Thanks so much for sharing your post! The Silmarillion passages you highlighted definitely compliment the theme of concordant discord. One of the tricky parts of carrying this over to theodicy is that it's true *both* that "No theme may be played that hath not its uttermost source in me, nor can any alter the music in my despite" and that nothing is lacking in the cosmic song when sin and selfishness is absent.
Thanks Leah and this is a lot of fun! I very much look forward to these emails.
Maybe I've missed it, but I was surprised no one pointed out the similarity to the opening chapter of The Simarillion. I expanded on that thought a bit here: https://onhishead.wordpress.com/2020/08/12/contrapuntal-order-the-tiny-book-club/
Thanks so much for sharing your post! The Silmarillion passages you highlighted definitely compliment the theme of concordant discord. One of the tricky parts of carrying this over to theodicy is that it's true *both* that "No theme may be played that hath not its uttermost source in me, nor can any alter the music in my despite" and that nothing is lacking in the cosmic song when sin and selfishness is absent.