Posted on 09/10/2002 7:08:55 AM PDT by xzins
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Tolkien, Transformer of Culture
April 19, 2002
What Christians Can Learn from The Lord of the Rings
For Christian artists, entertainers, and writers desperate to engage popular culture, the success of J. R. R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings is something of a curiosity.
On the one hand, Tolkien's epic saga of life in mythical Middle Earth has set a new standard for multimedia secular success. The Rings series has sold more than 100 million books; spawned legions of devoted fan clubs, conferences, and festivals; and served as the forerunner for an entire genre of fantasy literature. The first installment of the film trilogy based on Tolkien's opus, The Fellowship of the Ring, grossed more than $500 million worldwide in its first four weeks, garnered thirteen Academy Award nominations, and snagged the number two box office ranking for 2001. For every Christian who has ever wondered whether it is possible to reach broad audiences with artwork, literature, or entertainment that sprouts from a Christian worldview, Tolkien's posthumous success is a resounding answer in the affirmative. But Tolkien's example is a complicated one for Christians. Certainly, few would dispute the sincerity of his Christian convictions. Tolkien, who died in 1973, was a devout Catholic. He practiced the faith throughout his life, frequently attended daily Mass, and facilitated the Christian conversion of his good friend and fellow Oxford don C. S. Lewis. Tolkien famously described Rings as "fundamentally religious." A True Myth Christians leery of black magic and sorcery may not see it that way. Tolkien's work brims with wizards, magic spells, demonic powers, and fearsome ghouls. Evil wields great power in Middle Earth, and much of Tolkien's creation is shrouded in darkness and despair. Tolkien's fans themselves have always been a curious lot. His devotees have included fellow philologists, moral conservatives, entranced children, and hippies high on LSD. Christians could be forgiven for wondering what's so Christian about Tolkien's work, and how it can be a useful model for transforming—not just appealing to—the vagaries of popular culture. Still, Christians do defend Tolkien—often with vigor and near-religious zeal. The latest round of Rings fever has been stoked by such conservative Christian outlets as Focus on the Family, Baptist Press, the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, EWTN, Our Sunday Visitor, Crisis, and the National Catholic Register. Many Christian leaders promote Rings as a richer, more palatable alternative to the Harry Potter craze, and cite the themes of Tolkien's work, as well as his personal faith, to justify their support. In fact, Tolkien's saga of good and evil is a fundamentally Christian work. And fundamental is the key word. Rather than deliver an allegory with a clear Christ figure and thinly veiled religious exhortations, Tolkien worked for fourteen years on what he called his "true myth": a story that ushers readers into a pre-Christian world yet subtly conveys essential truths of the Christian faith. Consider this excerpt from a letter Tolkien wrote in 1953: 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. Unlike Lewis, Tolkien sternly rejected allegorical readings of his work. He criticized The Chronicles of Narnia for its allegory, and is quoted as saying, "I dislike allegory when I smell it." Yet, like any thoughtful Christian writer or artist, Tolkien allowed his worldview to shape his work—not merely its characters and content but also its foundations and themes. Quest for Holiness In Rings, Tolkien clearly delineates good and evil and stresses the importance of individual moral choices. He makes heroes out of humble characters like Frodo and Sam, who sacrifice themselves for the greater good and carry out their duties with no reasonable hope of reward. He uses the motif of the ring to explore the seduction of power and the perils of addiction to it. His characters are fallen, susceptible to sin and desperately in need of a Savior. One—Gandalf, a wise wizard who gives his life to save his friends—apparently even resurrects from the dead, transformed by his sacrificial fall into the pit. Yet none of Tolkien's characters actually is the Savior: His myth gives us the sense that this group of humans, elves, orcs, and others stands in desperate need of divine intervention. And unlike most epics, the central quest of Rings is to surrender power, not acquire it. Tolkien's themes never sat well with modern literary critics, who have dismissed his work as "balderdash" and "juvenile trash," in the words of American literary critic Edmund Wilson in 1956. Tolkien's choice of the fantasy genre accounted for much of the rejection by critics, who appraised his made-up languages and richly layered world of orcs, elves, and ents as children's fare. On a deeper level, many critics bristled at his stringent notions of good and evil, his nostalgia, and his reverence for tradition. Indeed, his literary themes fly in the face of a modern mindset enamored of moral relativism, technology, and