The Desolation of Smaug: Exploring our Humanity and Need for Recovery through The Hobbit

The Desolation of Smaug, the second in a trilogy of The Hobbit films, tells a continuous story set in Middle-Earth 60 years before The Lord of the Rings. Adapting J.R.R. Tolkien’s enduring fairy tale for the screen, Academy Award-winning director Peter Jackson and his film-making team have introduced the long-awaited dragon, Smaug, in an extraordinary film that is set for release on December 13, 2013. The Desolation of Smaug continues the adventure of Bilbo Baggins, Gandalf, and thirteen dwarves on an epic quest to reclaim the lost kingdom of Eregor.

C.S. Lewis argued that “the first qualification for judging any piece of workmanship from a corkscrew to a cathedral is to know what it is – what it was intended to do and how it is meant to be used.” Living in an age that has largely dismissed the cardinal virtues of goodness, beauty, and truth (in favor of inclusivism, multiculturalism, and environmentalism), how can The Hobbit refocus our attention on important themes, messages, and morals to give us a better understanding of our true humanity and dignity and propel us back into the full romance of living life in relationship with God through Christ? Whether you are seeing the film on opening night or are waiting a few days, join our webinar that will increase your understanding of the story and prepare you to see a film that will awaken desire, free you from the drab of triteness and familiarity, move you to wonder, open your eyes to eucatastrophe, and prepare you to share its true meaning with others.

“If a fairy-story as a kind is worth reading at all,” Tolkien wrote, “it is worthy to be written for and read by adults. They will, of course, put more in and get more out than children.” Whether a child or an adult, we must come to the book and to the film as Andrew Lang has suggested: “He would enter into the Kingdom of Faerie should have the heart of a little child.”