The War for Middle Earth
Join Centennial Institute for an event with notable scholar and author Dr. Joseph Loconte, as he discusses his new book The War for Middle Earth.
Amid the catastrophe of the Second World War, two Oxford scholars and friends wrote epic fantasies—not as an escape from the conflict but as a powerful weapon to defend the dignity and worth of every human soul. The War for Middle-Earth: J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis Confront the Gathering Storm, 1933–1945, by New York Times bestselling author Joseph Loconte, reveals how Tolkien and Lewis used their imagination to battle the political ideologies that threatened to destroy Western civilization.
Loconte traces how these combat veterans of the First World War responded to the rise of fascism, Nazism, communism, and totalitarianism—not with cynicism and despair, but with moral clarity and moral courage. In both their scholarship and their works of fiction, they offered a bracing vision of the human story: a recovery of ancient truths and virtues to light a path through the gathering darkness of their age.
The War for Middle Earth
Thursday, November 13, 2025
7:00 pm – 8:30 pm MT
Leprino 170/172
Colorado Christian University
8787 W. Alameda Ave.
Lakewood, CO 80226
About Joseph Loconte
Joseph Loconte, PhD, is an author, historian, and filmmaker. He serves as director of the Rivendell Center in New York City. He is a Presidential Scholar at New College of Florida and the C.S. Lewis Scholar for Public Life at Grove City College. He is the author of the New York Times bestseller A Hobbit, a Wardrobe, and a Great War: How J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis Rediscovered Faith, Friendship, and Heroism in the Cataclysm of 1914-1918 and his new release The War for Middle-Earth: J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis Confront the Gathering Storm, 1933–1945.
His commentary appears in outlets such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, National Affairs, The New Criterion, National Geographic, Law and Liberty, The National Interest, and National Review. For ten years, Loconte served as a commentator for National Public Radio’s All Things Considered.
Loconte is a native of Brooklyn, NY, a forlorn fan of the NY Mets, and a frequent traveler to sunny Italy. He hosts the YouTube history channel, History and the Human Story, at www.youtube.com/@JoeLoconte.
For more information, go to: www.josephloconte.com
