Quote:
I know there is great controversy as to whether there was intentional religious meaning in Tolkien's works, but thought that as I have such a great intrest in Tolkien's works that it may be appropriate.
The work doesn't have to be definitive and I aim to give all views on the matter, including that Tolkien himself said that it was not meant to be a religious work, but to give morals etc.
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First, I'll say that topics like this never fail to interest me... many thanks for bringing this up.
Almost everyone gets something different out of Lord of the Rings, whether Tolkien meant these things or not. And, like they say, what really matters is
what we get out of the work, regardless of what the author's original intent/ideology was.
Since Tolkien was a Christian, there is some argument for the opinion that his works
purposefully reflected certain Christian ideals, even if he said that he was not inspired by his religious beliefs. In my opinion, whatever his driving ideas were behind the production of LOTR are of secondary inportance, though they are nonetheless an interesting topic for debate. This is because the ideals brought forth in LOTR are not necessarily Christian. Indeed, they are not constrained to any set religion--they are ideas that transcend the concept of religious worship and God and extend to all creeds, all of humanity. These ideals-- courage to rise up and defend one's world and way of life, devotion and loyalty to friends, hope for an end to suffering, to name a few--are ideals that all can understand and aspire to, regardless of religion. I am agnostic, yet the "Christian" ideas presented in LOTR have given my mind a different perspective and my life an added meaning. This, to me, is the real power of LOTR--the ability to reach out to all people, Christian or not, which is what I think Tolkien really wanted. So, to sum this up, I'll agree with Tolkien himself and tack a bit on, too: although his Christian ideals may have (and they almost certainly did) influenced his work on LOTR, the
themes that he presented in the trilogy reached beyond "the bounds" of Christianity and religion and, whether he meant it or not, became ideas that any and all could find meaning with.