the Somme, he started working on ideas for a tale about epic battles for Middle Earth.
Perhaps when Tolkien subsequently wrote about battles, he was overwhelmed by flashback memories of violent cataclysm in the trenches, his grief for the death of his beloved companions, and his fear of attacks by a huge, formidably powerful and apparently evil enemy army. Therefore, Tolkien must have suffered traumatic feelings when he wrote about the fellowship of the ring in confrontation with Ringwraiths, Orcs, Goblins and other monsters. Emotionally and imaginatively, Tolkien was a Manichean.
Muslim Pathology
We are constantly hearing about wars between Muslims and their neighbors in many lands. Daily there are news reports of terror attacks and high tensions in many places. The strident hostility of Muslims against their neighbors has been increasing around the world since 1948, the year which marked the bloody partition of India, the creation of the state of Israel, and the defeat of the armies of five Muslim nations by tiny Israel. By the end of the century, the Muslim pathology had grown into global crisis — almost equivalent in scope and danger to the cold war at the height of its tensions.
Why? I think it is a defacto Manicheism that haunts and torments the declining Islamic world. If you see all of life as a battle between good and evil and the evil infidels seem to be winning, then every slight from strangers, aliens, and foreign powers might seem like a personal invitation to fight. If you see whole societies as evil, and their "evil presence" oppresses you, it might make terrorism, the ultimate wickedness, seem more palatable and less unthinkable.
Why is Islam more prone to Manicheism than Christianity? Before we can solve the riddle, we must answer two key questions: 1) Why were the Muslims of certain periods of history relatively free from Manicheism but at other times prone to it; and 2) What does Christianity have which Islam lacks which supplies a buffer against the temptation to a Manichean response to a crisis?
The Rise and Fall of Muslim Triumphalism
After the death of Mohammed, the armies of Islam exploded out of Arabia and rapidly conquered the Middle East, western Asia, the North African coast and Spain. The Muslim warriors were certain that Allah was on their side and that the whole world was destined to fall under the dominion of Islam. They had a triumphal militancy for their Monotheistic universal religion — a religion which is designed for all mankind. This is quite a bit different from the Manichean militancy of the Muslim terrorists of our time who are fighting the rearguard battles of a declining civilization.
After the century of conquests in the seventh century, there was nine hundred years of the growth, expansion, and consolidation of the Islamic dominions. Islam spread through war and proselytizing from the Middle East to central Asia, India, Southeast Asia, and the northern third of Africa. Islamic potentates ruled perhaps one third of the world's people. It was a vast global dominion greater than the Spanish empire of 1600 and equivalent in scope, power, and wealth to the British empire in 1900 and to American economic and military dominance in the year 2000.
Meanwhile, the Arabic world at the core of Muslim civilization blossomed economically, culturally, and intellectually. By 1000 AD, Islam stood at the head of the world's people and the contemporary Europe of the Dark Ages was at the tail. The Crusades launched by a militant, rapidly awakening but semi-barbarous Europe of 1100 was temporarily successful — mainly because of a temporary Muslim political weakness caused by internal divisions and the immense disruptions caused by the attacks of the Seljuk Turks. Europe was no real rival for Islamic civilization until 1500 AD and no real threat to Islam until about 1700.
Islam was in the top ranks of the world powers from around 800 AD to 1500. A calm, confident triumphalism prevailed during this era of Muslim glory. Muslims rested secure in the certainty of the superiority of their civilization and in the eventual triumph of Allah over every tribe on earth. They had no temptation to Manicheism. The Manichean heresy was hateful to them. They rested in the certain knowledge that Allah was vastly more powerful than any evil enemy force. The Seljuk disruptions and the Crusades were an anomaly — an evil barbarian tide which was gradually pushed back by the patient opposition of civilized, refined, and courtly generals like Saladin.
From 1500 to 1700 Muslims and Europeans were rivals of roughly equal strength. As Europe colonized North and South America and got a foothold in India, Africa, and ports of the far east, the Muslim Ottoman Empire extended its dominions and hegemony in all directions. Muslim rulers consolidated and expanded their dominions of southeast Asia and northern Africa and resisted the British East India Company in India. The battles between Ottoman Turk and European arms were often close contests. Muslim and Christians merchants were rivals for world trade.
