September 27, 2003

Tolkien's Religion
-shieldmaiden-

Chrissy, you are very mistaken on Catholic teaching. I have been Catholic my whole life and will be for the rest of my life. I don't know where you heard that Catholics don't believe that Jesus is God because we most certainly do. And we don't worship Mary either; you made it sound like we think of her as God. I have met no other Catholics who think Jesus wasn't God and worship Mary. Also, the word holy does not mean perfect. There's a difference in praying too and worshiping someone. I don't know where you heard these things, but it is from an anti-catholic perspective. But I should probably not get into a theological disscusion here.
No where have I ever heard that Tolkien wasn't a Catholic Christian his whole life. I and my mom have read lots of books and looked up stuff on the internet and you are the first person I have ever heard say anything like that. I read The Lost Tales of Numenor and Middle-Earth and he said he modelled Galadriel after Mary and meant to go back and change The Silmarillion so that she wasn't one of the rebel elves but instead tried, with Celeborn, to bring the rebel elves back to peace with the Valar. This was at the end of his life and so he must have been a catholic.
Annatar, about what you were saying regarding Frodo/Christ figure...I agree. Frodo is kind of like the priest figure I think. You might enjoy J.R.R. Tolkien's Sanctifying Myth by Bradley J. Birzer. Very informative. Well, this is getting long. I just wanted to say really quick to Pip, Annatar, and MoW that you guys are stating things wonderfully. Westu-hal.

-shieldmaiden-