Among the greatest characters created by Tolkien in The Lord of the Rings is the noble prince Faramir. He is the younger brother of the fallen Boromir and is characterized by wisdom and judgment. When we first meet Faramir in the forests of Ithilien, he chances upon the hobbits Frodo and Sam who have already journeyed far on their quest to destroy the One Ring.
The character of Faramir is demonstrated in his resistance to the temptation of the ring. The downfall of Boromir had been his desire to possess the One Ring. Having brought the hobbits to the secret hideout overlooking the Anduin River, Faramir is confronted with the knowledge that Frodo carries Sauron’s greatest weapon. “Not if I found it on the highway would I take it” (J.R.R. Tolkien, Lord of the Rings, Ballantine: 1965, 342). It was not as though Faramar hadn’t felt the power of temptation upon seeing the ring, it was his wise perception of the great peril for one wielding it, but also the care for Frodo, the ring bearer, that sustained him through his temptation.
As great as this moment is in the story of Faramir, the episode I find most fascinating is when Faramir invites the hobbits to a meal. Even in the rustic hideaway, it is a moment of great decorum. A table was set with a simple meal by the soldiers under Faramir’s command. The hobbits were invited to wash before supper and then to sit at the makeshift table.
“Before they ate, Faramir and all his men turned and faced west in a moment of silence. Faramir signed to Frodo and Sam that they should do likewise. ‘So we always do,’ he said, as they sat down: ‘we look towards Númenor that was, and beyond to Elvenhome that is, and to that which is beyond Elvenhome and will ever be. Have you no such custom at meat?’
J.R.R. Tolkien, Lord of the Rings (Ballantine: 1965), 336
We hear in this moment an echo of Tolkien’s faith. Compare the Gondorian table grace to the Gloria patri prayer: “Glory be to the Father, and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end.” (Note: Another hint at this harkening back to an older Christian piety is that they turned and faced west toward the place of their devotion. Churches were oriented east toward the sunrise which symbolized the resurrection. This practice fell away after the Middle Ages.) In the midst of quest and battle, this moment of quiet makes for a poignant reminder of our connection to something higher and more profound than ourselves. The scene goes on as Frodo answers Faramir’s question.
“‘No,’ said Frodo, feeling strangely rustic and untutored. ‘But if we are guests, we bow to our host, and after we have eaten we rise and thank him.’”
J.R.R. Tolkien, Lord of the Rings (Ballantine: 1965), 336
Even though the hobbits have a far simpler culture than the civilized Gondorians, they still have traditions centered around the table. In particular, Frodo notes how gratitude is the final component when dining with others.
This little scene reminds me of a type of Thanksgiving meal. The scant resources of the Gondorian army feeds the wandering hobbits whose supplies are running low. Two cultures meet one another and exchange traditions and lore. In America we connect our annual Thanksgiving holiday to the Pilgrims feasting with the Native Americans. I could imagine hobbits of the shire celebrating Frodo and Sam’s meal with Faramir. The common thread amongst these celebrations is the idea of thanksgiving or gratitude. In days of old, the harvest feast served a similar purpose, gratitude to the Maker for that year’s yield.
A Definition of Gratitude
The word “gratitude” comes from the Latin gratus, an adjective meaning “acceptable, agreeable, pleasing, welcome.” From this word we derive other English words such as “grateful” and “congratulations.” We tend to prefer the words “thankfulness” or “thanks” – words having Old English roots – instead of gratitude, the Latinate alternative. At heart, gratitude or thankfulness is a natural affection. Edwards compares gratitude to anger finding that both natural affections can arise with or without passions associated with them. Just as I may be angered by someone I hate, I can also be angered by someone I don’t hate or even love. Similarly, I can feel gratitude towards someone I love or it may arise “without any true or proper love” (Jonathan Edwards, Religious Affections, 170-171). We shall come back to Edwards in a moment.
In modern psychology, gratitude has been analyzed for its relevance to subjective well-being. The Gratitude Questionnaire-Six-Item Form (GQ6) is a tool that analyzes how prone an individual is to experience gratitude in daily life. It is a rather short form that can be helpful in differentiating individual frequency and intensity of gratitude. The Gratitude Resentment and Appreciation Scale (GRAT) – Short Form is a questionnaire comprised of 16 statements that are scaled by respondents “to measure an individual’s dispositional gratitude.” A very brief scale by comparison is The Gratitude Adjective Checklist (GAC) that measures an individual’s disposition by way of three adjectives: grateful, thankful, and appreciative. Social scientists have used these and other scales to measure dispositional gratitude, connecting increased gratitude to increased well-being. As we consider gratitude or thankfulness as an attribute worthy of cultivation in this article, measures such as these can be an asset that enables us to track our sense of gratitude over time. (The links above are to PDFs of the actual forms and can be accessed free of charge.)
From these considerations, we can define gratitude as a human affection or feeling that expresses appreciation. A person can have a greater or lesser disposition to express gratitude. And in addition, one can grow in one’s capacity to express gratitude. Finally, an increase in one’s disposition to express gratitude can positively impact one’s overall feeling of well-being or happiness.