During the period 1700 AD — 1850, European power rose very rapidly and flattened the Muslim world like a steamroller. The Brits took India and pushed the Mogul rulers out. By 1850 most of the Muslim world was reduced to being colonies of European nations. After the Crimean war the once mighty Ottoman state become the "sick man" of the world powers. European Civilization marched at the head of nations and the humiliated Islamic civilization was pushed to the rear.
Even after gaining independence after World War II and enjoying oil wealth in the Middle East, the economic and intellectual gap between the Arab states and the west continued to widen until the present time. The feelings of inferiority and weakness were aggravated by the stunning defeats at the hands of Israel.
The old triumphal pride of Muslim supremacy was long gone and bitter memories of a crushing humiliation remained. The dream of a resurgent Arab nationalism was sunk in the sands of Israel with the wrecks of Nasser's army. The incredible corruption, incompetence, and wickedness of the Arab oil-rich states perpetuated the long nightmare of a soul-sick and dysfunctional Islam.
Beginning as a small extremist fringe group in 1948, the Manichean terrorist movement grew steadily from 1948 until 9/11/01. America as the leader of the west has become its principal target.
The Christian Immune System
The Christian God is both transcendent and immanent. He is a God who is far above us and a God who is near to us. Because of His transcendent infinitude, His powers are far beyond the evil powers of the earth. He is a God who is near to mankind because God the Son became a man and lived on earth. God is very near to the believer because the Holy Spirit indwells the believer. He is a personal God who answers prayer. During times of crisis God often imparts an especially powerful sense of His personal presence. Thus, the Christian knows he is not forsaken by God to fight evil all alone on this dark earth. He enjoys a reliable sense that God is with him during the battle. He knows that ultimately, the battle is the Lord's and that God will prevail in the end. He fights knowing that he is in God's hands, not the enemy's hands.
Muslims have a God who is far but not a God who is near. They have no strong sense of the immediate presence of God. Victory and prosperity are embraced by Muslims as tokens of his favor. This is why the Islamic Civilization in its glory days seemed to be generally free from a temptation to Manicheism. But after a long train of humiliations, the traumatized Muslim is sorely tempted to despair.
The Arab world is essentially tribal, clannish, and ingrown. Collective despair tends to be manifested as paranoia, hysteria, bitterness, and collective hatreds. It is fertile ground for conspiracy theories and Manichean doctrines of perpetual war against evil. These deceived and forlorn men are energized and tormented by the satanic energy of hate. But the Apostle assures us that greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world (1 John 4:4).
A message from Stephen Stone, President, RenewAmerica
I first became acquainted with Fred Hutchison in December 2003, when he contacted me about an article he was interested in writing for RenewAmerica about Alan Keyes. From that auspicious moment until God took him a little more than six years later, we published over 200 of Fred's incomparable essays — usually on some vital aspect of the modern "culture war," written with wit and disarming logic from Fred's brilliant perspective of history, philosophy, science, and scripture.
It was obvious to me from the beginning that Fred was in a class by himself among American conservative writers, and I was honored to feature his insights at RA.
I greatly miss Fred, who died of a brain tumor on August 10, 2010. What a gentle — yet profoundly powerful — voice of reason and godly truth! I'm delighted to see his remarkable essays on the history of conservatism brought together in a masterfully-edited volume by Julie Klusty. Restoring History is a wonderful tribute to a truly great man.
The book is available at Amazon.com.
© Fred Hutchison
We live in a society which is facing danger from two directions. Some do not believe that evil exists and would leave us unprotected against evil. Others have inflated conceptions of evil and think the forces of evil are as strong as the forces of good. The latter set of ideas are sometimes called "Manichean" (man - i - kee' - an) because of their similarity to the dualistic cosmology of the ancient heretical cult of "Manicheism." In this article, I describe the defacto Manicheism of Tolkien's Lord of the Rings and the revolutionary Manicheism of the Muslim militants. The polemical Manicheism of the angry Postmodern left in our present culture war will be considered another time.
