Randel McCraw Helms, also known as Loyce Helms (born November 16, 1942 in

Montgomery, Alabama Montgomery is the capital city of the U.S. state of Alabama and the county seat of Montgomery County, Alabama, Montgomery County. Named for the Irish soldier Richard Montgomery, it stands beside the Alabama River, on the Gulf Coastal Plain, coas ...

) is an American professor of English literature, a writer on J. R. R. Tolkien and critical writer on the Bible.

Biography

Helms studied at

University of California, Riverside The University of California, Riverside (UCR or UC Riverside) is a public land-grant research university in Riverside, California. It is one of the ten campuses of the University of California system. The main campus sits on in a suburban dist ...

, B.A. 1964,

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seatt ...

, Ph.D. 1968, then taught from 1968 at the University of California as assistant professor of English, before becoming professor at the Department of English,

Arizona State University Arizona State University (Arizona State or ASU) is a public research university in the Phoenix metropolitan area. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, ASU is one of the largest public universities by enrollment in the ...

. In 2007 he established the Randel and Susan McCraw Helms Homecoming Writing Contest for undergraduate students.

Writings on William Blake

As Loyce Randel Helms he wrote his dissertation on

William Blake William Blake (28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827) was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his life, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of the Romantic poetry, poetry and visual art of t ...

: ''Artful Thunder: a Literary Study of Prophecy'' He has also written on Blake's "Everlasting Gospel" (1980).

Writings on Tolkien

Helm's many writings on J. R. R. Tolkien include journal articles on topics such as the structure and aesthetics of ''

The Lord of the Rings ''The Lord of the Rings'' is an epic high-fantasy novel by English author and scholar J. R. R. Tolkien. Set in Middle-earth, intended to be Earth at some time in the distant past, the story began as a sequel to Tolkien's 1937 children's bo ...

'', and the books ''Tolkien's World'' (Houghton, 1974) and ''Tolkien and the Silmarils'' (Houghton Mifflin, 1981).

Biblical criticism

Helms has written a series of books using

Higher Criticism Historical criticism, also known as the historical-critical method or higher criticism, is a branch of criticism that investigates the origins of ancient texts in order to understand "the world behind the text". While often discussed in terms of ...

to analyze the

Bible The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus ...

. In ''Gospel Fictions'', Helms argues that the Gospel writers used the Old Testament as a source of material to build up fictional details about events surrounding Jesus. He also wrote ''Who wrote the Gospels?'' (1997) and ''The Bible against itself'' (2006) on similar themes.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Helms, Randel Mccraw 1942 births Living people Writers from Montgomery, Alabama American literary critics Arizona State University faculty Writers about religion and science Tolkien studies