In 1936 J. R. R. Tolkien gave a lecture to the British Academy on the Anglo-Saxon poem Beowulf. The primary point of this lecture, and its subsequent publication as “The Monsters and the Critics,” was to offer a defense of studying the Anglo-Saxon poem Beowulf as a poetic work. That proposition may sound obvious: we should study a book as the type of book it is. Yet Tolkien was convinced that this needed to be re-emphasized because of the way Beowulf had largely been studied among scholars in his day. Tolkien characterized the “whole industry” of Beowulf scholarship with the following allegory:
A man inherited a field in which was an accumulation of old stone, part of an older hall. Of the old stone some had already been used in building the house in which he actually lived, not far from the old house of his fathers. Of the rest he took some and built a tower. But his friends perceived at once (without troubling to climb the steps) that these stones had formerly belonged to a more ancient building. So they pushed the tower over, with no little labor, in order to look for hidden carvings and inscriptions, or to discover whence the man’s distant forefathers had obtained their building material. Some suspecting a deposit of coal under the soil began to dig for it, and forgot even the stones. They all said “This tower is most interesting.” And even the man’s own descendants, who might have been expected to consider what he had been about, were heard to murmur: “He is such an odd fellow! Imagine his using these old stones to build a nonsensical tower! Why did not he restore the old house? He had no sense of proportion.” But from the top of that tower the man had been able to look out upon the sea (The Monsters and Critics, pgs. 7–8).
This allegory captures Tolkien’s frustration that scholarly critics could seemingly neither analyze nor enjoy the tower/poem of Beowulf simply as a poem. Rather, Tolkien saw that their scholarly and interpretive endeavors had allegorically “pushed the tower over.” But in doing so, as Tolkien’s metaphor seeks to make plain, they were unable to appreciate what the original Beowulf poet had appreciated and still invites all readers to enjoy today, to “look out upon the sea”—to be able to appreciate a vista or perspective that can only be seen when reading the story of Beowulf as the original poet had intended, that is, as a poem.
At Bethlehem College and Seminary we seek to teach students to do just that: to take a book, an essay, or any other piece of writing, as the author originally intended it to be taken. This is especially true in reading and studying the Bible. For one way we can fail to read God’s Word as he intended is if we get caught up in “pushing the tower over” in overly meticulous or speculative analysis. Hermeneutical tools can indeed be helpful in trying to understand what a text says. We use such tools all the time at Bethlehem: from arcing, parsing, studying the original languages, etc. But our use of such tools should never get us lost in the minutiae of the “stones” that make up “the tower” of the text. Our reading and studying of a text should propel us up the steps of the tower to be “able to look out upon the sea” of God’s glory!
Thank you for your support of Bethlehem College and Seminary where we are seeking to train students to do just this with not only the Bible, but all works. Please pray for our new incoming students this fall as we continue to seek to spread a passion for the supremacy of God in all things for the joy of all peoples through Jesus Christ by equipping men and women to treasure Christ above all things, to grow in wisdom and knowledge over a lifetime, and to glorify God in every sphere of life.
James McGlothlin, Ph.D.
Associate Dean of College Programs & Associate Professor of Philosophy and Theology