On Mon, 25 Nov 2002, David Rodemaker wrote: > > On Mon, Nov 25, 2002 at 07:26:08PM -0600, David Rodemaker > > <dar at horusinc.com> wrote: [LotR and Narnia as christian fiction] > > > The same argument could be made about LOTR, it's certainly as > > Christian as > > > Narnia is... > > > > Um, no. Narnia is very much a direct analogy, and the author > > admits it. Tolkien in LOTR denies any allegory along those > > lines, and it's a much weaker connection. > > > > I don't deny there are some parallels, but Narnia is several > > large steps closer to Christianity than Middle-Earth. > > Bah. Double Bah right back at you. > Denial does not equate actuality. The amount of mystical Christian allegory > in LOTR is quite high, and any degree of 'less/more' really starts to hinge > on the intentional/unintentional axis. Besides, while Narnia is a somewhat > direct analogy, and explicitly so, of the NT, that does not mean that LOTR > *isn't* a less explicit but no less direct analogy. Speaking solely of _The Lord of the Rings_, and not Tolkien's entire cosmology, there is virtually NO explicit Christian mysticism. It's a version of the monomyth written by a devout Catholic, but there's nothing more Christ-like about Frodo than King Arthur, or even Paul Maud'dib from Dune. You can certainly see Christian values peeking through the story, but they are implicit in the author's worldview and not explicit in the story. This is distinct from Narnia, in which each book is either a retelling (reliving, perhaps, since according to Lewis, Aslan is not an allegory for Jesus, Aslan IS Jesus) of a Bible story, an attempt to make some point about the rightness of Christian belief, or a combination of both. It ain't the same thing. > IIRC, his denials mainly tendered to the question that LOTR was written as a > commentary of WWII. The statement was made in response to that question, yes, but the statement was that he despised allegory in all its forms. > (That is based btw, on reading done *many* years ago of his letters, etc. > Specific denials of Ring=Nukes and a specific comment comes to mind along > the obverse, 'Gandalf is an angel') Yes, but at no point in the story does he TELL you that Gandalf is an angel. You're left to find that if you wish. > I can't think of medium-to-large 'sized' concept from Christianity that I > cannot find without difficulty in LOTR. Considering that Christianity has provided the framework for Western thought for a good sixteen hundred years at least, I doubt that this phenomenon is in any way unique to _The Lord of the Rings_. It's a book informed by the author's faith. Unlike the Narnia books and much of Lewis' other writings, it is not a book ABOUT the author's faith. -Dennis