Christianity in Middle-earth

Christianity is a central theme in J. R. R. Tolkien's fictional works about Middle-earth, but always a hidden one.

J. R. R. Tolkien was a devout Roman Catholic from boyhood, and he described The Lord of the Rings in particular as a fundamentally religious and Catholic work. While he insisted it was not an allegory, it contains numerous themes from Christian theology. These include the battle of good versus evil, the triumph of humility over pride, and the activity of grace. A central theme is death and immortality, but Tolkien's attitudes to mercy and pity, resurrection, salvation, repentance, self-sacrifice, free will, justice, fellowship, authority and healing can also be detected. Divine providence appears indirectly as the will of the Valar, godlike immortals, expressed subtly enough to avoid compromising people's free will.

There is no single Christ-figure comparable to C. S. Lewis's Aslan in his Narnia books, but the characters of Gandalf, Frodo, and Aragorn exemplify the prophetic, priestly, and kingly aspects of Christ respectively.

Context: Catholicism

Tolkien was a devout Roman Catholic. He once described The Lord of the Rings to his friend, the English Jesuit Father Robert Murray, as "a fundamentally religious and Catholic work, unconsciously so at first, but consciously in the revision."[T 1] Many theological themes underlie the narrative, including the battle of good versus evil, the triumph of humility over pride, and the activity of grace, as seen with Frodo's pity toward Gollum. In addition the epic includes the themes of death and immortality, mercy and pity, resurrection, salvation, repentance, self-sacrifice, free will, justice, fellowship, authority and healing. Tolkien mentions the Lord's Prayer, especially the line "And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil" in connection with Frodo's struggles against the power of the One Ring.[T 2] Tolkien said "Of course God is in The Lord of the Rings. The period was pre-Christian, but it was a monotheistic world", and when questioned who was the One God of Middle-earth, Tolkien replied "The one, of course! The book is about the world that God created – the actual world of this planet."[1]

The Bible and traditional Christian narrative also influenced The Silmarillion. The conflict between Melkor and Eru Ilúvatar parallels that between Satan and God.[2] Further, The Silmarillion tells of the creation and fall of the Elves, as Genesis tells of the creation and fall of Man.[3] As with all of Tolkien's works, The Silmarillion allows room for later Christian history, and one version of Tolkien's drafts even has Finrod, a character in The Silmarillion, speculating on the necessity of Eru Ilúvatar's eventual Incarnation to save Mankind.[4] A specifically Christian influence is the notion of the fall of man, which influenced the Ainulindalë, the Kinslaying at Alqualondë, and the fall of Númenor.[T 3]

Role

Commentators, some of them Christian, have taken a wide range of positions on the role of Christianity in Tolkien's fiction, especially in The Lord of the Rings, including representations of Christ and angels in Tolkien's characters such as the wizards, the resurrection, the motifs of light, hope, and redemptive suffering, the apparent invisibility of Christianity in the novel, and not least the nature of evil, an ancient debate in Christian philosophy, that has led to lengthy scholarly argument about Tolkien's position in the book.[5]

Applicability, not allegory

Tolkien stated in the foreword to the second edition of The Lord of the Rings that "it is neither allegorical nor topical ... I cordially dislike allegory in all its manifestations ... I much prefer history, true or feigned, with its varied applicability to the thought and experience of readers."[T 4] Shippey comments that Tolkien certainly did sometimes write allegories, giving the example of Leaf by Niggle,[6] and that there is meant to be some relationship between his fiction and fact.[7] He notes, too, that Tolkien deliberately "approach[ed] to the edge of Christian reference"[8] by placing the destruction of the Ring and the fall of Sauron on 25 March, the traditional Anglo-Saxon date of the crucifixion of Christ and of the annunciation, and of the last day of the Genesis creation.[8] Other commentators have noted further echoes of Christian themes, including the presence of Christ figures,[9] the resurrection,[10] hope,[11] and redemptive suffering.[12]

A Christian work?

