I’ve been thinking about something that feels increasingly relevant to how we understand the world. The Bible tells us that there is a struggle between good and evil, and that ultimately good will prevail. Tolkien takes that ancient idea and transforms it into Middle-earth. As I argued earlier, The Lord of the Rings is not simply a story about hobbits, wizards, and a magical ring. Beneath the fantasy is a deeply Christian conception of human nature: good and evil exist, temptation is real, power can corrupt, and the battle between the two is never merely theoretical.

Islam, in its own theological tradition, also understands human history as a struggle between righteousness and........

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