August 15, 2002

Reply to Christian Hobbit
Dave M.

I have read 'Finding God in LOTR', but I did find it a little 'born again fundamentalist, lets burn all the witches & torture the heretics' in style.
A better one, though still a bit 'born again' is Tolkien's Ordinary virtues' by Mark Eddy Smith. As far as more serious analyses of Tolkien & Christianity are concerned theres Joseph Pearce's Tolkien- Man & Myth, & Tolkien A Celebration. A very good book is Verlyn Flieger's Splintered Light, though maybe a bit deep for those whose interest in Tolkien only extends as far as discussing which particular scene in the movie 'rocks' most! Patrick Curry's Defending Middle Earth shows how LOTR can be seen as having Christian themes & Pagan/New Age ones. Tolkien DEFINITELY saw it as a Christian work, specifically a Catholic one.