Manicheism
Manicheism was a complex heresy which emerged in Persia in the third century and spread to the west. It was a muddled syncretism of many components but is often categorized as a form of Gnosticism (salvation through esoteric knowledge).
Our modern usage of the word Manicheism is keyed to the neo-Manichean heresies of the Middle Ages such as the Cathars (or Albigensians), the Paulicans, and the Bogomils. The neo-Manicheans believed that the material realm was created by Satan and that matter and the physical body are evil. They contrasted the evil material realm with the good spiritual realm which was created by God. The neo-Manicheans hated the body and practiced extreme forms of asceticism. They had an antisocial hostility towards the established institutions of church and state. The church declared neo-Manicheism to be a heresy, of course.
The neo-Manichean cults are chiefly of interest to us because of their belief in a straightforward dualism of good and evil which centers all of life around a continuous and desperate battle between good and evil. This kind of thinking may account for the dark obsessions of the Christians and Muslims who like to talk about the devil more than they like to talk about God.
The kind of neo-Manichean thought which chiefly concerns us in this essay is the presumption that the forces of evil are as strong as the forces of good. This leaves the final outcome of the cosmic battle uncertain.
Pagan Heroes
In The Lord of the Rings, the "Ents," which are tree-like creatures, have been battling the evil Sauron for ages. They presume that Sauron, and his agent Saruman, will eventually win. Nevertheless, the Ents propose to keep fighting until their inevitable destruction. This is similar to the semi-pagan and quasi-Christian tale of Beowulf (10th century), a legendary Anglo-Saxon warrior hero who fights the dragon Grendel — in spite of his presumption that he will be killed. The pagan hero of the Dark Ages goes down fighting in one last blaze of glory before the great darkness settles over the earth.
The hero of the last stand against evil is echoed in the old Welsh tale of Camelot about the rear guard battle of the quasi-Christian Celts against the invading Saxon pagans. The legendary King Arthur held the Saxons at bay for a period of years. At length, he was killed in a last great battle. The defeated Celtic forces retreated into the Welsh highlands. One of their mountain fortresses occupied a lofty rock by the sea which in later times bore the name of Harlech (meaning "above the boulders."). An early version of the soul-stirring song of Welsh patriotism, Men of Harlech, tells of the dreadful approach of Saxon warriors towards the fortress. The song defiantly proclaims, "death is glory now." The legendary siege of the fortress by the Saxons in the sixth century, was the romantic precursor of the historical incidents when Harlech Castle was a place of stubborn Welsh resistance to the English.
In South Africa during the Zulu war,145 British soldiers were surrounded by perhaps 4,000 Zulu warriors at Roark's Drift (1879). The Zulus were hailed as great warriors by other African tribes. The British troops assumed that they were doomed. As they waited to make their last stand they sang Men of Harlech. (32 of the men were Welsh and the company had been recently based in Wales.) Eleven of the survivors of that desperate ten hour battle were awarded the Victoria Cross (the rough equivalent of our Medal of Honor) by the British army. More Victoria Crosses were won at Roark's Drift than in any other battle in British history. Roark's Drift is to the Brits as the Alamo is to us.
Beowulf, Camelot, Harlech, and Roark's Drift are famous as heroic last stands. The Battle of Helm's Deep in The Lord of the Rings follows this pattern. (Was Tolkien thinking of Roark's Drift when he wrote about Helm's Deep?) A last glorious stand before the great darkness overwhelms us. The epic heroism still thrills our hearts. It is magnificent — but is it essentially Christian? No. Christ's death agony defeated the darkness. The last battle before the triumph of darkness is a pagan idea of the Dark Ages. Pagan pessimism is more negative than Manicheism because the latter gives the forces of good at least a chance of winning.
In contrast to the pessimistic Ents, Galadriel, an Elf queen in The Lord of the Rings sees the final outcome of the cosmic battle as indeterminate. She tells the fellowship of the Ring that their mission is on "the edge of a knife." Things can fall out either way. For all her Elvish magic in foretelling the future — she is candid about simply not knowing how things will be resolved in the future. It is interesting that Tolkien depicted the Elves as the wisest of all the Middle Earth races of sentient beings. Elves are wiser than the pessimistic Ents.
