Thanks for the welcomes & the replies everyone - an interesting discussion has unravelled.. <P>Hey, yeah, what's doing with "recently deceased?" It's somewhat disconcerting to have that there.. (moderators?) can this be removed (please?) not a nice thought..<P>Catholicism (the Roman Catholic religion) is a denomination of Christianity, the aforesaid being the oldest organised form which (while the nuances are many) can in the most simplest way, be characterised by the divine reverence to the Pope in Rome, whilst all other denominations of Christianity do not recognise this position or his authority..<P>Tolkien was Baptised Catholic at a very young age so I think the word "converted" is a little misleading in that respect.. I think you could however, use that terminology for his mother<P>In terms of Christian symbolism in PJ's movies, well, that would be a great thread to discuss here.. It could be argued that there have been moments throughout the first two instalments which might have contained "Biblical" references, or at least have that "feel" about them.. Then again, there might not be.. <P>''The Lord of the Rings is of course a fundamentally religious and Catholic work; unconsciously so at first, but consciously in the revision... the religious element is absorbed into the story and symbolism.'' J.R.R. Tolkien letters<P>This statement alone (though there are others) indicates it clearly pervaded his thought process - but despite this, he was able to avoid literal translations of his beliefs into the work (in another words, allegory) - and that, has to be lauded...<P>However it doesn't properly explain the Frodo quote because these influences are weaved subtly throughout the story and (as you rightly point out) there's no explicit mention of Religion in the mythology of Middle-Earth whatsoever.. Not only is the quote itself a literal translation from the New Testament, but also the mood and the contextual part of the story in which it is written bears resemblance to the desperation at the Cross.. I guess we can put it down to Tolkien's genius, a work bereft of uncouth author autonomy that enables the story to be enjoyed and interpreted at all levels.. If you're not all that privy to Christianity and its teachings, the Lord of the Rings will not be seen as a "fundamentally Catholic" work, which in turn facilitates such readers to still appreciate the fundamental human themes running through the book that are pertinent for everyone, atheist, agnostic, religious... Was this a motivation of commercial reality - to widen his audience? A cynic might think so.. But I reckon rather it was a chance for him to display his heightened ability to use imaginative symbolism through his romantic prose to meander a theme into the work while at the same time looking to entertain.. But whether or not a reader got what he was hinting at, didn't really matter to him (in my opinion).. "The splintered light" <P>Thankfully though, The Lord of the Rings is not an authoritative text on any particular dogma and tries instead to extract personal reader interpretation (which is the essential reason why it is a timeless piece of literature and why the movies will prove equally resilient).. For that reason too, the book has enamoured itself to me.. <P>Despite the obvious need for the movies to remain (or establish) a secular feel about them, I sometimes feel certain underlying threads of Biblical nuances in Peter Jackson's films.. I think that would be a great discussion point.. Have people seen any hints of such references in the first two instalments? Would that be something that Peter, Phillipa and Fran would have considered (even at a very minor level) ? I think (and I'll list some possible examples later) there is anecdotal evidence to suggest there might be some overtones in this regard.. However, one cannot discount the possibility that any such inferences of symbolism in the movies could have been accidental, either..
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