June 14, 2002

Re: Lotr and Christianity
Richard P.

I don't think that Lord of the Rings is specifically a Christian book. Say rather that it is a spiritualistic and perhaps moralistic book. The lessons to be learnt from Lord of the Rings are not confined to Christianity, they can be seen in almost all religions in some form.
Though Tolkien was a devout Christian he carefully tried to remove all obvious Christian traits from the book, leaving just the underlying message of good vs. evil, wrong vs. right. I am an atheist, but have read the Bible (seeing it more as a history with some slight fictional embellishment), and I don't really find it similar to Lord of the Rings in anything but underlying morality. I can only see very tenous links between characters in the Bible and characters in Lord of the Rings.

I also think that in a book of the type that Lord of the Rings is, comparisons are always going to be drawn between the Bible and Christianity... I mean, the whole message of good vs. evil is the only way to tell a good story... its the basis of all stories... and the Bible and Lord of the Rings are two exceptionally well written stories, so comparison is unavoidable. It is then unfortunate that Tolkien was such a devout catholic that people turn round and say "well he MUST have drawn from the Bible for ideas", because that is just not true, he tried to take out as much 'religion' as possible, even to the exclusion of recognisable places of worship.... the Meneltarma in Numenor is the only clear place of worship and thats just an open space on a mountain (a universal theme in most religions). There is no religious cult or ritual in Middle-earth.

Then the only underlying message left from Tolkien's Catholicism is that which is the underlying message of most religion... good vs. evil, and the triumph of good through suffering and sacrifice.

On the where am I from etc front.
I am from England, I am also a professional archaeologist and in my spare time I do "extreme" rollerblading, read books, and collect rare Tolkien whenever I can. I'm 18. ;-)

Oh, and I went to a Catholic school.