The uncertainty of the fate of Middle Earth intensifies the dramatic suspense we feel as we sit at the feet of Tolkien, a master story teller. But it falls short of the triumphant faith of Christianity. It is a Manichean tale.
The Staying Power of Christianity
Manicheism is incompatible with Monotheism. If one believes that God has infinite power, is absolutely good, is the Creator of all that exists, and that He will triumph over His enemies in the end, Mancheism is impossible because it places good and evil at equal strength. God, the Creator, must be vastly more powerful than the devil. The principalities of the evil forces are merely created beings who are in a pathetic and wicked revolt against their Creator. This is the orthodox doctrine of Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. Manicheism is a denial of Monotheism.
The orthodox Christian warrior against evil foes often has more staying power than the Manichean warrior. Manicheism works well for dramatic last stands, and for kamikaze or terrorist attacks. In a long war, a Manichean is prone to despair because of the haunting fear that his great enemy might actually win. In his darkened imagination, he is apt to magnify a small defeat into an apocalyptic catastrophe. The Christian is confident that Almighty God will win in the end, even though the enemy may win a round here and there in these small parochial struggles.
Christianity defeated Manicheism, which was a very powerful rival in the third, fourth, and fifth centuries. The victory was due in part because Christianity is a more patient faith and has more staying power. Instead of the heroic defiance of the Manicheans, or the passive resignation of the Stoics, the Christians martyrs often faced the end with a radiant calm.
Fighting the Orcs
Muslim militants sometimes seem filled with fierce demonic energy in their rage and hatred of their putative enemies. The militants resemble Manichean warriors fighting wholly evil enemies. Such was Tolkien's Fellowship of the Ring when they fought the Orcs (zombie warriors) who served an evil wizard. The Orcs were evil and dangerous — and they were hideous.
Some Muslim militants talk as though Americans and Jews are the moral equivalent of Orcs. This kind of talk is not entirely hyperbole. The hatred, execration, and poisoned imagination behind the polemical words are real enough. The trick for us is going to be to fight and defeat the militants with no illusions about their evil or how dangerous they are, but never giving in to the Manichean impulse to regard them as Orcs. We must defeat them and we must not become like them.
Some pagans have resisted the Manichean temptation. After perhaps half of the army of Zulu warriors were killed at Roark's Drift, they lifted their spears and chanted the praises of their enemy. They bestowed honor upon the brave little band of British defenders and recognized them as fellow warriors and worthy opponents. Then they peacefully returned home. They did not regard the British as Orcs. The Zulus were a splendid model of manly courage, elan de corps, and magnanimity towards their enemies. These ignorant, semi-naked pagans were an outstanding example to the Christian warrior. Be courageous and spirited in the fight but do not demonize your human enemies.
Muslims did not behave like Manicheans during the historical era when they led the world in wealth, power, knowledge and prestige. But now that the Islamic world has fallen to a low estate and is in a time of crisis, a certain number of demoralized Muslims have fallen into the temptation of Manicheism.
When Alan Keyes confronted the Arab spokesmen of the PLO on TV with the moral outrage of terrorism he exposed the moral bankruptcy of Manicheism. The Arab spokesmen were unwilling or unable to think of terrorism in moral terms unless it is was tightly wound in a demonized conception of Israel. It was like trying to make the Fellowship of the Ring feel guilty for slaughtering Orcs. "We are talking about Orcs — don't you know what an Orc is?" The PLO spokesmen tried to say, "Mr. Keyes, we are talking about Israel! Don't you understand about the immorality — the abomination of Israel!" Keyes' response was, "No, we are talking about the random murder of innocent human beings living peacefully in civilian life!" (They are not Orcs. They are people.) One must pretend that someone is less than a human being before he can take pride and pleasure in killing them.