Commentators disagree on whether The Lord of the Rings in particular is a Christian work.[13][14]

In favour is the scholar of theology and literature Ralph C. Wood with his 2003 book The Gospel According to Tolkien, which concludes "Christians are called to be hobbit-like servants of the King and his Kingdom. Frodo and Sam are first in the reign of Iluvatar because they are willing to be last and least among those who 'move the wheels of the world'".[13]

An ambivalent position is taken by Paul Kocher, in his book Master of Middle-earth. He writes that "having made the times pre-Christian, [Tolkien] has freed himself from the need to deal with them in a Christian context, which would be awkward if applied to elves, ents, dwarves, and the rest."[15] On the other hand, Kocher notes that Elrond ascribes purpose to events including the summoning of the Free Peoples to his council; Elrond uses the words "purpose", "called", "ordered", and "believe", implying "some living will".[16] Similarly, he comments, Gandalf firmly tells Denethor, the despairing Steward of Gondor, that suicide is forbidden and indeed is "heathen".[17]

Against is Catherine Madsen, who found herself drawn to faith by the novel, "yet not particularly to the Christian faith".[14] She notes that Tolkien wrote that "Myth and fairy-story, as all art, reflect and contain in solution elements of moral and religious truth (or error), but not explicit[ly]".[T 5] She states that Tolkien clearly "did not intend his work to argue or illustrate or promulgate Christianity".[14] In her view, Tolkien uses "Christian magic", not doctrine; she notes that Tolkien wrote that Middle-earth was "a monotheistic world of 'natural theology'".[T 6] The "natural religion" of the book is, she argues, based on matters such as the Elves and their longing for the sea, creating a "religious feeling ... curiously compatible with a secular cosmology".[14] A world of religion without revelation, she writes, is necessarily ambiguous, and any triumph over evil also diminishes the good, so the world inevitably fades. Hence, what The Lord of the Rings offers is not a supernatural hope, but what Tolkien called "recovery", the reawakening of the senses, an unmediated attention to the present, as when Sam looks up into the night sky in Mordor, and is struck by the beauty of a star. To Madsen, this is "the most compelling thing about the book, and also the least Christian ... available to anyone of any persuasion, and not contingent upon belief."[14]

Appearances

Christ figures
Peter Kreeft's analysis of Christ-figures in Lord of the Rings[9]
Christ-like attributeGandalfFrodoAragorn
Sacrificial death,
resurrection		 Dies in Moria,
reborn as Gandalf the White[lower-alpha 1]		 Symbolically dies under Morgul-knife,
healed by Elrond[lower-alpha 2]		 Takes Paths of the Dead,
reappears in Gondor
Saviour All three help to save Middle-earth from Sauron
Threefold Messianic symbolism Prophet Priest King
Commentators have compared Frodo to Christ, and Sam, who carried Frodo on the way to Mount Doom, to Simon of Cyrene, who carried Christ's cross to Golgotha.[19] Church of St. John Nepomucen, Brenna

The philosopher Peter Kreeft, like Tolkien a Roman Catholic, observes that there is no one complete, concrete, visible Christ figure in The Lord of the Rings comparable to Aslan in C. S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia series. However, Kreeft and Jean Chausse have identified reflections of the figure of Jesus Christ in three protagonists of The Lord of the Rings: Gandalf, Frodo and Aragorn. While Chausse found "facets of the personality of Jesus" in them, Kreeft wrote that "they exemplify the Old Testament threefold Messianic symbolism of prophet (Gandalf), priest (Frodo), and king (Aragorn)".[9][20][21]

Resurrection

Several commentators have seen Gandalf's passage through the Mines of Moria, dying to save his companions and returning as "Gandalf the White", as a symbol of the resurrection of Christ.[10][22][12][23] Like Jesus who carried his cross for the sins of mankind, Frodo carried a burden of evil on behalf of the whole world.[24] Frodo walks his "Via Dolorosa" to Mount Doom just like Jesus who made his way to Golgotha.[25] As Frodo approaches the Cracks of Doom, the Ring becomes a crushing weight, just as the cross was for Jesus. Sam Gamgee, Frodo's servant, who carries Frodo up to Mount Doom, parallels Simon of Cyrene, who helps Jesus by carrying his cross to Golgotha.[19] When Frodo accomplishes his mission, like Christ, he says "it is done".[26] Just as Christ ascends to heaven, Frodo's life in Middle-earth comes to an end when he departs to the Undying Lands.[24]

