June 28, 2002

LotR and Christianity...
Richard P.

OK OK...... once again let me point out, I'm not saying that Tolkien's writing was not influenced by the fact that he was a Christian and a devout Catholic at that. I am just saying that Tolkien was very careful to remove all blatantly Christian refernces; ie. places of worship such as Churches, so that, as has previously been said, the book could be recieved by a wider audience. I have no problem with people saying that Tolkien was influenced by what he believed, and by his life experiences.

What I do have a slight problem with is people saying that Lord of the Rings is a Christian book. Because Tolkien removes so much of the Christian reference that in the end its base values are brought down into what are essentially the base values of every religion.
Someone said that the fall of man, the imperfection and flaw of man is something unique to Christianity. Not so. To believe in a God is to believe that is something better than yourself, that you are in someway flawed and that the way to become perfect is to place your trust in your chosen God. This is why Islamic religions promote their prilgramiges. Throught life they will visit different religious sites to better themselves in the eyes of God.
Taking a more historical view, take the Cult of Mithras. Part of the founding principle of this cult was the imperfection of man through flaws introduced by a battle at the beggining of time; only by fighting and destroying the mythical (and evil) bull, could Mithras bring balance back into the world.

As for Sauron being a devil figure, well, he IS the bad guy after all!!! When you start making references like this from books to the Bible you can take any bad guy, and equate him to the Devil. Darth Vadar is like the Devil, Agent Smith is like the Devil, Commodus has come very Devil like characteristics.
I think that perhaps if most of Tolkien's readers were not predominantly Christian, they would be able to link many of his characters to characters featuring in their religions, certainly they would be able to link the underlying morals to their religions; in fact many probably have.
As I said above, its not people saying that Tolkien was influenced by his religion, or by his experiences, its people saying that Tolkien's work is overtly Christian, as opposed to saying perhaps that it is spiritualistic, or religious, or heavily moral... all of those I agree with.

I also agree with the comments made on bravery within Tolkien's worlds. Of the belief that total victory over evil in the grand scale will not come until the comming of Eru (read God). However, I still fail to see how that is a valid arguement for a heavy Christian influence... because the whole point of believing in a God, any God, or even Gods, is that ultimatly, it is the God/s that will bring salvation, freedom and peace. Thats a central belief to religion, not any religion, all religion.