Apocalyptic Thinking
Galadriel the Elf queen placed an extremely heavy burden on Frodo, the Hobbit, who was the ring bearer. She showed him visions of the conquest of Middle Earth if he failed in his mission. It was an extremely difficult and dangerous mission. This is the kind of crushing burden which Manicheism places upon its votaries.
Why did Tolkien, a devout Christian, lapse into Manicheism when describing epic battles? Tolkien's circle of fiends of King Edwards School and Oxford was bonded together by the love of ancient languages and Anglo-Saxon and Norse mythology. All went to fight in World War I. All but Tolkien died. When he was in the trenches during the mass bloodletting of the battle of the Somme, he started working on ideas for a tale about epic battles for Middle Earth.
Perhaps when Tolkien subsequently wrote about battles, he was overwhelmed by flashback memories of violent cataclysm in the trenches, his grief for the death of his beloved companions, and his fear of attacks by a huge, formidably powerful and apparently evil enemy army. Therefore, Tolkien must have suffered traumatic feelings when he wrote about the fellowship of the ring in confrontation with Ringwraiths, Orcs, Goblins and other monsters. Emotionally and imaginatively, Tolkien was a Manichean.
Muslim Pathology
We are constantly hearing about wars between Muslims and their neighbors in many lands. Daily there are news reports of terror attacks and high tensions in many places. The strident hostility of Muslims against their neighbors has been increasing around the world since 1948, the year which marked the bloody partition of India, the creation of the state of Israel, and the defeat of the armies of five Muslim nations by tiny Israel. By the end of the century, the Muslim pathology had grown into global crisis — almost equivalent in scope and danger to the cold war at the height of its tensions.
Why? I think it is a defacto Manicheism that haunts and torments the declining Islamic world. If you see all of life as a battle between good and evil and the evil infidels seem to be winning, then every slight from strangers, aliens, and foreign powers might seem like a personal invitation to fight. If you see whole societies as evil, and their "evil presence" oppresses you, it might make terrorism, the ultimate wickedness, seem more palatable and less unthinkable.
Why is Islam more prone to Manicheism than Christianity? Before we can solve the riddle, we must answer two key questions: 1) Why were the Muslims of certain periods of history relatively free from Manicheism but at other times prone to it; and 2) What does Christianity have which Islam lacks which supplies a buffer against the temptation to a Manichean response to a crisis?
The Rise and Fall of Muslim Triumphalism
After the death of Mohammed, the armies of Islam exploded out of Arabia and rapidly conquered the Middle East, western Asia, the North African coast and Spain. The Muslim warriors were certain that Allah was on their side and that the whole world was destined to fall under the dominion of Islam. They had a triumphal militancy for their Monotheistic universal religion — a religion which is designed for all mankind. This is quite a bit different from the Manichean militancy of the Muslim terrorists of our time who are fighting the rearguard battles of a declining civilization.
After the century of conquests in the seventh century, there was nine hundred years of the growth, expansion, and consolidation of the Islamic dominions. Islam spread through war and proselytizing from the Middle East to central Asia, India, Southeast Asia, and the northern third of Africa. Islamic potentates ruled perhaps one third of the world's people. It was a vast global dominion greater than the Spanish empire of 1600 and equivalent in scope, power, and wealth to the British empire in 1900 and to American economic and military dominance in the year 2000.
Meanwhile, the Arabic world at the core of Muslim civilization blossomed economically, culturally, and intellectually. By 1000 AD, Islam stood at the head of the world's people and the contemporary Europe of the Dark Ages was at the tail. The Crusades launched by a militant, rapidly awakening but semi-barbarous Europe of 1100 was temporarily successful — mainly because of a temporary Muslim political weakness caused by internal divisions and the immense disruptions caused by the attacks of the Seljuk Turks. Europe was no real rival for Islamic civilization until 1500 AD and no real threat to Islam until about 1700.
Islam was in the top ranks of the world powers from around 800 AD to 1500. A calm, confident triumphalism prevailed during this era of Muslim glory. Muslims rested secure in the certainty of the superiority of their civilization and in the eventual triumph of Allah over every tribe on earth. They had no temptation to Manicheism. The Manichean heresy was hateful to them. They rested in the certain knowledge that Allah was vastly more powerful than any evil enemy force. The Seljuk disruptions and the Crusades were an anomaly — an evil barbarian tide which was gradually pushed back by the patient opposition of civilized, refined, and courtly generals like Saladin.
