Transformation

J. R. R. Tolkien spent the night of January 17, 1944 in an air-raid post with Cecil Roth, a renowned Jewish scholar and historian. The next morning, Roth roused Tolkien from sleep so he would not miss Communion. Tolkien remarked of Roth’s gesture, “It seemed like a fleeting glimpse of an unfallen world.”
It is almost a cliché to mention the impact that the two world wars, especially the second, had on British literature. In the case of fantasies written by the Inklings, (Tolkien, Lewis, Williams) one should recognize the transformaion of earthly warfare and helplessness into Christian victory and glory.

1 Corinthians 15:44-49 NIV
If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. So it is written: “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual. The first man was of the dust of the earth; the second man is of heaven. As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the heavenly man, so also are those who are of heaven. And just as we have borne the image of the earthly man, so shall we bear the image of the heavenly man.

1 Corinthians 15: 54-56 NIV
When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”
“Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting?”
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.