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Originally Posted by mark12_30
This looks, to me, like a thread that's been hijacked. If you want to have a debate about whether making these connections is somehow forced or strained or immoral or illegal or what have you-- feel free to start your own thread.
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But no 'connections' have actually been made between LotR & the Bible/Christianity. A few have been put forward, but there has been no agreement about them even among Christian posters. The best that has been put forward so far is the Secret Fire/Holy Spirit thing, & the best that can be said in support of it is that the two are rather alike & the concepts don't directly contradict each other.
LotR & the Bible don't directly contradict each other. Is that it?
It seems to me that the 'pro-Christian interpretation' camp want the rest of us to accept that there are specifically Christian elements to the story without any supporting evidence other than Tolkien saying in odd letters & interviews that there are. If they are there, what are they? What is specifically & uniquely Christian in the story, & in what way is it necessary to percieve those 'elements' as Christian in order to fully appreciate the story?
This is not an attack on the freedom of Christian readers to compare notes but more a request to know what 'notes' they are actually comparing.
I could argue that there are similarities between Gandalf & that old bloke I see at the bus stop every morning because they both have two arms & grey hair, but I wouldn't expect anyone to take the point seriously. Surely a thread about similarities between the Bible & LotR has to have more going for it than such vague 'similarities' if it is to justify taking up space here.