I totally agree with the fact that limiting a story to a mere allegory takes away from the overall grandeur, majesty, and beauty of the story. His works should definitely not be limited to a set of allegories especially since he dislike them to begin with! All that I was previously saying was that it is fact that he openly admitted to believing in the Christian faith and that Christ died for man's redemption. What I was saying was that one's beliefs in some way or another have an influence on their actions, whether or not they realize it. In speaking with (and later converting) C.S. Lewis about Christianity, he said that the life of Christ and the Bible were the two things that took the supernatural wonders of fantasy realms and combined it with our own world in that Christ had the power to perform miracles in OUR world(not a fictional world)and that his mission directly affects US in the redemption of our souls. Frankly, anyone that isn't a Christian themselves really wouldn't give a rip about Tolkien's faith. Why should they? But for those that are, it gives them a respect for him on a level that's different than just the fact that he was a gifted and profound author, philologist, and philosopher. I'm not saying that he actually studied parts of Scripture for the soul purpose of adding it to his books; all I'm saying is that a person's opinions and beliefs in ways big and small are interwoven into decisions they make in life. If a person is under the opinion that violence in movies and video games doesn't affect them, then of course the decisions they make in the their entertainment will somewhat circle around this belief. I'm not trying to develop sides for people to take or to cause division, but I do think that we as Tolkien fans get so wrapped up in his books that we sometimes subconciously fall under the belief that every aspect of who he was as a person has come from his books, almost to say that we sometimes think that it's the books that made him who he was. Basically, people need to sometimes sit back and remember once again that he was also a regular person, just like us! I am just saying that he believed in the Christian faith, and that obviously in believing so, he'd want to guide the way in which he lived his life around its principles! Just take some time and forget for a split second that he was the author of some of the most incredible works of literature of our century and remember that he was a regular guy who had beliefs that cared about! Seeing any kind of parallels between his faith and the books of course wouldn't interest anyone that wasn't looking for it in the first place! And reading the books shouldn't be wrapped around that either, but nevertheless, Tolkien was a Christian and greatly believed in it. All I'm saying is that our beliefs and opinions are "threaded" into the decisions we make and the things we do in life both voluntarily and involuntarily. Iluvatar in the Silmarillion is viewed by many as basically the God figure. I'm sure Tolkien didn't think to himself, " I need to create a character that plays the part of God in my stories." However, because he did believe that God created the universe and the world, that's not to say that the creating of Iluvatar wasn't a subconcious result of his belief in God whether or not that thought actually occurred to his mind. I just hope that we all can remain calm in any differences that we all may still have, but please just think about what I've said.
|