June 26, 2002

LotR and Christianity
Dave M.

There's been much discussion back & forth about how central christianity was to the story (as opposed to the author)

it seems to me that the way in which christianity makes its main appearance is in the idea of the fall of mankind.

for Tolkien the world is fallen, man is fallen & therefore flawed, & so despite everything we do, evil will always be a present reality. Take Elrond's statement 'I have lived thjree ages in the world, & seen many defeats & many fruitless victories'. Or Galadriels's 'For long ages we have fought the long defeat'.

Tolkien's view was that evil cannot be defeated finally by man, only by God. the very fact that he set the tales in the ancient history of this world & not on some other planet reinforces this. Yes, Sauron is defeated, but the age that follows that defeat is this age - of crusades, inquisitions, genocides, of torquemada, Hitler, Stalin, Bin Laden, etc.

Tolkien wouldn't have belived that the collapse of the Soviet union would bring about permanent peace, or that victory in the 'war against terrorism' would, either - which is not to say that he would have opposed it, far from it. its just that he would have felt that even if we win, victory won't bring permanent peace & a 'happy ever after'. Only God can bring about eternal peace & happiness.

I think this is the centrally 'Christian' dimension to LOTR, & its probably unique to Christianity, with its view that man is inevitably flawed & unable to save the world by his own actions. All we can do is 'fight the long defeat' & put faith in the grace of God.

Clearly, some would find this view pessimistic, & Tolkien has been accused of being a pessimist & writing a book without a happy or hopeful ending - by the end of the book we,ve been told of the death of all the main characters, & we have entered this age with all its horrors. But Tolkien would say the hope is not offered by but by God, that if we hold on then god will bring about the ultimate victory.

And as the great medieval mysic Mother Julian of Norwich said 'All shall be well, & all shall be well, & all manner of thing shall be well.

(I'm from England, by the way)