J.R.R. Tolkien..Christian Lit?

[Bikewer]

Was listening to an NPR "talk of the nation" segment on the Christian Fiction phenomenon, mostly to do with the "left behind" series of books. (some 40 million sold, they said.)

Anyway, they were talking about the fact that Christian literature has been pretty much a "niche" market till recently, but they pointed out both C.S. Lewis and Tolkien as "Christian" authors.

Now, I only read The Chronicles of Narnia once, and I suppose you could find some pretty obvious parallels to Christian mythology there. But in the case of Tolkien....I've read the Trilogy maybe a dozen times, starting back in 1965 or so, and have a hard time seeing any nod to the Christian mythos at all.

Sure, good vs. evil, and all that...Maybe Sauron as a Prince of Darkness kinda guy, but the body of Tolkien's mythos comes out of middle European folklore and mythology. Hard to see Frodo as a messiah....

In our library, we have several nice editions of Tolkien's works, and several stacks of commentary, analysis, and so forth. Hehe-on the flyleaf of one of the editions, J.R.R. himself says that looking for hidden messages in his books is a waste of time.

[Zombified]

Tolkein was a committed Catholic. However, he loved and respected the ancient stories and hated direct allegory, so you kind of have to dig to see the Christian themes in LOTR... but he was certainly influenced by his faith.

In some cases, it was a matter of ensuring compatibility rather than directly acknowledging Christianity. For example (if you've read the Silmarillion) what appear to be pagan gods in the style of the old Norse gods are more like angels, and he presents an explicitly monotheistic cosmology in his creation myth.

In a book of Tolkein's letters, there's a discussion of the sort of hero Frodo is... basically, according to Tolkein, Frodo could not have succeeded on his own, he could never have resisted the ring forever. What saved him was Grace, acting because of Frodo's earlier act of mercy towards Gollum without any expectation of reward.

CS Lewis is an entirely different kettle of fish - his books and stories are transparent allegory and deliberately evangelical.

[LucyR]

Originally posted by Zombified

CS Lewis is an entirely different kettle of fish - his books and stories are transparent allegory and deliberately evangelical.

As an aside, I heard that Tolkein was also partly resposnsible for C S Lewis embracing Christianity.

[Bikewer]

They mentioned that on the show.....

If you bury your allegories deep enough, they become rather universal...