20 Ways The Lord of the Rings Is Both Christian and Catholic

Tolkien had hoped that others would come after him and like other myths adapt the Middle-earth stories to make them both applicable and accessible to new generations. "J.R.R. Tolkien wrote,"The Lord of the Rings is of course a fundamentally religious and Catholic work; unconsciously so at first, but consciously in the revision. " By design The Lord of the Rings is not a Christian allegory but rather an invented myth about Christian and Catholic truths. A battle against evil alone does not make The Lord of the Rings fundamentally Christian and Catholic; and yet there are many ways that it is. Here are some of the ways The Lord of the Rings is a Christian myth. All of this should make viewing or reading The Lord of the Rings a more interesting and insightful experience for both Christians and Catholics. To Tolkien, myths are true because they are part of our God created imagination, and because they bring us "Such joy [that] has the very taste of primary truth." To Tolkien the story of Jesus Christ is a "True myth." When Tolkien shared this concept with C.S. Lewis during an afternoon walk, Lewis felt "a rush of wind that came so suddenly," and within days proclaimed his belief in Christ, becoming one of Christianity's most effective apologists.