Light

A theme that runs throughout The Lord of the Rings but is especially clear in The Silmarillion is of light. The scholar of mythology and medieval literature Verlyn Flieger explains that Tolkien equates light with God and the ability to create. She cites Tolkien's poem Mythopoeia ("Creation of Myth"):[27][T 7]

man, sub-creator, the refracted light
through whom is splintered from a single White
to many hues, and endlessly combined
in living shapes that move from mind to mind.
Though all the crannies of the world we filled
with elves and goblins, though we dared to build
gods and their houses out of dark and light,
and sow the seed of dragons, 'twas our right
(used or misused). The right has not decayed.
We make still by the law in which we're made.[T 8]

Coat of arms of Gondor bearing the white tree, Nimloth the fair, descendant of Telperion, one of the Two Trees of Valinor that once lit the world

Flieger writes that by this, Tolkien meant that an author's ability to create fantasy fiction, or in his terms "subcreation", was derived from and could be seen as a small splinter of the Divine Light, the "single White" of the poem. Further, the whole of The Silmarillion can be seen as a working-out of this theme of Man splintering the original white light of creation "to many hues, and endlessly combined in living shapes" in the forms of light and dark elves, men good and bad, and dragons and other monsters. This creative light, she states, was for Tolkien equated with the Christian Λόγος (Logos), the Divine Word.[27]

The light begins in The Silmarillion as a unity, and in accordance with the splintering of creation is divided into more and more fragments as the myth progresses. Middle-earth is peopled by the angelic Valar and lit by two great lamps; when these are destroyed by the fallen Vala Melkor, the world is fragmented, and the Valar retreat to Valinor, which is lit by The Two Trees. When these too are destroyed, their last fragment of light is made into the Silmarils, and a sapling too is rescued, leading to the White Tree of Numenor, the living symbol of the Kingdom of Gondor. Wars are fought over the Silmarils, and they are lost to the Earth, the Sea, and the Sky, the last of these, carried by Eärendil the Mariner, becoming the Morning Star. Some of the star's light is captured in Galadriel's Mirror, the magic fountain that allows her to see past, present, and future; and some of that light is, finally, trapped in the Phial of Galadriel, her parting gift to Frodo, the counterbalance to Sauron's evil and powerful Ring that he also carries. At each stage, the fragmentation increases and the power decreases. Thus the theme of light as Divine power, fragmented and refracted through the works of created beings, is central to the whole mythology.[28]

Hope

The motif of hope is illustrated in Aragorn's successful handling of Saruman's seeing-stone or palantír. Aragorn is given the very name of "Hope" (Sindarin "Estel"), by which he is still affectionately called by his queen, Arwen, who at the hour of his death cries out "Estel, Estel!". Only Aragorn, as the heir of Isildur, can rightfully use the palantír, while Saruman and Denethor, who have both also made extensive use of palantírs, have fallen into despair or presumption. These latter traits have been identified as the two distinct sins "against the virtue of Hope".[11]

Redemptive suffering

The Christian theme of the redemptive and penitential nature of suffering is apparent in the dreadful ordeal of Sam and Frodo in Mordor. As another example, Boromir atones for his assault on Frodo by single-handedly but vainly defending Merry and Pippin from orcs,[12] which illustrates also another significant Christian theme: immortality of the soul and the importance of good intention, especially at the point of death. This is clear from Gandalf's statement: "But he [Boromir] escaped in the end.... It was not in vain that the young hobbits came with us, if only for Boromir's sake."[T 9]

Angels

The place of Christianity's angels is taken by the Ainur, who are divided into two orders of beings, the Valar and their servants the Maiar. The Valar are powerful, and behave much like the pagan gods of Greek mythology. Flieger calls their role in Middle-earth "eccentric" from a Christian point of view: they are lower than the One God, certainly, but unlike angels they are sub-creators, each with their own realm. So, for instance, Manwë is King of Arda (the Earth), Ulmo is Lord of Waters, Mandos Judge of the Dead, and they were married. This positions them, as Tolkien stated, as demiurges, godlike figures in the Platonic scheme of things with the ability to shape the material world. As with the splintering of light, Flieger writes, the choice of the name "demiurge" implies subdivision, its original meaning including "to do by dividing".[29]

The Maiar, the lesser order, were immortals who, sent by the Valar, took mortal bodies to go into Middle-earth and influence events.[29] They included the Wizards or Istari, such as Gandalf. Tolkien stated that they fitted the original Greek description "ἄγγελος" (Angelos) meaning messenger.[30][T 10]

