Quote:
|
You could rename God Illuvatar, but then what? All the principles of Christianity, and more specifically Catholicism, are found in his books. So it would not really be a new religion now would it? Love your neighbour as yourself, honour your mother and father, do not kill, feed the hungry, blablabla, it's all there.
|
You make a good point,
Mariska! I always saw the entire Middle Earth phenomenon as this sort of sub-creation, as Tolkien also believed it to be. But, as it is created 'sub' to something else, it is a reflection of Tolkien's worldview and his religion is central to that. But I also think there is a thread that underlies many spiritual experiences. As is quoted in Tolkien's Letter to Carole Batten-Phelps (#328):
Quote:
|
He (the correspondent to whom Tolkien refers) had been much struck by the curious way in which many old pictures seemed to him to have been designed to illustrate The Lord of the Rings long before its time. He brought one or two reproductions. I think he wanted at first simply to discover whether my imagination had fed on pictures, as it clearly had been by certain kinds of literature and languages. When it became obvious that, unless I was a liar, I had never seen the pictures before and was not well acquainted with pictorial Art, he fell silent. I became aware that he was looking fixedly at me. Suddenly he said: 'Of course you don't suppose, do you, that you wrote all that book yourself?'
|
Tolkien interjects "Pure Gandalf!" at this point. In the same Letter, the correspondent referred to above, said
Quote:
|
...you (Tolkien)...create a world in which some sort of faith seems to be everywhere without a visible source, like light from an invisible lamp.
|
I find this to illustrate the effect that LOTR has on many and the way it can be likened to a religious experience--Tolkien's religion is everywhere in it, and that religion is itself ancient and drawn ultimately from other sources through which it was built into what it was in Tolkien's time and today.
All this does not stop me from believing in the core values that shine throughout the text. Any Middle Earth religion would, to my mind, be an ethic, rather than a religion as such, for his creator (Eru)and 'subcreators' (the Valar) are all concretely real. There is a line of experience drawn from Eru to the Valar to the Elves to Men and, althoughmuch is forgotten in the mists of time, it is all more closely drawn as a myth rather than a straight religion.
To add a little note of fruitcakery to this post, I will add that I myself DO believe in the Force, but I don't classify myself as "Jedi," for that would take many years of training and discipline, and I am notoriously lazy! [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img] I don't think such a belief excludes others but is merely a name put to a universal concept. I do not take it literally, but "The Force" is one way to express it!
Cheers from Lyta Underhill, the avowed fruitcake and crackpot in residence! [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]
Cheers!
Lyta