[MD] Boromir's Journey

[John Carl]

Steve,
Before I read my man, Jacques Ellul, on the Word vs. the Image, I read
another book of his contrasting Faith and Belief, which has had a big part
in forming my ideas on the subject.

My idea is that belief, like dogma, is a possession of our ego.  It's
something we own - MY belief.

Belief is confidence in my preconcieved idea.  Belief resides in self.

Faith, on the other hand, is contingent upon an other.  There's a reaching
out in faith.  A reaching out to something beyond my dogmatic ideas, an
expectant waiting to be filled.

Your showcasing Boromir was an insightful contrast on these two different
mental states.  All the fellowship believed in the power of the ring, but
Boromir chose to follow the hard facts at hand, whereas the others had faith
that if they did the good thing, good would triumph in the end.

nice,

John




On Mon, Sep 21, 2009 at 11:54 AM, Steve Peterson
<peterson.steve at gmail.com>wrote:

> Hi All,
>
> I was thinking about Boromir of Lord of the Rings. He was the great warrior
> from Gondor who betrayed the Fellowship and tried to steal the ring from
> Frodo causing Frodo to flea and continue the quest alone joined only by Sam.
>
> Boromir's Journey was the failure of the Hero's Journey. Boromir answered
> the call but was not fully committed himself to the quest. The others were
> devoted to the quest regardless of the chances of success. Boromir did not
> lack any belief that the others had. There is no talk of belief in a higher
> authority where Boromir did not believe or did not believe as strongly as
> the others in that higher authority to set things right. When he argued that
> their task was impossible, none of the others could disagree. I don't think
> he had any different assessment of the probability of success for the
> Fellowship's task as any other members of the Fellowship, yet he was in
> great despair, and the others were not--at least not to the degree that
> Boromir was. I think the others had faith and that Boromir's lack of faith
> destroyed him and that his lack of faith was not a lack of belief. The
> difference was not the presence of absence of an intellectual structure but
> an attitude toward the world or trust in the process of life.
>
> Though he is a fictional character, the self-destruction of Boromir rings
> true to me. There is something to faith that is not about belief but about
> something else that needs to be better articulated. It is something that is
> important to both believers and nonbelievers. I think the opposite of the
> sort of faith that Boromir's story is an allegory for is not disbelief but
> despair and that faith of this sort is not assenting to factual claims but
> letting go and being comfortable with not being in control of everything. It
> is possible to believe that God exists and that the Bible is true and still
> despair. So even religious beliefs do not exhaust faith. I think it is also
> saying "yes" to life. It is possible to not believe in a divine authority
> and still feel that the universe is unfolding exactly as it should be often
> in spite of the facts. It is an attitude tied up in beauty. It is the
> understanding that the world of our desires--the world that does not include
> illness, death, and conflict--is not as beautiful and perfect as the world
> as it actually is.
>
> I don't think it is a stretch to say that the story of Boromir is a story
> about faith since Tolkien was a Christian and is viewed as a Christian
> writer, so faith is the sort of issue that we may expect him to address in
> his fiction.
>
> What do you think? Is faith the same as factual belief as fundamentalists
> seem to be saying it is? Or is faith something that is independent of belief
> as in the case of Boromir? Can you help me articulate what it is?
>
> If belief is a habit of action, as the pragmatists say, is all action best
> described as some belief? Is faith--the aspect of faith that does not
> concern factual belief--something that could benefit from a pragmatist's
> re-describing now that religion fails to speak to so many of us?
>
> What does any of this have to do with the MOQ? I don't know, maybe you can
> tell me?
>
> Could I be any more geeky than to philosophize about elves, dwarves, and
> hobbits? Probably not. Can you think of any parallels to Boromir's story in
> less nerdy culture?
>
> Best,
> Steve
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