Posted on 12/17/2001 9:49:47 AM PST by Texican72
By Craig Bird
FaithWorks magazine
ASHEVILLE, N.C. (ABP)--On the heels of the Harry Potter movie, with magical themes that some criticize as un-Christian, another popular fantasy novel is about to hit the big screen.
The anticipated blockbuster "The Fellowship of the Ring" is expected to take the already legendary renown of author J.R.R. Tolkien to another level. Scheduled to hit theaters Dec. 19, it is the first installment of an ambitious attempt to translate Tolkien's classic "Lord of the Rings" series into film.
New Line Pictures reportedly budgeted $50 million to promote the first installment. Next year will see the premiere of "The Two Towers," followed by "The Return of the King" in 2003.
This continues an unlikely prominence for a conservative Oxford don who made up entire languages for his private amusement.
In fact, he wound up writing "The Hobbit," the prequel to "Lord of the Rings," after encountering a blank page while grading exams. He impulsively jotted down, "In a hole in the ground, there lived a hobbit." Not knowing what a "hobbit" was, he wrote an entire novel to answer his own question.
Tolkien's three-volume set has sold more than 50 million copies since publication of the first volume in 1954. A special edition released by Houghton Mifflin this year has sold 250,000 copies.
Tolkien, who died in 1973, despised machines. He only briefly owned an automobile and never a dishwasher. One must wonder what he would make of the high-tech special effects that pervade director Peter Jackson's film version of "The Fellowship of the Ring."
Another question is how audiences that objected to mythical themes in Harry Potter will receive similar fare in Tolkien's writings. While Tolkien was politically conservative and a devout Christian, his works have been subject to broad interpretation by various groups. For example:
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Songs by the popular rock band Led Zeppelin in the 1970s borrowed images from Tolkien. The Hobbit habit of ingesting mushrooms and smoking "pipe weed" got translated into drug use for counter-culture readers.
Symphonies have performed "In Memoriam Tolkien," a composition by Sonoma State University philosopher Stan McDaniel, who also argued that Tolkien paid conscious homage to nature worship.
White supremacists appeal to "Lord of the Rings" on the Internet, apparently attracted by allusions to Germanic-Norse gods.
Stephan Hoeller of the Los Angeles Gnostic Society put Tolkien on level with the Bible in leading to spiritual salvation.
Many academics find the psychological work of Carl Jung illustrated in the storyline, while others prefer a Freudian interpretation.
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Often overlooked, meanwhile, is the subtle Christian message underlying Tolkien's fiction.
In fact, Tolkien persuaded C.S. Lewis, who himself later wrote several Christian classics, to become a Christian. The two are credited with paving the way for a new genre of devotional literature, influencing authors like Charles Williams, T.S. Eliot, G.K. Chesterton and Dorothy Sayers.
Tolkien omitted overt references to God, worship, prayer and Christianity in the 500,000 words of the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy. It wasn't an effort to hide his Christian faith, he said. Rather, he believed the technique communicated Christian values more effectively precisely because they were less obvious.
According to Tolkien and his close associates, the writings were grounded in an unstinting Christian conviction that, at the end of time, God would finally and forever defeat evil.
Tolkien rooted that conviction in his own faith in Christ.
Tolkien said the only criticism of "Lord of the Rings" that ever bothered him was that it "contained no religion."
He described his fictional Middle Earth as "a monotheistic world of 'natural theology.'"
The fact there are no churches, temples or religious rites and ceremonies "is simply part of the historical climate depicted" in his fiction, he said.
"I am in any case myself a Christian," he said, even if his "Third Age" was not a Christian world.
Tolkien believed eternal truths established in creation would be recognizable even in his fictional "sub creation."
"We have come from God, and inevitably the myths woven by us, though they contain error, will also reflect a splintered fragment of the true light, the eternal truth which is with God," he told C.S. Lewis during their late night discussion that resulted in Lewis becoming a Christian.