progress. But they dovetail nicely with a Christian worldview that embraces moral absolutes, makes claims of universal truth, and finds meaning in tradition. The evidence of Tolkien's Christian worldview in Rings has been amassed in great detail by such authors as Joseph Pearce in Tolkien: Man and Myth and Kurt Bruner and Jim Ware in Finding God in the Lord of the Rings. But many of today's Christian authors, screenwriters, artists, and entertainers have yet to see the connection between Tolkien's success and their own culture-transforming aspirations. Many spend their time laboring to insert a Christian character here, a stealth biblical reference there. Christian literary and film critics frequently judge movies, novels, and screenplays by the number of swear words or Christian characters they contain. Though such litmus tests may be necessary, content-heavy analyses often overshadow the worldview implications of a work. They also ignore the fact that Jesus Himself used powerful stories—not just Scripture references and outright exhortations—to convey truth. The Power of Imagination Tolkien's stunning secular success proves that a gripping story, even one that lacks overt Christian imagery, can leave a lasting imprint of truth. His tale is a work of pre-evangelization perfectly suited to a post-Christian culture, and it is a solid model for today's culture transformers. In Rings, Tolkien invites readers (and, in the film version, viewers) into a mythical world of stark contrasts between good and evil, right and wrong, light and darkness. Through his use of fantasy, invented languages, and mythical realms and creatures, Tolkien forces readers to check their own beliefs at the door and adopt, for a time, his worldview. Suddenly, the same readers who would snooze through a didactic presentation of Christian morality are willing to embrace that morality in the context of Tolkien's engrossing narrative. Their imaginations are captivated and their minds are open. They will not convert overnight or without the help of a vibrant Christian community. But like the crowds who came to listen to the parables of Jesus, their attitudes can be transformed by a captivating story. And once they accept the Christian principles that underpin mythical Middle Earth, they are more likely to accept those principles in reality—and to hunger for the Savior so desperately needed in both worlds.
Colleen Carroll is a writer at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and author of The New Faithful: Why Young Adults Are Embracing Christian Orthodoxy, which will be released by Loyola Press in September.
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This article talks about a created occasion where they adopt the moral worldview of others.
How shall they hear with a preacher?
How shall they hear that preacher if the preacher doesn't get their attention?
LOTR has a Christ figure, but it is one refracted into aspects: the whole Fellowship. Gandalf dies and rises, Frodo undergoes a passion, Aragorn is the rightful King, Samwise is the suffering servant, Bormomir personifies Christ's doubt in Gethsemane, and the others each may be seen as a refracted aspect of His humanity even as their races are refracted aspects of common humanity. Tolkien did not design this in. He did not mean for the interpretation I just gave to be there. It came out simply because Tolkien was sufficiently Christian that when he set about myth-making, he ended up with Christian myth not pagan myth.
Suddenly, the same readers who would snooze through a didactic presentation of Christian morality are willing to embrace that morality in the context of Tolkien's engrossing narrative. Their imaginations are captivated and their minds are open. They will not convert overnight or without the help of a vibrant Christian community. But like the crowds who came to listen to the parables of Jesus, their attitudes can be transformed by a captivating story. And once they accept the Christian principles that underpin mythical Middle Earth, they are more likely to accept those principles in reality—and to hunger for the Savior so desperately needed in both worlds.
There is another writer that said something that stuck with me. "The story makes you want to be worthy of those characters, makes you want to be worthy of Middle Earth." And that is the greatest moment of all... The story does inspire personal growth, and a searching for higher truth. And so yes, it does leave us more hungry for salvation.
I believe it is a window to the true nature of God. The work of Christians, if they wish to use it as a springboard, is to build on that basic inspiration in a way that is as beautiful as the vision.
Oh yes he did "design it in". You need to go read Joseph Pearce's books on Tolkein. You've got that totally wrong. The great man believed that allegorical works like C.S. Lewis' Narnia books were the wrong way to reach the "unwashed". He had every intention of creating a Christian myth that could make its way into the minds and hearts of readers who were not Christian or were only nominally so.
Siobhan, thanks for the flag.
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