蘑菇短视频

Instead of a traditional semester of teaching, John Whitmire, professor of philosophy at 蘑菇短视频, spent his spring 2026 semester researching the notion of 鈥渁 hope that holds fast even in the face of the hopeless,鈥� through the acclaimed works of J.R.R. Tolkien. 

鈥淚 was on, as Western calls it, the scholarly development assignment program...If you get the award, you can basically do a semester where you're not teaching...to give you some intensive time to read, think and to write,鈥� Whitmire said. 

Whitmire鈥檚 scholarly leave began at the special collections at Marquette University in Milwaukee, where all of the manuscripts for the 鈥淭he Lord of the Rings鈥� and 鈥淭he Hobbit,鈥� are stored. He previously visited the special collections during a scholarly leave in 2017. 

鈥淭he only place you can look at the manuscripts is there on site, which is a problem for scholars because you have to have a travel budget to get there and stay and the time it takes away, so to have the time to spend a couple weeks was really important because there鈥檚 no other way to get to those manuscripts,鈥� Whitmire said. 

Raynor Library at Marquette University

Specifically, Whitmire wanted to research the concept of 鈥渉ope beyond hope" for his class on the ethical and religious issues covered in the work of Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, another renowned author. 

鈥淭he research that I鈥檝e been doing in particular is on the nature of hope in Tolkien and The Lord of the Rings particularly,鈥� Whitmire said. 

鈥淚鈥檝e made this argument for several years that this notion of hoping against hope, or hope beyond hope, is a key theme鈥�. 

By gaining access to Tolkien's manuscripts, Whitmire was able to delve deeper into this notion. 

鈥淭his time, I was going back to look at more than just that one little piece and trying to see how he traces this out in other chucks of 鈥楻eturn of the King.鈥� It鈥檚 not really a case that someone has taken the time to make in research,鈥� Whitmire said. 

Whitmire connected this theme of hope and resilience we see in 鈥淭he Lord of the Rings鈥� to our everyday realities in the modern world. 

鈥淧art of what we鈥檙e doing is making a case for the significance of the text in dialogue with our time. A lot of public discourse today is marked by... despair, the way people think about the world,鈥� Whitmire said. 

Whitmire describes the convergence of holding onto hope within despair as described in the manuscripts and our current reality through climate conversations. 

According to a UN climate report, the global temperature is set to rise 1.5 Celsius within the next two years, increasing climate risks.  

鈥淭hat was the sort of temperature they argued would avert some of the worst kinds of climate change catastrophes. So, in a situation like that, how do we then hold onto hope, how do we not succumb to despair. I think the text can talk to other kinds of situations like that as well, but it is clearly talking to our relation to the natural world in that way,鈥� Whitmire said. 

"People in environmental studies...broadly have used Tolkien for this because he was ahead of his time in certain respects on the way he deals with the more than human world. Part of what we were doing was making a case for the significance of the text in dialogue with our time鈥�. 

Whitmire will teach his class on Lewis and Tolkien during the Spring 2027 semester. 

His recent research will appear in his class through some of the arguments he makes for the way the text develops this concept. 

鈥淎 big part of my argument of what 鈥淭he Lord of the Rings鈥� is doing is giving us a kind of example as well as helping us develop the capacity to hold onto hope in the face of an increasingly hopeless situation鈥� Whitmire said.