More insights into the hidden spiritual currents that drive Tolkien's work are found in an acclaimed but lesser-known work, "The Silmarillion."
The bible of Tolkien's mythical world recounts millennia of history, along with the mythological structure of Middle Earth, including an all-powerful deity, angelic beings and a version of "the fall" of some of those beings.
The deeper framework allows Tolkien to explore profound questions of destiny and free will, the reality of evil and the task to struggle against it.
The LOTR has a lot more witchcraft-like-style stuff in it than Harry Potter. Incanctations, very demonic figures, rituals, etc... again, if it were not publicly known that Tolkien was a Christian, every LotR thread would be 500+ replies between fans & those who think LotR == ticket to hell.
Consistency is key.
If the conversion of C.S. Lewis was all that we knew of Tolkien, he still would have merited our full gratitude!
Keep doing what you are doing - you never know what small thing done, whole heartedly, might ultimately affect millions for good.
Dan
Not too sure about that...
The Lord of the rings is not really aimed at kids, where HP is, and in general shows "witchcraft" in a somewhat harmless light.
The biggest hit PH takes is because it is aimed at "The Children..."
I asked my Pastor (Southern Baptist) and his take on the HP contriversy is much ado about nothing.
Elves have magic also, due to their being the First created; ditto immortality.
As was Tolkien when it was originally written but to admit that would admit that we have failed the children in the education system for the past 50 years.
As for Tolkien's allegorical references to Christianity, they are quite evident, even if unintended
Exactly right. The prime magical object in the LOTR is, of course, the One Ring. It gives the wearer magical powers (invisibility and near immortality) and is completely and irredeemably evil. That is why it must be destroyed in the same flames in which it was forged. In Harry Potter (PS: I enjoyed the books and the film) magic is a plaything. Sometimes good, sometimes evil, but always entertaining.
Harry Potter, and writings like that, incorporate magic as a normal element within their world. Thus magic isn't held in awe anymore than technology is. If fact, technology is how it is treated. In Middle-Earth, magic is real, but mysterious. Like 16th century alchemy of our world, there is an understanding of what has happened, or was supposed to happen, but very little or any understanding by onlookers as to "why?"
This makes Middle-Earth a much more viable target of the "This fiction will lead children to a fascination with witchcraft" crowd, although ironically because of the Christian background of the author we will not hear it as much.
Here is a question for everybody: After you saw The Empire Strikes Back, have you ever, even once, tried to use "the force" to get the TV remote (or any other small object) when it was just out of reach? If so, would you say that you attempted witchcraft? Please think of your experience when commenting on what movies will or will not cause people to do, and what real world-view changing impact that type of thing has.
The Lord of the Rings is of course a fundamentally religious and Catholic work; unconsciously so at first, but consciously in the revision. That is why I have not put in, or have cut out, practically all references to anything like `religion', to cults or practices, in the imaginary world. For the religious element is absorbed into the story and the symbolism. (Letter, 1953)
Is there one mere mortal in LOTR — even one — who regularly uses magic without being corrupted?
Dan
I read Lord of the Rings three times as a kid. That was harmless. What got me in trouble was some of my elder relatives' fondness for the ouji board and books on necromancy disguised as 'white magic'. Now there is something for Christians to speak out about. I've checked into a few other how-to books on the occult. Interesting how they ultimately talk about 'spirit guides' [a whitewash for the word, 'necromancy'], buried in later chapters. Such as Silva and Al G. Manning.
The real problem is that people are drawn to the supernatural and most Christian churches are doing next to nothing to point out the supernatural powers of God displayed in modern times. In fact, when a miracle benefits one Christian church, the other Christian churches call it 'demonic'. Isn't that special? So Satan gets a miracle monopoly in public perception. It's simply delightful for him.
And two follow-up questions would be: 1) Did you really think there was any chance it would actually work? 2) Did it work?
Anyone answering "yes" to either of these questions should seek professional psychological help. (The same goes for "Harry Potter"-style magic.)
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