Is Lord of the Rings a Catholic work?

[4_marks]

I don’t know, but when I was an evangelical, some pastors seemed to spend more time in their sermons preaching on it than on the Bible. It really fascinated them.

 

[antiaphrodite]

i might sound stupid for asking this, but–who is older, tom bombadil, or treebeard? please forgive my ignorance i haven’t read all of tolkiens books yet.

 

[Sgt_Sweaters]

Touchstone Magazine had a good issue on Tolkien a couple of years ago. You can get to all the articles here: touchstonemag.com/archives/issue.php?id=54

 

[Scott_Lafrance]

If anyone here knows anything about literature, there are things called character archetypes. One of these archetypes is called the “Christ Archtype” or the “messiah archetype”. Three of the characters in the LOtR play Christ Archetypes, and they represent different aspects of the Christ archetype. Gandalph represents the prophetic aspect of the type, Frodo represents the suffering savior aspect of the type, and Aragorn represents the ascending king aspect of the type. Since only Christ can play the Christ Archtype perfectly, everyone else is a flawed example of it. But for those of you who cannot see that when Frodo destroys the ring, then Aragorn leads the armies of good against the armies of Evil, and at the proper moment, the evil one is destroyed, allowing the king to finally ascend to the throne, particularly with the scene of Aragorn bowing to Frodo, representing Christ the King bowing to Christ the Savior, with the savior finally leaving, as His messianic work is complete, and the reign of the king must begin, you just don’t understand the Christian message.

This particular aspect of Christianity is not more clearly represented in any other fictional work that I am aware of. It is the Catholic message. Christ the Savior, Christ the King, and Christ the Prophet will defeat Satan, and Christ the King will reign in the New Jerusalem. Christ the King will supplant Christ the Savior and Christ the Prophet, because there is no longer a need for a Savior in the final glorious kingdom, neither is there a need for a prophet. If the whole book (or series of movies) is not a good representation of the Catholic story, the last 20 minutes of the 3rd movie are Catholic to a “T”. Good God, go read your Catechism if you can’t see it.

 

[JediMon89]

Mycroft:

Lord of the Rings is a Catholic work only in the sense that it was written by a Catholic. They are fantasy books which Tolkien said were not supposed to e allegorical in any way. I don’t know why people even do think their religious in a catholic sense since their is polytheism and everything. They are excellent books, probably my favorites, but i am sick of people saying they have a religious meaning.

I’ve actually read all the way through this topic, so I understand the argument going on between Mycroft and others.

True, Mycroft, Tolkien did say the books were not written allegorically:
" As for any inner meaning or message, it has in the intention of the author, none. It is neither allegorical nor topical. " [LotR p.2 preface to 2nd edition]

However, Tolkien later did say that The Lord of the Rings was a " …fundamentally Catholic and Religious work; unconsciously so at first, but consciously in the revision. " Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, - edited by Humphrey Carpenter & Christopher Tolkien; p.172].

There is no contradiction there. Allegory and parallelism are different things. Those people who say specifically stuff like “the ring represented only this, and that represented only that,” are wrong, as that would be allegory. However, people are allowed to draw parallelisms from the book, or things similar to our own life/beliefs, etcetera. They can say there were things Gandalf did that was like Christ. They can say the ring at times was similar to sin. Tolkien specifically says that in his line that the work is a Catholic/Religious work. The first time writing the story, his faith unconsciously led him to add things similar to what he believed. He then consciously recognized these things when he went back to do the revisions. So while they weren’t purposefully made to represent exact things, Tolkien has told us there are many things in the book that we can compare with Catholic beliefs.

 

[JediMon89]

Mycroft:

yeah and that doesnt make it catholic since i can find 50 million other books where lots of characters do stuff thats similar to what christ did. big deal.

Yes, but we must look at where the writer got his idea to make their characters act that particular way that represents Christ. In Tolkien’s case, his faith played a big part in his life, and therefore he could have unconsciously made his characters like Christ because of his own belief in Christ. And again, for Tolkien’s case, there is his quote that Lord of the Rings is a “… fundamentally Catholic/Religious work. It was unconsciously there are first, and consciously recognized in the revision” [see post above for the accurate quote of this]. So in Tolkien’s case, he is saying that his characters are behaving like Christ because of his Catholicism/Religion, making his story a Catholic work.