The Rivendell Center is an academic center, based in New York City, dedicated to exploring and promoting the classical-Christian inheritance of Western civilization. It is inspired by J.R.R. Tolkien’s vision of Rivendell, the kingdom of the Elves, in The Lord of the Rings, a haven of creativity, beauty, wisdom, and friendship.
Hosting dinners, salons, lectures, film screenings, academic study, and other initiatives, the Rivendell Center introduces the story of our civilization to college students and young professionals in New York and to audiences around the world. Through vigorous hospitality, it seeks to become a welcoming place to gather, build relationships, and explore life’s most important questions…
The Place
Why New York City? History reveals to us that cities can shape the mind of a civilization: think of Athens, Rome, Jerusalem, London—and New York. Gotham remains one of the most important cities in the world.
Nevertheless, despite its immense cultural achievements, New York City lacks the one thing necessary to become a source of genuine human flourishing: academic institutions rooted in the Western tradition and the historic Christian faith. Many New Yorkers are thus effectively cut off from the intellectual, moral, and spiritual resources to help them navigate their lives in a profoundly secular and materialist society. The result is an epidemic of depression, alienation, and cynicism. Without a connection to the story of our civilization, without firm attachments to transcendent truth, young people are adrift and vulnerable to the dark influences of our age.
With help from Sagamore Institute, Joseph Loconte, an educator, author, and filmmaker, is launching the Rivendell Center to help tackle these problems.
A Glimpse of Rivendell in New York City
J.R.R. Tolkien captured in fantasy a dimension of the human story that was felt more vividly in his day than perhaps in any other period of history. For a time, it really did seem that the forces of barbarism would prevail, that the eclipse of Western civilization was at hand. Nevertheless, in The Lord of the Rings, he confronted the moral cynicism of his age by creating a vision of moral beauty.
Yet Mr. Tolkien could not have achieved this without the encouragement of others: individuals devoted to the quest for beauty, virtue, and truth. With Mr. Lewis and a group of like-minded authors—the Inklings—they created a beachhead of moral sanity, intense creativity, and deep friendship.
New Yorkers crave places of refuge like this. The Rivendell Center will make its future townhouse location a gathering place for college students and young professionals: a safe place to pursue truth and beauty, to explore life’s most important questions, and to build rich friendships along the way. Partnering with like-minded organizations, the Rivendell Center will host lectures, academic programs, salons, workshops, book events, film-screenings, and other initiatives aimed at building relationships and giving people a glimpse of life as it was meant to be. Warm and generous hospitality—with a deeply Christian purpose—will be the keynote.
In The Lord of the Rings, the land of the Elves becomes a place of refuge for the hobbits, pursued by the Black Riders in their quest to destroy the Ring of Power. Here is how Tolkien described it:
“Such was the virtue of the land of Rivendell, that all fear and anxiety was lifted from their minds. The future, good or ill, was not forgotten, but ceased to have any power over the present. Health and hope grew strong in them, and they were content with each good day as it came, taking pleasure in every meal, and in every word and song.”
Amid the struggle and darkness of our everyday lives, we all need a glimpse of Rivendell. For we are all on this journey together: fellow pilgrims on a quest for that bright Kingdom that lies beyond the Sea.
Leadership
Joseph Loconte
Director
Jay Hein
Senior Advisor
Pete Peterson
Senior Advisor