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Old 08-17-2003, 12:11 AM   #12
Niluial
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The fairest way to put the relationship between Tolkien's fictional writings and his Christianity may be this: In the characters and situations of his "new myth," Tolkien naturally reflected the Christian grace he had experienced in his own life as a devout Roman Catholic.

This grace emerges in the story not as an explicit apologetic or even an allegory, but rather in two other ways: First, in the long, legendary history of Middle-earth—a realm that had always dwelt under the threat of evil and the assurance of providential care. Second, in the trials, sins, and virtues of the characters themselves.

Tolkien's Silmarillion allows us to look inside the elaborately interwoven system of legends that provide the background for The Lord of the Rings. The former book begins with a creation story paralleling the Christian one. Iluvatar is God. Melkor is the devil. Melkor wants to corrupt and take for his own the Men Iluvatar has created.

The Lord of the Rings tells how, in Middle-earth’s Third Age, one such corrupting attempt by a lieutenant of Morgoth, the evil Sauron, is thwarted by the providence of Iluvatar and with the help of His servants. Among these angel-like characters sent from the West—a clear parallel to heaven—to watch over and finally to ensure the triumph of the land's struggling inhabitants, is Gandalf.

It is in the details of that great trilogy's plot and characters that most readers sense Tolkien's Christian conviction. Here are self-sacrifice, courage, and pity, set over against greed, vainglory, and the lust for power. The "moral compass" is never in doubt. And it is not generic—it is deeply Christian. For example:

At key moments several characters recognize that although they must do deeds of valor for the greater good, it is only through a mysterious providence, beyond their understanding, that good will triumph over evil. This reflects the gospel's saving priority of grace over free will.

Seemingly weak, insignificant Hobbits help to bear the burden of the evil One Ring until it can be destroyed. This echoes the gospel theme of the foolish confounding the wise and the weak conquering the strong.

The pity of Frodo for Gollum clears the way for the final moment when the Ring is cast into the furnace of Mount Doom. This affirms the gospel's good news of God's mercy providing salvation to an undeserving humanity.

And so on. Writing against the backdrop of two chaotic, evil World Wars, Tolkien created each of his characters, as he once said to W. H. Auden, to embody "in the garments of time and place, universal truth and everlasting life."

True, such parallels as those just listed may often have been, as Tolkien himself avowed, unconscious. But given Tolkien's beliefs about the nature of Myth, they were inevitable. In a famous lecture titled "On Fairy Stories", Tolkien argued that in mythical tales a reader may gain a "fleeting glimpse of Joy, Joy beyond the walls of the world." Such glimpses, said Tolkien, are reflections of the one True Myth: the coming, dying, and rising of Christ.

[ August 17, 2003: Message edited by: Niluial ]
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