The Heresy of Middle Earth
Here is an article written by Sam Koenen to be printed in our church newsletter (if we can get it started again):
Thanks to J.R.R. Tolkien and the recent Lord of the Rings movies, the medieval phrase "middle earth" is a common way to refer to the Earth on which we dwell. Our Earth is the "middle" because it is between Heaven and Hell, the upper and lower earths, respectively. According to the medieval use of this term, "middle earth" referred to everything in creation whose proper "geographic" place was on the planet Earth. These "middle things" would include man—to begin with—but also stones, trees, animals, fruit, clouds, hills, books, tables, cars, and so on. Angels and demons would not be "middle things," although they do occur in Middle Earth. In short, "middle things" are not the specific property of either Heaven or Hell; they are objects that were created good by God, and can be used either for their intended purpose or can be corrupted by perverted use.
At the end of Preface to Paradise Lost, C. S. Lewis refers to "middle things" as he critiques a theory that says all literature should contain penitential qualities; that is, all literature should be pious and contain none of the mythology or pagan elements of an earlier time. Lewis begins his critique by saying, "As long as we live in merry middle earth, it is necessary to have middle things. If the round table is abolished, for every one who rises to the level of Galahad, a hundred will drop plumb down to that of Mordred."1 In other words, removing from stories things that are not necessarily pious—things like Arthur’s round table—will not give our literature the ability to make its reader more holy. In fact, the opposite will more often be the case—literature that is merely pious and contains none of the "middle things" creates more villains than saints.
As a historical example, Lewis reminds us about the Puritans and their attempts to remove everything from culture that was not absolutely pious: "It has all been tried before. The older Puritans took away the maypoles and the mince-pies: but they did not bring in the millenium, they only brought in the Restoration."2 Because of a disdain for "middle things," much of the cultural reformation accomplished by the Puritans, was undone within two generations.
So what is it about middle things that make them so important to cultural reformation? According to Lewis’s discussion above, creation has an important part to play in the spread of the gospel. Trees, books, and tables affect the way that people receive the good news. The absence of middle things in a gospel world leads to villains; their presence creates noble saints. To explain why this is we must first see what Scripture says about middle things and what we are to do with them.
Genesis 1 clearly states that all things were created good (1:31). This goodness, of course, must refer to the nature of a thing, since it would be silly to say (at this point) that a tree was good morally. The Fall brings a curse on all of creation, but this does not destroy the essential goodness of creation. Even in a fallen world, food and drink are good things ("give us our daily bread"); flowers and shade are good gifts from the Father of Lights (Js. 1:17). Furthermore, just as God’s people yearn for the curse to be lifted, so creation longs to be free from its bondage to decay (Rom. 8:21ff.). Thus, all middle things are good in their most basic essence; they are naturally good.
Psalm 104 helps further illustrate this natural goodness in an important way. Verses 14 and 15 say, "You cause the grass to grow for the livestock and plants for man to cultivate, that he may bring forth food from the earth and wine to gladden the heart of man, oil to make his face shine and bread to strengthen man’s heart." Notice the middle things that are mentioned in these verses: grass, plants, food, wine, oil, bread. From the context of these verses and even our own experience, we know that these things are good things. But what is also important to see from this text is that the Lord gives us these things as gifts: "When you give [food] to them, they gather it up; when you open your hand, they are filled with good things" (v. 28, emphasis added). Finally, notice the purpose of these gifts; they are intended not only for survival, but also to "gladden the heart of man...to make his face shine...to strengthen man’s heart." These gifts are blessings that give us joy, beauty, and courage—essential blessings to live obediently. To say it another way, middle things aid our salvation; bread, eaten with faith, helps save us. Thus, all middle things are not only naturally good, they are also necessary sacramental blessings.
I mean "sacramental" the way Calvin defines it in the Institutes: "a testimony of divine grace toward us, confirmed by an outward sign, with mutual attestation of our piety toward him."3 This definition describes middle things perfectly: they are "testimonies of divine grace" that aid us in our salvation, and must be received as gifts—that is, "with mutual attestation of our piety toward him." Thus, all middle things are naturally good sacramental gifts that help us in our salvation and must be received by us as gifts.
