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Originally Posted by Mithalwen
It was the rules of his Church not his god he was putting first - the God of the Cof E is the same as the Catholic one..... I don't think the love of God justifies oppressing your wife. Anyone who thinks it does should not marry...........
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While I don't want to stray too far away from the Shadowlands topic here, I did want to reply to this point, for it is one that has long perplexed me.
It was not the rules of Tolkien's Church--as
Mithalwen stated earlier on this thread--which made Tolkien insist upon Edith's conversion. The Catholic Church did not require spouses to convert upon marriage. The only condition placed was an agreement that all children be raised Roman Catholic.
So, Tolkien did not force Edith because of Church rules. Why did he do it? It seems completely out of character with the image we have of him from LotR and his Letters.
He is so often held up as one who despises the bullies, the autocrats, the cruel Sarumans who subjugate people, the man who has so much pity for Gollem. Was it an individual interpretation of his faith which compelled him to the demand? Did his faith make a bully of him? Even his biographer, Carpenter, is forced to become an apologist about Tolkien's indifference to Edith's discomfort with such things as Confession. Was Tolkien really unable to accept the Church of England as a Christian sect?
I could see it as the arrogance of a young man, full of enthusiasm, faith, confidence, a man whose understanding was to become tempered over time, but it seems to me that maybe
Mithalwen is right when she says it relates more to issues about wives, faculty wives, at the time, as I recall it was difficult for Tolkien to accept Joy as Lewis' wife. And not because of the divorce issue. Something about a woman intruding upon the male preserve of the Inklings I suspect. But as I have not read any Lewis biographies, I don't have a full sense of the personalities.