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+# Eschatological Myth and Civilizational Decline
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+### A Comparative Reading of Tolkien and Latter-day Saint Scripture
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+
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+## Overview
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+
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+This study explores the recurring mythic patterns of civilizational decline
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+across **Tolkien’s legendarium** and **the Latter-day Saint scriptural
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+corpus** (Book of Mormon, Doctrine & Covenants, and Pearl of Great Price).
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+
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+Rather than treating these texts as prophetic or doctrinally prescriptive, the
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+goal is to read them **mythically** — as symbolic maps of how societies behave
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+when approaching their own twilight.
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+
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+> “The shadow is only a small and passing thing: there is light and high
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+> beauty for ever beyond its reach.” — *The Return of the King*
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+
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+---
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+
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+## Purpose and Scope
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+- Identify **shared archetypal structures** of societal rise, corruption, and fall.
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+- Treat myth and scripture as **anthropological case studies** of decline.
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+- Examine what these patterns imply for **modern civilization’s trajectory**.
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+- Avoid apologetic or theological argumentation — focus on **mythic psychology** and **cultural diagnostics**.
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+
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+---
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+
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+## Methodology
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+1. **Comparative Mythic Reading**
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+ - Use Tolkien’s “sub-creation” and scriptural cosmology as parallel mythic systems.
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+ - Focus on **archetypes**, not literal correspondences.
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+2. **Pattern Recognition**
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+ - Identify repeating civilizational motifs (unity → expansion → corruption → collapse → remnant).
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+3. **Application**
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+ - Map these mythic stages onto **modern socio-cultural dynamics** (technological hubris, loss of transcendence, etc.).
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+
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+---
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+
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+## Archetypal Parallels
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+
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+| Archetype | LDS Scripture | Tolkien | Modern Echo |
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+|------------|---------------|----------|--------------|
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+| **Fall from Unity** | Tower of Babel, Nephite divisions | Sundering of the Elves, Númenor’s pride | Cultural fragmentation, tribalized truth |
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+| **Corruption of Stewardship** | Secret combinations, pride cycles | Denethor’s despair, Saruman’s technocracy | Institutional rot, technocratic dominance |
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+| **Withdrawal of the Sacred** | Christ’s departure, loss of prophets | Fading of the Valar, departure of the Elves | Disenchantment, secularism, nihilism |
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+| **Remnant Consciousness** | Mormon/Moroni, faithful remnant | Frodo, Sam, Faramir | Marginal keepers of meaning and memory |
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+| **False Salvation** | Gadianton oaths, false Christs | The Ring, promises of “order” | Ideological utopias, control through systems |
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+| **Cleansing Cataclysm** | Nephite destruction, Second Coming | Fall of Barad-dûr, end of the Third Age | Global collapse, cultural reset |
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+| **Revelation of Renewal** | Christ’s visit, New Jerusalem | Fourth Age of Men | Possible re-enchantment, rebirth through humility |
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+
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+---
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+
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+## Structural Phases of Decline
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+
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+### 1. **Record Phase – Foundation**
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+Creation of sacred order and stewardship.
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+- *Nephi’s exodus* / *Elros and Númenor’s founding*
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+- Obedience, divine favor, clarity of purpose.
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+
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+### 2. **Expansion Phase – Prosperity and Pride**
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+Growth leads to forgetfulness of origin.
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+- *Nephite empire under prosperity*
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+- *Gondor’s grandeur fading into bureaucracy.*
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+
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+### 3. **Corruption Phase – Idolatry and Division**
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+Power eclipses meaning; sacred law becomes politics.
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+- *Secret combinations, false priests*
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+- *Saruman’s machine-mind, Denethor’s despair.*
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+
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+### 4. **Collapse Phase – Twilight and Judgment**
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+The divine withdraws; catastrophe cleanses.
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+- *Final battles in Cumorah*
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+- *Destruction of the Ring, fading of the Elves.*
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+
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+### 5. **Remnant Phase – Memory and Waiting**
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+The few preserve truth through record and story.
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+- *Mormon and Moroni’s writings*
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+- *Frodo and Sam’s return, the Red Book of Westmarch.*
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+
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+---
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+
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+## Modern Application: Diagnosing Our Age
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+
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+**Working Hypothesis:**
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+Civilizations that abandon the sacred myth of stewardship lose cohesion, replacing transcendence with control.
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+In their decay, they birth **technological idols** and **bureaucratic faiths** that promise order but deliver entropy.
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+
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+Possible markers today:
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+- Worship of efficiency over meaning.
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+- Polarization replacing shared myth.
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+- Commodification of knowledge (truth becomes content).
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+- Moral exhaustion masked as progress.
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+- Nostalgia for transcendence (myth hunger).
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+
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+These correspond to the *late-Third-Age* or *pre-Cumorah* phase — the moment just before collapse or renewal.
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+
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+---
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+
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+## The Role of the Remnant
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+The “remnant” in myth isn’t about superiority — it’s **the memory-keepers**.
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+Their work:
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+- Preserve truth in symbolic, artistic, or moral form.
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+- Live as witnesses, not conquerors.
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+- Keep language connected to meaning.
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+- Re-sacralize the ordinary world through stewardship.
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+
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+> “The job of the remnant is not to win the war, but to remember why it was fought.”
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+
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+---
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+
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+## Suggested Framework for Further Study
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+
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+### A. Primary Texts
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+- *Book of Mormon* (esp. Alma, Helaman, Mormon, Moroni)
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+- *Doctrine and Covenants* 1–138
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+- *The Silmarillion*, *Akallabêth*, *The Lord of the Rings* Appendices
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+- *Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien*
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+
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+### B. Secondary Works
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+- Mircea Eliade – *The Myth of the Eternal Return*
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+- René Girard – *Battling to the End*
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+- Joseph Campbell – *The Masks of God* series
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+- Oswald Spengler – *The Decline of the West*
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+- Eric Voegelin – *Order and History*
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+- Patrick Deneen – *Why Liberalism Failed* (modern angle)
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+
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+---
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+
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+## Possible Essay Structure
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+
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+1. **Introduction:** Mythic pattern recognition as cultural diagnosis
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+2. **The Language of the Sacred:** How myth encodes moral structure
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+3. **Tolkien’s World at Twilight:** Decline of enchantment
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+4. **Mormon Scripture as Mythic History:** Cycles of pride and fall
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+5. **The Modern Age:** Secularization and loss of meaning
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+6. **The Remnant:** Preserving sacred memory amid collapse
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+7. **Conclusion:** Renewal through stewardship and remembrance
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+
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+---
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+
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+## Closing Thought
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+Both Tolkien and Mormon scripture end not with triumph, but with *remembrance*.
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+Their shared message isn’t “the end is near,” but “when the end comes, be found faithful — and writing.”
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+
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+> “And the record is true, and behold, I come quickly.” — *Moroni 10:34*
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+> “All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.” — *Gandalf*
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+
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+---
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+
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+## TODO / Study Notes
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+- [ ] Gather cross-references between Moroni and Frodo as archetypal “last witnesses.”
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+- [ ] Trace specific Book of Mormon pride cycles and align with Third Age events.
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+- [ ] Analyze Tolkien’s concept of “long defeat” alongside Mormon eschatology.
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+- [ ] Identify literary expressions of remnant culture in postmodern media.
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+- [ ] Draft comparative diagrams for inclusion in visual appendix.