June 20, 2002

Re: Lotr and Christianity
Richard P.

To Bean, I agree with you partly, in so far as I agree that any writer will obviously draw on his life experiences, consiously or sub-conciously. However I believe that all that Tolkien is putting into his books is not nessecarily his "Christian" beliefs, but more just his morals and his values, which are influenced by his beliefs. Since, at the base root of most religions those morals and values are the same, I feel that to call Lord of the Rings a Christian book, or to say it is specifically Christain or Catholic is untrue.

As to the Silmarillion being much more like the Bible... well. I can kind of see where your comming from, but in the end I don't think that it is massively like the Bible. Perhaps in terms of the Valar and the Maia being "angles" of Eru, the one true God, and of the messages of the power that lust and greed (such as with Feanor and the Silmarils) can have. But obviously there is alot that is dissimilar. I think then that it comes back to an old arguement that in the end, with stories, there is a base root, there has to be something pitted against something, and the Bible contains pretty much every root for the basis of good stories, so if Tolkien mined that for ideas for the Sil. (consciously or not) I don't think that anyone can turn around and say it was because he was a Catholic. If I was looking for good ideas for stories one of the places I would look would be the Bible, as it is undoubtedly one of the greatest collection of stories ever written.

As for how did I go to a Catholic school but am an atheist, well, I didn't believe before I went there but part of the reason is that in my opinion religion has been responsible for most of the wars in the past, alot in the present and will be responsible for more in the future.