If we now return to our initial discussion, we will begin to see how middle things are essential in the spread of the gospel. A gospel that teaches its disciples to rejoice in food, drink, trees, books as good gifts from God, and that teaches them to use these gifts correctly produces mature Christians. A gospel that rejects or ignores middle things produces Christians who misunderstand the sacramental purpose of creation; thus, they miss a great number of the blessings the Lord gives them. As we can see from Church history, such a gospel leads inevitably to Pharisees and gnostics, men who try to gain the kingdom of God by rejecting the earthly, homely manifestations of this very kingdom.
This, then, is the heresy of middle earth: by studying your Bible only, you can lose your soul. By thinking too much of heavenly things and ignoring middle things, you can lose your footing and fall headlong into Hell.4 To some, this will indeed sound like heresy; to others, it is the very gospel of Jesus Christ, the One who told the Pharisees, "You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life" (John 5:39-40). Christ’s words serve as a warning to us: it is still possible to be a Pharisee or a Gnostic. Both ways lead to lives devoid of the joy that comes from rejoicing in God’s good gifts; some lives lived this way too long end in eternal death.
This truth about middle things is, after all, the way of salvation—of Heaven-become-Earth, of God-become-Man. So then, let us chose the way of middle earth, the way of middle things, of heavenly blessings in good, earthly form.
1 Preface to Paradise Lost (New York: Oxford UP, 1961), p. 137.
2 ibid.
3 Institutes of the Christian Religion, ed. John T. McNeill (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1960), p. 1277. There are, of course, only two ecclesiastical sacraments—baptism and the Lord’s Supper. I’m not proposing we increase the number of sacraments; I only hope to increase our awareness of the sacramental nature of God’s covenantal blessings.
4 I am not saying a true believer can lose his salvation. Some men deceive themselves about their righteousness (the Pharisees of the NT) and end up in Hell. Others escape condemnation "only as through fire" (1 Cor. 3:15); they make it to heaven but have lead joyless lives marked by a denial of God’s earthly covenantal blessings. Such a life would be "hellish" in the truest sense.
Thanks to J.R.R. Tolkien and the recent Lord of the Rings movies, the medieval phrase "middle earth" is a common way to refer to the Earth on which we dwell. Our Earth is the "middle" because it is between Heaven and Hell, the upper and lower earths, respectively. According to the medieval use of this term, "middle earth" referred to everything in creation whose proper "geographic" place was on the planet Earth. These "middle things" would include man—to begin with—but also stones, trees, animals, fruit, clouds, hills, books, tables, cars, and so on. Angels and demons would not be "middle things," although they do occur in Middle Earth. In short, "middle things" are not the specific property of either Heaven or Hell; they are objects that were created good by God, and can be used either for their intended purpose or can be corrupted by perverted use.
At the end of Preface to Paradise Lost, C. S. Lewis refers to "middle things" as he critiques a theory that says all literature should contain penitential qualities; that is, all literature should be pious and contain none of the mythology or pagan elements of an earlier time. Lewis begins his critique by saying, "As long as we live in merry middle earth, it is necessary to have middle things. If the round table is abolished, for every one who rises to the level of Galahad, a hundred will drop plumb down to that of Mordred."1 In other words, removing from stories things that are not necessarily pious—things like Arthur’s round table—will not give our literature the ability to make its reader more holy. In fact, the opposite will more often be the case—literature that is merely pious and contains none of the "middle things" creates more villains than saints.
As a historical example, Lewis reminds us about the Puritans and their attempts to remove everything from culture that was not absolutely pious: "It has all been tried before. The older Puritans took away the maypoles and the mince-pies: but they did not bring in the millenium, they only brought in the Restoration."2 Because of a disdain for "middle things," much of the cultural reformation accomplished by the Puritans, was undone within two generations.
So what is it about middle things that make them so important to cultural reformation? According to Lewis’s discussion above, creation has an important part to play in the spread of the gospel. Trees, books, and tables affect the way that people receive the good news. The absence of middle things in a gospel world leads to villains; their presence creates noble saints. To explain why this is we must first see what Scripture says about middle things and what we are to do with them.
