Is the Lord of the Rings a Catholic novel?

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bettercallpaul

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Tolkien was a catholic and there are motifs such as priest, prophet and King.
 
It’s definitely got strong Catholic overtones. I read them at least once a year and you pick up on more and more of them the more you read them. Even if his intention wasn’t to write a blatantly Catholic series with explicit theology, I think when your faith directs your life it shapes the things you have influence on- whether that be your work, your children, your friendships. They are exceptionally Catholic books.
 
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Tolkien wrote that “The Lord of the Rings is of course a fundamentally religious and Catholic work.”

However, Tolkien disliked the obvious allegory that C.S. Lewis used in his Narnia books. Tolkien thought it was too over the top. He was more concerned with creating a myth. He believed that all myths contain truths about Christianity in some form or fashion whether that is Arthur or Beowulf. They are a way of expressing humanity’s fascination with the divine.
 
Entwhistler said:
Tolkien wrote that “The Lord of the Rings is of course a fundamentally religious and Catholic work.”
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I know some Christian and Catholic apologists hesitate to call it Christian or Catholic. But in “real” terms I think it is as opposed to strictly meeting all theological criteria.
 
It was written by a Catholic and the author’s faith is definitely seen in the book. I would say if any work could be said to be a Catholic novel it would be Lord of the Rings, from the Christ figures of Gandalf and Frodo, to the food that sustains body and spirit in the form of bread.
 
Entwhistler said:
He believed that all myths contain truths about Christianity in some form or fashion whether that is Arthur or Beowulf. They are a way of expressing humanity’s fascination with the divine.
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Nice info and insight. Thanks.
 
The Bible is a better read! And it’s not a work of fiction.
 
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The more I read LOTR, the more I appreciate how great it is to be Catholic. Of course, that’s my opinion.
 
EricF said:
I haven’t read LOTR in decades. I may give it a go again.
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I encourage you to do so! I read it decades ago, then as I grew older I reread it and found countless themes I had missed earlier. It helps form the heart of a teenager, a young adult, a middle ager and a senior, in different ways.

LOTR, and its related backstories including the Hobbit and The Silmarillion, reads as a work that was “discovered”, as if it were actual history in the form of myth and legend. When I read LOTR, it strikes “true” or “authentic”. Yes I know it is fiction: like every painting is a fiction, but a good one is more accurate than any one photo.

Books like the Harry Potter series look like works that were manufactured, to meet a certain market. This is not to say good or bad, just that there is no sense of time, or ancient wisdom/ancient tragedy in them. They were not “discovered”. They were developed.
 
Agreed. I’ve read them all in my youth. I am eager to start again. I need to finish up what I am reading now before I start, but it’s short (and incredibly good, “The Art of Getting Over Yourself”).
 
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This is a bit off topic, but Tolkien was on the translation team of The Jerusalem Bible, which is the first ‘ireal’ Bible I owned. (We had a Bible that my mother bought from a Jehovah’s Witness, and partial scriptures, such as pocket new testaments, psalms, etc.

I had read The Hobbit, and, you can imagine how I jumped when I saw the name ‘Tolkein’ among the translators of the Bible that I received as a gift! (I was a teenager at the time).

As I now understand
it, The Jerusalem Bible was mainly an Episcopal Bible, but was largely accepted by Catholics, and the copy I have had Catholic footnotes. It was very helpful to me, and I truly thank Tolkein and the other rranslators on the team.

Just thought that you, and other interesed parties would b interested to know.
 
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To estimate what a “Catholic novel” would have meant for Tolkein, keep in mind he never adapted to what we now call the Ordinary Form of the Liturgy. He attended the Masses in the vernacular when no Latin Mass was available towards the end of his life, but he reportedly did the responses aloud in Latin not English.
 
commenter said:
He attended the Masses in the vernacular when no Latin Mass was available towards the end of his life, but he reportedly did the responses aloud in Latin not English.
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At least he didn’t respond in Elvish.

I am not surprised. He was a brilliant linguist.
 
pnewton said:
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commenter:
He attended the Masses in the vernacular when no Latin Mass was available towards the end of his life, but he reportedly did the responses aloud in Latin not English.
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At least he didn’t respond in Elvish.

I am not surprised. He was a brilliant linguist.
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He loved the English language too. But he may have had different ideas about liturgy. I have read that either in lotr or Silmarillion there is special language for ceremony.
 
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