What Would Tolkien Say to the Main Claim of the Grand Inquisitor?

There is a seed of courage hidden (often deeply, it is true) in the heart of the fattest and most timid hobbit, waiting for some final and desperate danger to make it grow.

In Dostoyevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov, The Grand Inquisitor, a 90-year-old cardinal, arrests Jesus and explains to him why his whole idea of setting people free is a grave mistake.

His claim is simple yet profound — human beings are weak. The old cardinal reprimands Jesus for rejecting Satan’s offer in the wilderness to turn stones into bread and thus …