Genesis 1 clearly states that all things were created good (1:31). This goodness, of course, must refer to the nature of a thing, since it would be silly to say (at this point) that a tree was good morally. The Fall brings a curse on all of creation, but this does not destroy the essential goodness of creation. Even in a fallen world, food and drink are good things ("give us our daily bread"); flowers and shade are good gifts from the Father of Lights (Js. 1:17). Furthermore, just as God’s people yearn for the curse to be lifted, so creation longs to be free from its bondage to decay (Rom. 8:21ff.). Thus, all middle things are good in their most basic essence; they are naturally good.
Psalm 104 helps further illustrate this natural goodness in an important way. Verses 14 and 15 say, "You cause the grass to grow for the livestock and plants for man to cultivate, that he may bring forth food from the earth and wine to gladden the heart of man, oil to make his face shine and bread to strengthen man’s heart." Notice the middle things that are mentioned in these verses: grass, plants, food, wine, oil, bread. From the context of these verses and even our own experience, we know that these things are good things. But what is also important to see from this text is that the Lord gives us these things as gifts: "When you give [food] to them, they gather it up; when you open your hand, they are filled with good things" (v. 28, emphasis added). Finally, notice the purpose of these gifts; they are intended not only for survival, but also to "gladden the heart of man...to make his face shine...to strengthen man’s heart." These gifts are blessings that give us joy, beauty, and courage—essential blessings to live obediently. To say it another way, middle things aid our salvation; bread, eaten with faith, helps save us. Thus, all middle things are not only naturally good, they are also necessary sacramental blessings.
I mean "sacramental" the way Calvin defines it in the Institutes: "a testimony of divine grace toward us, confirmed by an outward sign, with mutual attestation of our piety toward him."3 This definition describes middle things perfectly: they are "testimonies of divine grace" that aid us in our salvation, and must be received as gifts—that is, "with mutual attestation of our piety toward him." Thus, all middle things are naturally good sacramental gifts that help us in our salvation and must be received by us as gifts.
If we now return to our initial discussion, we will begin to see how middle things are essential in the spread of the gospel. A gospel that teaches its disciples to rejoice in food, drink, trees, books as good gifts from God, and that teaches them to use these gifts correctly produces mature Christians. A gospel that rejects or ignores middle things produces Christians who misunderstand the sacramental purpose of creation; thus, they miss a great number of the blessings the Lord gives them. As we can see from Church history, such a gospel leads inevitably to Pharisees and gnostics, men who try to gain the kingdom of God by rejecting the earthly, homely manifestations of this very kingdom.
This, then, is the heresy of middle earth: by studying your Bible only, you can lose your soul. By thinking too much of heavenly things and ignoring middle things, you can lose your footing and fall headlong into Hell.4 To some, this will indeed sound like heresy; to others, it is the very gospel of Jesus Christ, the One who told the Pharisees, "You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life" (John 5:39-40). Christ’s words serve as a warning to us: it is still possible to be a Pharisee or a Gnostic. Both ways lead to lives devoid of the joy that comes from rejoicing in God’s good gifts; some lives lived this way too long end in eternal death.
This truth about middle things is, after all, the way of salvation—of Heaven-become-Earth, of God-become-Man. So then, let us chose the way of middle earth, the way of middle things, of heavenly blessings in good, earthly form.
1 Preface to Paradise Lost (New York: Oxford UP, 1961), p. 137.
2 ibid.
3 Institutes of the Christian Religion, ed. John T. McNeill (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1960), p. 1277. There are, of course, only two ecclesiastical sacraments—baptism and the Lord’s Supper. I’m not proposing we increase the number of sacraments; I only hope to increase our awareness of the sacramental nature of God’s covenantal blessings.
4 I am not saying a true believer can lose his salvation. Some men deceive themselves about their righteousness (the Pharisees of the NT) and end up in Hell. Others escape condemnation "only as through fire" (1 Cor. 3:15); they make it to heaven but have lead joyless lives marked by a denial of God’s earthly covenantal blessings. Such a life would be "hellish" in the truest sense.
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