Christ in Middle Earth
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2021-05
Authors
Welte, Benjamin
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Yager, Susan
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Abstract
More than half a century after its initial publication, J.R.R. Tolkien’s best-selling book, The Lord of the Rings, remains a landmark of popular culture in the English-speaking world, and the story’s abundant elements of naturalism, philology, and premodern European myth represent Tolkien’s eclectic personality well. But to limit Middle Earth’s inspiration to these interests would omit the single most important feature of Tolkien’s life: his devout Catholic faith. This essay attempts to analyze the role of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Catholic religion in shaping the story, characters, and message of The Lord of the Rings. Specifically, it examines parallels between the implicit soteriology, ecclesiology, and Christology in Middle Earth and the Catholic theology that enlivened Tolkien’s imagination. A comparison between The Lord of the Rings and the Catholic faith illumines the significance of the story’s events and reveals the purpose their author saw behind both his life and the lives of his readers.
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