Providence
Further information: Vala (Middle-earth) § Providence

Divine providence is represented in Middle-earth by the will of the Valar. This can be detected but is subtle enough not to affect free will or the need for individual courage.[31] Its action is sometimes hinted at rather directly, as when Gandalf says that Bilbo and Frodo were "meant" to have the One Ring, though it remained their choice to co-operate with this purpose.[32]

The nature of evil

The Tolkien scholar Tom Shippey writes that The Lord of the Rings embodies the ancient debate within Christianity on the nature of evil. Shippey notes Elrond's Boethian statement that "nothing is evil in the beginning. Even [the Dark Lord] Sauron was not so",[33] in other words all things were created good; but this is set alongside the Manichean view that Good and Evil are equally powerful, and battle it out in the world.[34] Tolkien's personal war experience was Manichean: evil seemed at least as powerful as good, and could easily have been victorious, a strand which Shippey notes can also be seen in Middle-earth.[35] Brian Rosebury, a humanities scholar, interprets Elrond's statement as implying an Augustinian universe, created good.[36]

Moral conflict

Rosebury writes that The Lord of the Rings is saved from simple moralising or allegory by the presence of realistically complicated moral conflict within the characters: the "good" characters are challenged by temptations, while the "evil" characters all have good sides, were once good, or hesitate over evil actions.[36]

Rosebury's analysis of moral conflict in The Lord of the Rings characters[36]
CharacterMoralityNatureMoral ambiguity
SauronEvilFallen angel (Maia)
Pride, desire for power		"Nothing is evil in the beginning. Even Sauron was not so." – Elrond
GollumEvilHobbit corrupted by the Ring"An old starved pitiable thing"
wavers over betraying Frodo and Sam
SarumanEvilFallen Wizard (Maia)
Pride, desire for power		"was great once, of a noble kind that we should not dare to raise our hands against"
FrodoGood"best hobbit in the Shire"
Nearly pacifist in
"The Scouring of the Shire" (at end)		Says Bilbo should have killed Gollum (at start)
Corrupted by Ring, claims it in Mount Doom
BoromirBad → GoodWell-intentioned;
covets Ring as weapon;
tries to steal it from Frodo		Repents and sacrifices his life trying to save the hobbits Merry and Pippin
ThéodenBad → GoodCorrupted into inaction by WormtongueRevived by Gandalf, takes wise and bold action, dies hero's death in battle

In other media

Christianity Today reported that Oxford University's Bodleian Libraries exhibition "Tolkien: Maker of Middle-earth" was "nearly comprehensive" but had one "glaring omission": "any mention of the author's devout, lifelong Christian faith." It mentions Michael Ward's comment that Tolkien's faith is not obvious in Middle-earth, unlike his friend C. S. Lewis's Narnia, and concludes that "Only if we recognize Tolkien's deep Christian faith can we hope to understand the life and work of the 'Maker of Middle-earth'".[37]

Notes
  1. Other commentators such as Jane Chance have compared this transformed reappearance to the Transfiguration of Jesus.[18]
  2. Also by other commentators, such as Mathews, Richard (2016). Fantasy: The Liberation of Imagination. Routledge. p. 69. ISBN 978-1-136-78554-2.
gollark: ???
gollark: "A bit easier"?
gollark: For python tkinter is available built-in for guiy stuff.
gollark: To do it yourself. That is.
gollark: In any case, it would be stupid and very complex.

References

Primary
This list identifies each item's location in Tolkien's writings.
  1. Carpenter 1981, #142
  2. Carpenter 1981, #181
  3. Carpenter 1981, #131 to Milton Waldman, late 1951
  4. Lord of the Rings, "Foreword to the Second Edition"
  5. Carpenter 1981, #144 to Naomi Mitchison, 25 April 1954
  6. Carpenter 1981, #165 to Houghton Mifflin, 30 June 1955
  7. Tolkien 2001, pp. 85–90
  8. Tolkien 2001, pp. 85–90
  9. The Two Towers, book 3, ch 5 "The White Rider"
  10. Carpenter 1981, #156 to Robert Murray, S.J., 4 November 1954

