Okay, what proof do you have to back up your claim?
Tolkien was very well known as a practicing Catholic. What did he write that was contrary to biblical teachings? I have never seen Tolkien’s name associated with the New Age stuff.
He may have been Anglican at first, but I’d hardly call that New Age
Tolkien’s religious background:
-Born into an Anglican family
-After his father died, a Catholic priest helped his mom raise him and his brother Hilary
-They later converted to Catholicism
-Later in life, Tolkien actually converted his friend C.S. Lewis from atheism. Much to Tolkien’s dismay, Lewis converted to Anglicanism instead of Catholicism
-Also later in life, Tolkien’s eldest son became a priest. In fact, Tolkien’s eldest son was the priest who held Tolkien’s funeral Mass
Examples of Tolkien’s faith in his works:
-Chapter “Mount Doom” of LotR. There’s a paragraph on lembas that could just as easily describe Eucharist
-Elf magic. “For this is what your folk would call magic, I believe: though I do not understand clearly what they mean; and they seem to use the same word of the deceits of the Enemy.” -Galadriel. Atheists in particular (and Jack Chick) would call the Sacraments (particularly the Eucharist) magic. And yet they “use the same word of the deceits of the Enemy.”
-Gandalf admonishes the death penalty. “Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement.”
-I’ve never fully understood this one, but Frodo, Gandalf and Aragorn as priest, prophet and king.
-The Ring corrupts just like sin
-Light wins in the end.
-This gem from Two Towers (taken from the movie, based off and possibly quoted from the book)
Frodo: I can’t do this, Sam.
Sam: I know. It’s all wrong. By rights we shouldn’t even be here. But we are. It’s like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger, they were. And sometimes you didn’t want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it’s only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn’t. They kept going. Because they were holding on to something.
Frodo: What are we holding onto, Sam?
Sam: That there’s some good in this world, Mr. Frodo… and it’s worth fighting for.
The LOTR films and The Hobbit are set in the same world, and from the same director. It would seem only natural that discussion of the latter would attract comments on the former.