A Theology of Gratitude
Having mentioned Jonathan Edwards above, it behooves us to further develop our understanding of gratitude in theological terms. We noted that gratitude is a natural affection, which leads him to claim that “it renders ingratitude so much the more vile and heinous” (171). There is something Aristotelian about his reasoning at this point. Gratitude is a virtue fitting to our nature and yet requiring cultivation, but it is all too easy to fall into the vice of ingratitude where the lack of gratitude is an offence against our humanity. Edwards reasons further, “The exercise of mere natural gratitude may be the foundation of a sort of love to God” (172), and yet without a true knowledge of God, the exercise of this virtue lacks any saving grace. The conclusion Edwards arrives at differentiates true gratitude from natural gratitude:
“True gratitude or thankfulness to God for his kindness to us, arises from a foundation laid before, of love to God for what he is in himself, whereas a natural gratitude has no such antecedent foundation.”
Jonathan Edwards, Religious Affections (Renaissance Classics, 2012), 175
The echo of 1 John 4:19 is made more explicit later in Edward’s argument. The origin of our true gratitude is not some mere natural gratitude that springs from some self-interest, but upon an understanding of our desperate reliance on God who supplies our need. This speaks in some ways of our utter inability to be truly grateful apart from a knowledge of our depravity and reliance upon the grace of God.
“But as to truly gracious affections, they are built elsewhere; they have their foundation out of self in God and Jesus Christ; and therefore a discovery of themselves, of their own deformity, and the meanness of their experiences, though it will purify their affections, yet it will not destroy them, but in some respects sweeten and heighten them.”
Jonathan Edwards, Religious Affections (Renaissance Classics, 2012), 181
So our natural gratitude become purified by Christ, but not destroyed. We might feel something of gratitude apart from Christ, but in Christ, that natural feeling becomes magnified as we recognize how far the love of God has reached to meet me in my depth from his heights. Every simple gift – the food we eat, the clothes we wear, the warmth of shelter – is magnified by the immeasurable gift of Christ.
This is the message we have received in any number of passages of scripture. Consider as one example Hebrews 12:28, “Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe.” The better part of our prayers should be issuing words of thanksgiving to our creator and sustainer; far more than our requests, as important as these are.
A Philosophy of Gratitude
Such a theology resonates with what the philosophical tradition considers as the foundation of happiness. Here I am thinking in particular of eudaimonic happiness as expressed in the writings of Aristotle. The pathway to happiness in life is the cultivation of virtue. Even though Aristotle did not list gratitude among the virtues, there are ample reasons to consider it as such. Cicero, for instance, considered gratitude as “the mother of all virtues (mater virtutum omnium)” (For Plancius 33.80). We can even identify gratitude as a virtuous mean between vices of absence and excess in an Aristotelian manner. Edwards, for instance, spelled out how ingratitude is an assault on our humanity. This vice of absence is equally as bad as the obsequious groveler who ingratiate themselves to others but whose heart is far from truly thankful.
Ancient philosophy agrees with modern science that subjective well-being can be increased by cultivating gratitude. If we are not already convinced by the testimony of scripture, we can see by every measure how important gratitude is if we want to live lives of meaning and purpose.
I am struck by Jordan Peterson‘s latest book, Beyond Order: 12 More Rules for LIfe, which adds twelve more rules to his previous 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos. The last of the rules is expressed as “Be grateful in spite of your suffering.” For Peterson to conclude his most recent book with the concept of gratitude strikes at the continuing relevance of gratitude. Earlier this year when tweeting some 40 rules, Peterson included this rule and added, “Gratitude is the process of consciously and courageously attempting thankfulness in the face of the catastrophe of life.” This expression gets at an intentional practice of gratitude, not when one feels great about life, but actually developing such a practice when life is not particularly going so well. What this means is that there is no better time to develop a habit of gratitude like the present moment.
The Practice of Gratitude
To that end, I want to provide a few practical tools you may want to incorporate into your daily classroom routines. The empirical scales provided above offer some potential for older students to gain some understanding of their own disposition toward gratitude. Yet all ages can benefit from growing in the habit of gratitude. So, here are a few suggestions for you to consider.
The first practical tool for you to consider is a gratitude journal. Now you can devote an entire journal or notebook to this, or you can simply use a homework steno for this. The idea here is to record on a daily basis something each student is grateful for. This can be a basic sentence, such as “I am grateful for the warm weather outside,” or, “I am grateful that we got to go on a field trip today.” These expressions lay a solid foundation for expressing gratitude in concrete ways. Building on this, you can ask for more and more specificity. What made the warm weather something you were grateful for, or why was the field trip such a gratifying experience? Yet, even the simplest expressions of gratitude can have a deep impact on your students’ lives.
The second practical tool is having students write a gratitude letter. Okay, this is a thank you note, but by framing it as a gratitude letter, you are able to break the mold, so to speak, of people’s preconceptions about thank you cards. Have students think about someone they would like to express their gratitude to. The act of expressing gratitude to another person is so powerful in their lives. You can incorporate this into a unit of letter writing by teaching your students how to include such things as the format of a letter, the greeting and closing, and how to address an envelope. In a gratitude letter, students should learn how to give specific details about what it is they are grateful for (a gift, an event, the meaning of the relationship, etc.) and the impact it has had on their life. They can also learn different phrases that express gratitude. Sending these letters to the recipients can be a powerful moment in both the students’ and recipients’ lives.
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