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Viewing Christ solely as the savior is a self-centered take on Christianity. If his sacrifice was all that was necessary to save everyone, he wouldn't have spent the time he did teaching righteous values and principles for his disciples to follow.
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I say, since the one faction got an off-topic post, I'll be darned if I don't get the opportunity to make one!
"I am the way and the truth and the life--no one comes to the Father except through me." -John 14:6.
But no matter what our views are, they don't really have a place on this forum outside the scope of LOTR. I may only be a Wight but I know that already. Anybody who wants to discuss it further should PM or e-mail. You wanna find out more? Read "Mere Christianity." That says it a lot better than I ever could.
Bottom line is, Tolkien did not set out to make an Allagory going for or against any sort of religon: Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhisim, the worship of the all-mighty acorn, anything. He felt, as Legolas and Iargwath already mentioned, that his work should stand alone without all the metaphor baggage. That was what killed "Animal Farm" for me; that a pig is not a pig, especially when he is named Napoleon.
I believe that CS Lewis is another matter. His books, as people probably already know, are heavily metaphorical on the grounds that they were being used in an evangilitical sense. He purposely made Aslan a lion for a very specific reason, and made HIM return from the dead for a more substantial reason than Tolkien did Gandalf. Their audiences were different. Gandalf, no matter how much we would like him to, does NOT represent Christ. And even though Tolkien says that himself, I have another reason I would like to hold up to critique. I don't think that good old JR, being the good Catholic that he was, would really WANT to make a character strictly resembling Christ, because Gandalf is falliable (meaning human-like) and Christ is not. And, since his focus was a more literary audience, he could not have Gandalf symbolize Christ without giving him ALL the same attributes, not just a few choice ones. If a person is trying for a metaphor, especially towards the (some say reputable) "Son of God," I think that Tolkien would have made sure that Gandalf would, even metaphorically, turn water into wine, walk on water, etc, etc, etc. He was too much of a religous man to be slacking in that area, and too gifted of an author to fail at it if he tried in the first place.
-'Vana
[ February 13, 2003: Message edited by: DaughterofVana ]
[ February 13, 2003: Message edited by: DaughterofVana ]