Secondary
  1. "JRR Tolkien: 'Film my books? It's easier to film The Odyssey'". Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 15 December 2014.
  2. Chance 2001, p. 192
  3. Bramlett, Perry (2003). I Am in Fact a Hobbit: An Introduction to the Life and Works of J. R. R. Tolkien. Macon, Georgia: Mercer University Press. p. 86. ISBN 0-86554-851-X.
  4. Morgoth's Ring, Athrabeth Finrod Ah Andreth, pp. 322, 335
  5. Kerry 2011, pp. 17–50.
  6. Shippey 2005, p. 49.
  7. Shippey 2005, pp. 191-197.
  8. Shippey 2005, p. 227.
  9. Kreeft, Peter J. (November 2005). "The Presence of Christ in The Lord of the Rings". Ignatius Insight.
  10. Dickerson, Matthew (2013) [2007]. "Moria". In Drout, Michael D. C. (ed.). J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia. Routledge. pp. 438–439. ISBN 978-0-415-86511-1.
  11. MacArthur, Kerry J. (2004). "The Theological Virtues in J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings". In Miller, Paula Jean, FSE; Fossey, Richard (eds.). Mapping the Catholic Cultural Landscape. Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 58–59. ISBN 0-7425-3184-8.
  12. Olar, Jared L., "The Gospel According to J.R.R. Tolkien", Grace and Knowledge, Issue 12, July 2002
  13. Wood 2003, p. 165.
  14. Madsen 2004, pp. 35–47.
  15. Kocher 1974, pp. 77–78.
  16. Kocher 1974, p. 41.
  17. Kocher 1974, p. 50.
  18. Nitzsche 1980, p. 42.
  19. Pearce, Joseph (2013) [2007]. "Christ". In Drout, Michael D. C. (ed.). J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia: Scholarship and Critical Assessment. Routledge. pp. 97–98. ISBN 978-0-415-86511-1.
  20. Kerry, Paul E. (2010). Kerry, Paul E. (ed.). The Ring and the Cross: Christianity and the Lord of the Rings. Fairleigh Dickinson. pp. 32–34. ISBN 978-1-61147-065-9.
  21. Schultz, Forrest W. (1 December 2002). "Christian Typologies in The Lord of the Rings". Chalcedon. Retrieved 26 March 2020.
  22. Stucky, Mark (Summer 2006). "Middle Earth's Messianic Mythology Remixed: Gandalf's Death and Resurrection in Novel and Film" (PDF). Journal of Religion and Popular Culture. 13 (1). doi:10.3138/jrpc.13.1.003.
  23. Keenan, Hugh (2000). Bloom, Harold (ed.). The Appeal of The Lord of the Rings: A Struggle for Life. J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings: Modern Critical Interpretations. Chelsea House Publishers. pp. 3–5. ISBN 978-1-349-38251-4.
  24. Bedell, Haley (2015). "Frodo Baggins: The Modern Parallel to Christ in Literature" (PDF). Humanities Capstone Projects. Pacific University (Paper 24).
  25. McAvan, Emily (2012). The Postmodern Sacred: Popular Culture Spirituality in the Science Fiction, Fantasy and Urban Fantasy Genres. McFarland. ISBN 978-0786463886.
  26. Dalfonzo, Gina (2007). "Humble Heroism: Frodo Baggins as Christian Hero in The Lord of the Rings". In Pursuit of Truth.
  27. Flieger 1983, pp. 44–49.
  28. Flieger 1983, pp. 6-61, 89–90, 144-145 and passim.
  29. Flieger 1983, pp. 53–55.
  30. Stanton, Michael N. (2013) [2007]. "Wizards". In Drout, Michael D. C. (ed.). J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia: Scholarship and Critical Assessment. Routledge. pp. 709–710. ISBN 978-0-415-86511-1.
  31. Shippey 2005, pp. 173–174, 262.
  32. Kocher 1974, p. 37.
  33. The Fellowship of the Ring, book 2, ch. 2 "The Council of Elrond"
  34. Shippey 2005, pp. 160-161.
  35. Shippey 2005, pp. 169-170.
  36. Rosebury, Brian (2003). Tolkien : A Cultural Phenomenon. Palgrave. pp. 35–41. ISBN 978-1403-91263-3.
  37. Ordway, Holly (21 August 2018). "The Maker of the Maker of Middle-earth". Christianity Today. Retrieved 14 July 2020.

Sources
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.