Joe Loconte: The War for Middle – Earth

Socrates in the City

Society & Culture

4.7 • 537 Ratings

🗓️ 3 October 2025

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

“Evil labors with vast power and perpetual success – in vain: preparing always only the soil for unexpected good to sprout in.” —J.R.R. Tolkien

What does it mean to cling to truth, beauty, and goodness in the shadow of history’s darkest hours? Can goodness truly spring forth from evil?

These questions lie at the heart of this Socrates in the City conversation with historian Joseph Loconte. The discussion focuses on J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, two literary giants who wrote their masterpieces in the aftermath of World War II. In his latest book, The War for Middle-earth: J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis Confront the Gathering Storm, 1933–1945, Loconte—together with SITC host Eric Metaxas—traces how the devastation of World War II shaped both the friendship and the imaginations of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, inspiring them to create works that continue to illuminate the battle between good and evil.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Socrates in the studio, which is part of Socrates in the city.
0:06.0	The city we're in is New York City.
0:09.0	Today, my guest, I am really very happy to say, is a very dear friend, Joe LaCante.
0:18.0	But if you weren't my friend, I would just tell you about what he's done.
0:22.6	So let's pretend for a moment. Let's see. He is the director of the Rivendell Center in New York City.
0:28.2	He's a presidential scholar at the new college of Florida. He's the CS-Lewis Scholar for Public Life at Grove City College.
0:34.5	And he also serves as senior fellow at the Sagamore Institute
0:38.0	and the Trinity Forum. He's best known for his New York Times bestseller, A Hobbit,
0:44.9	a Wardrobe, and a Great War, how J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis rediscovered faith,
0:50.2	friendship, and heroism in the cataclysm of 1914 through 1918.
0:56.1	He's written a book called God, Locke, and Liberty,
1:00.6	The Struggle for Religious Freedom in the West,
1:03.3	The Searchers, A Quest for Faith in the Valley of Doubt,
1:07.1	and other terrific books that I can recommend.
1:10.6	It's my privilege to speak to my friend.
1:12.6	Joe LaCante. Joe, welcome. Eric, it is terrific to be with you. A real pleasure and privilege,
1:16.8	my friend. Great to be back. I'm already laughing inside, and we haven't even started. We haven't
1:21.0	started. You really, one of the things we've been friends for so long is your love for C.S. Lewis.
1:28.3	Yes.
1:29.3	I have never really been particularly familiar with Tolkien,
1:33.3	but anytime you hang around with people who love Lewis,
1:36.3	you're hanging around with people who love Tolkien.
	...

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