PhD Oral Exam - Joseph Vietri, Individualized Program

When studying for a doctoral degree (PhD), candidates submit a thesis that provides a critical review of the current state of knowledge of the thesis subject as well as the student’s own contributions to the subject. The distinguishing criterion of doctoral graduate research is a significant and original contribution to knowledge.

Once accepted, the candidate presents the thesis orally. This oral exam is open to the public.

Abstract

This thesis explores the role played by love in the works of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien. Need-love and Gift-love, as Lewis identifies them, are circular and interconnected. To reject one aspect would be to reject the entire human condition. More importantly, as creatures made in the image of a Creator, a Creator identified as Love, the ultimate Need and Gift-love can be found in God. Through a study of Lewis and Tolkien’s fiction, particularly The Chronicles of Narnia and The Lord of the Rings, this dissertation seeks to highlight the way in which love is portrayed as a central emotion for these authors. It will also highlight the role of free will, the ability to freely choose who to love. For both Lewis and Tolkien, it is this freedom which makes humans relational beings. Not only can we connect with one another, but it is only through this freedom that we can truly turn towards our Maker. Having established this important theological framework, emphasis will also be placed on the appropriation of stories like those of Cupid and Psyche and Orpheus and Eurydice to show how both thinkers attempted to connect their fiction to well-known stories. For the value and importance of stories are not only to entertain, but to also teach moral lessons. These lessons can be found scattered within the depictions of the worlds of Narnia and Middle-Earth.