[Knight of Gondor]

Oh, let's not make this about me. Despite the fact that you know me so well and everything.

Lush, come now, I’m just teasing you a little about how I am certain of disagreeing with you, no matter what you post, just based on the content of what you say. I mean no personal offense.

Um, not really. Just because we are, say, fans of Viggo Mortensen's portrayal of Aragorn shouldn't make us privy to his spiritual life. This sort of ideology would leads us straight down the primrose path and into the Parisian tunnel where Diana lay bleeding as photographers clicked away. Simply put, there are aspects of people's lives that should remain private property.

*Shrugs* I don’t know what Princess Diana has to do with anything, but I’m happy to let the actors remain in a vacuum of ignorance. I’m just agreeing for the most part with Ms. Basham’s assertion that the director and screen writers ignore a large body of material in Tolkien’s work by shunning the idea of fleshing out those Christian themes.

And she could have done much better.

By your standards, perhaps.

I assume you meant immortal?

Yes, ha ha, I looked over that error after I got offline, and meant to change it. At least I know you’re reading what I write!

Plus, have I entirely missed the part where the Valar were referred to as "angels"? And the Norse Mythologies were what, exactly? An accidental footnote in Tolkien's creative process?

To have one solid, omniscient being that rules over the rest is Deist at the worst, and Christian at best. I’m not familiar with many of the mythological tales wherein one supreme being rules over the other “gods” as they were. I think we can safely assume that this wouldn’t be an element if Tolkien were secularist. Instead, his religion influenced his works so that he creates a God-like character.

I'm not disagreeing with you that Christianity is a big part of Tolkien's influence;

Thank you. The part where we come down to it is where PJ does.

what I am saying is that the articles you provided seem to present that influence in a way that obsucres all others. And does so in a snippety, clumsy manner; entirely unworthy, in my opinion, of the complex beauty of Christian theology and its influence on Tolkien's work.

I apologize for not having a better-written article for you. That’s what I found, that’s what I read, that’s what I liked, and that’s what I thought I’d share for discussion. If you don’t like the style, you don’t have to read it.

Knight, since you obviously seems to know me better than I know myself: what is this "viewpoint" of mine you are referring?

I’m conscious of a need to refrain from personal disputes, because those are the sorts of things that get threads shut down, and I’m really unwilling to allow this one to. I merely mean that everyone has a viewpoint, and it influences how you view things, that’s all. You don’t share Ms. Basham’s faith, therefore you are critical of her for writing according to her beliefs. If you were to write an article praising PJ for refraining from Christian thematic elements, then I would probably be critical if it, if for no other reason than because I believe a certain way, and this influences my thinking.