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Originally Posted by davem
We have all, Christian or not, absorbed that worldview, & so would have expected it, I suppose, in the Faery that Tolkien gave us. Yet, it is not traditional Faery - it is, for whatever (good?) reasons Tolkien had - an invention of his own. As I've repeatedly stated, though, what interests me is why he staked such a claim to traditional Faery (particularly in OFS), & presented himself as a writer within the tradition.
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Is it possible that he did indeed see himself that way, and saw no tension or contradiction, because the distinction you see had not been perceived in his time?
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He may have acted as a mediator between Faery & modern readers brought up in a Christian world, but was that his intention - is that how he saw his role? ... Was he using Faery for his own, evangelical, purposes- we know that that was his original motivation (one only has to read Garth's book) but was that desire something he left behind?
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I haven't read Garth, so your reference to him that he intended to evangelize, is something new to me. All other readings about Tolkien seemed to declare pretty strongly that Tolkien was actually against such efforts, and steered clear of it himself.
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Did he think of himself as someone opening a door to traditional Faery, so that we could enter into that 'pre-Christian' world, 'freeing' us from Christian 'indoctrination' - or did he actually want to make Faery Christian - or at least make us see it in that way, as 'the best introduction to the Mountains'?
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Yes to the former, no to the latter, in my opinion. However, Christianity was so ingrained in him that he couldn't write any other way and be true to himself.