From 1500 to 1700 Muslims and Europeans were rivals of roughly equal strength. As Europe colonized North and South America and got a foothold in India, Africa, and ports of the far east, the Muslim Ottoman Empire extended its dominions and hegemony in all directions. Muslim rulers consolidated and expanded their dominions of southeast Asia and northern Africa and resisted the British East India Company in India. The battles between Ottoman Turk and European arms were often close contests. Muslim and Christians merchants were rivals for world trade.
During the period 1700 AD — 1850, European power rose very rapidly and flattened the Muslim world like a steamroller. The Brits took India and pushed the Mogul rulers out. By 1850 most of the Muslim world was reduced to being colonies of European nations. After the Crimean war the once mighty Ottoman state become the "sick man" of the world powers. European Civilization marched at the head of nations and the humiliated Islamic civilization was pushed to the rear.
Even after gaining independence after World War II and enjoying oil wealth in the Middle East, the economic and intellectual gap between the Arab states and the west continued to widen until the present time. The feelings of inferiority and weakness were aggravated by the stunning defeats at the hands of Israel.
The old triumphal pride of Muslim supremacy was long gone and bitter memories of a crushing humiliation remained. The dream of a resurgent Arab nationalism was sunk in the sands of Israel with the wrecks of Nasser's army. The incredible corruption, incompetence, and wickedness of the Arab oil-rich states perpetuated the long nightmare of a soul-sick and dysfunctional Islam.
Beginning as a small extremist fringe group in 1948, the Manichean terrorist movement grew steadily from 1948 until 9/11/01. America as the leader of the west has become its principal target.
The Christian Immune System
The Christian God is both transcendent and immanent. He is a God who is far above us and a God who is near to us. Because of His transcendent infinitude, His powers are far beyond the evil powers of the earth. He is a God who is near to mankind because God the Son became a man and lived on earth. God is very near to the believer because the Holy Spirit indwells the believer. He is a personal God who answers prayer. During times of crisis God often imparts an especially powerful sense of His personal presence. Thus, the Christian knows he is not forsaken by God to fight evil all alone on this dark earth. He enjoys a reliable sense that God is with him during the battle. He knows that ultimately, the battle is the Lord's and that God will prevail in the end. He fights knowing that he is in God's hands, not the enemy's hands.
Muslims have a God who is far but not a God who is near. They have no strong sense of the immediate presence of God. Victory and prosperity are embraced by Muslims as tokens of his favor. This is why the Islamic Civilization in its glory days seemed to be generally free from a temptation to Manicheism. But after a long train of humiliations, the traumatized Muslim is sorely tempted to despair.
The Arab world is essentially tribal, clannish, and ingrown. Collective despair tends to be manifested as paranoia, hysteria, bitterness, and collective hatreds. It is fertile ground for conspiracy theories and Manichean doctrines of perpetual war against evil. These deceived and forlorn men are energized and tormented by the satanic energy of hate. But the Apostle assures us that greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world (1 John 4:4).
A message from Stephen Stone, President, RenewAmericaI first became acquainted with Fred Hutchison in December 2003, when he contacted me about an article he was interested in writing for RenewAmerica about Alan Keyes. From that auspicious moment until God took him a little more than six years later, we published over 200 of Fred's incomparable essays — usually on some vital aspect of the modern "culture war," written with wit and disarming logic from Fred's brilliant perspective of history, philosophy, science, and scripture.
It was obvious to me from the beginning that Fred was in a class by himself among American conservative writers, and I was honored to feature his insights at RA.
I greatly miss Fred, who died of a brain tumor on August 10, 2010. What a gentle — yet profoundly powerful — voice of reason and godly truth! I'm delighted to see his remarkable essays on the history of conservatism brought together in a masterfully-edited volume by Julie Klusty. Restoring History is a wonderful tribute to a truly great man.
The book is available at Amazon.com.
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