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@taylorclogston I’m glad you mentioned the ideas: “sufficiently advanced science is indistinguishable from magic” and “sufficiently analyzed magic is indistinguishable from science”. The fact that they resonate deeply with you explains your starting point a lot more to me. And when I say that those same ideas are ones that I have been more and more desiring to steer clear of and avoid, it may explain to you some of my basic starting points as well.

It it my personal opinion that those ideas tend to cast our understanding of reality through a naturalistic/materialistic lens, because it lends towards a rational explanation for everything, even the things we cannot understand. To me, that isn’t an adequate analog to reality, in which we find many profound truths which we cannot rationally explain/fully comprehend and yet we hold them to be true. In addition, I sense that those ideas are soon to become (if not already) a trope in speculative fiction. But that, too, is just my personal opinion. There is still something innately interesting which draws me in to those ideas, and so I think there will always be merit to exploring that dynamic within our writing.

Also, I think it is worth mentioning that I am not in favor of sheer mysticism devoid of any grounding in reality. Like Tolkien delineated in the letter that you shared, the magic users in Middle Earth have those traits by nature of what they are. In other words, the magic is a natural, organic part of the way the world works.

When I contended for a necessary element of transcendence in my original comment concerning magic systems, I did not mean to imply that the magic itself wasn’t something natural to that world, or even that the magic users should only have their abilities as a divine gift, instead of as part of their nature. What I was arguing for, albeit poorly, was that the magic system must point beyond this world in some way. Personally, this is how I experience the magic in The Lord of the Rings. I know that it is something native to the elves, wizards, and etc., and therefore there is an element of earthiness to it that can’t be denied. And yet still there is something about it all which points beyond the present reality, to something which cannot be understood. Tom Bombadil is an excellent portrayal of this dynamic. He’s imminently earthy, and yet incomprehensible.

Lastly, I concur with you that the Greek Orthodox church does an excellent job of cultivating an atmosphere of awesomeness and holiness – not just in their liturgy (though it does come out there), but also in their doctrinal focuses. I was mentioning this to a friend just the other day, so it’s a strange coincidence that you should say the same thing a few days later! I concur – there is something deeply lacking about the glib theologizing that goes on in the Protestant church today. There is art, substance, and heart to the Gospel which cannot be fully explained or delineated by any collection of doctrinal phrases. We would do well to stand more in awe of the sheer beauty of God and everything that He has done.