J.R.R. Tolkien, A Devout Catholic

July 11, 2015 by JoAnna 22 Comments

I’m a huge fan of , The Lord of The Rings, by J.R.R Tolkien. Having read it as a young adult, the film trilogy is something I could watch over and and over, and have.

So, I was quietly disconcerted last weekend when my father, flipping channels, wouldn’t stop at one of the trilogy movies on TV because he heard it was satanic.

I love my father dearly. He is one of the bravest men, I’ve ever known. No. He is the bravest and the strongest. Even though he’s 84. But he leans as far to the right as I do to the left. He’s a conservative.

I told my father that I thought J.R.R. Tolkien was a Christian, and that I didn’t think he’d write a satanic book. But I didn’t take it any further, not wanting to stir things up, and not sure of my facts.

When I saw Linda’s SoCS prompt, the word, “ring,” my mind flitted around a few things and came to rest on The Lord of The Rings, and my father’s belief. I felt compelled to find out more.

The information I’m going to share below comes from this article by Drew Bowling,

http://www.aleteia.org/en/religion/documents/how-did-jrr-tolkiens-catholicism-influence-his-writing-part-i-44031

which I found at aleteia.org, an organization which reports “the news of the world from a catholic perspective.”

J. R. R. Tolkien was a devout Catholic. Before the trilogy was published, he wrote to his friend,  Father Robert Murray, saying, “The Lord of the Rings is of course a fundamentally religious and Catholic work; unconsciously so at first, but consciously in the revision….”

Tolkien was a close friend of C.S. Lewis “who converted to Christianity in part because Tolkien convinced him that the Bible is the one true myth.”

He also attested time and again that the novel is mythical, not creedal.

That does not mean that The Lord of the Rings is not true, or that its author’s faith is not communicated through its pages. On the contrary, as Tolkien once said, “In making a myth, in practicing ‘mythopoeia,’ and peopling the world with elves and dragons and goblins, a story-teller… is actually fulfilling God’s purpose, and reflecting a splintered fragment of the true light.”
(From: Drew Bowling, “How did J.R.R. Tolkien’s Catholicism influence his writing?)

The article also made a point I love about The Lord of the Rings bringing people, who may not be interested in Christianity,  to the bigger truths of God, of goodness and light.

 

I know that my copying and pasting got in the way of my stream of consciousness, and the article is a sort of intellectual, but the idea came along the stream, and I just had to grab it. I don’t know if I’ll bring this information to my dad. But if the right opportunity comes up, I’ve got more information about the man who wrote my beloved trilogy.

If you’d like to join in the Saturday Stream of Consciousness ring, visit:

http://lindaghill.com/2015/07/10/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-july-1115/

Here are the rules:

1. Your post must be stream of consciousness writing, meaning no editing, (typos can be fixed) and minimal planning on what you’re going to write.

2. Your post can be as long or as short as you want it to be. One sentence – one thousand words. Fact, fiction, poetry – it doesn’t matter. Just let the words carry you along until you’re ready to stop.

3. There will be a prompt every week. I will post the prompt here on my blog on Friday, along with a reminder for you to join in. The prompt will be one random thing, but it will not be a subject. For instance, I will not say “Write about dogs”; the prompt will be more like, “Make your first sentence a question,” “Begin with the word ‘The’,” or simply a single word to get your started.

4. Ping back! It’s important, so that I and other people can come and read your post! For example, in your post you can write “This post is part of SoCS:” and then copy and paste the URL found in your address bar at the top of this post into yours.  Your link will show up in my comments for everyone to see. The most recent pingbacks will be found at the top.

5. Read at least one other person’s blog who has linked back their post. Even better, read everyone’s! If you’re the first person to link back, you can check back later, or go to the previous week, by following my category, “Stream of Consciousness Saturday,” which you’ll find right below the “Like” button on my post.

6. Copy and paste the rules (if you’d like to) in your post. The more people who join in, the more new bloggers you’ll meet and the bigger your community will get!

7. As a suggestion, tag your post “SoCS” and/or “#SoCS” for more exposure and more views.

8. Have fun!