Tolkien and Christianity

[Mister Underhill]

I agree wholeheartedly with Mithadan. I’ve often found myself in the position recently of defending the validity of investigating and discussing the effects of Tolkien’s spiritual beliefs on his work, just as I would defend the validity of discussing the effects of his study of philology or Nordic mythology or a host of other influences. These sorts of inquiries are ways of keeping Tolkien alive and interesting after dozens of readings, at least for me – but at the end of the day I don’t think you need to reference anything outside of Tolkien to enjoy and appreciate Tolkien. I agree with Mith that the heroic themes and the morality espoused in LotR are not by any means the sole province of Christianity. On the contrary – the more one studies various world religions and mythic traditions, the more one begins to appreciate the universality of their underlying tenets. I think that the prof was at pains to avoid references to a specific tradition for that very reason – that he wished to preserve and transmit the universality of his themes. On the other hand, I do believe that the fact that Tolkien was coming from some kind of spiritual tradition and point-of-view is one of the key reasons that Middle-earth is as compelling as it is.